Lena Jeger, Baroness Jeger
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The Right Honourable The Baroness Jeger |
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|---|---|
| Chair of the Labour Party | |
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In office 5 October 1979 – 3 October 1980 |
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| Leader | James Callaghan |
| Preceded by | Frank Allaun |
| Succeeded by | Alex Kitson |
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Member of Parliament for Holborn and St Pancras South |
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In office 15 October 1964 – 2 May 1979 |
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| Preceded by | Geoffrey Johnson Smith |
| Succeeded by | Frank Dobson |
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In office 19 November 1953 – 7 October 1959 |
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| Preceded by | Santo Jeger |
| Succeeded by | Geoffrey Johnson-Smith |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Lena May Chivers 19 November 1915 Yorkley, Gloucestershire |
| Died | 26 February 2007 (aged 91) Royal Marsden hospital |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Labour |
| Spouse(s) | Santo Jeger (d. 1953) |
| Alma mater | Birkbeck College, University of London |
Lena May Jeger, Baroness Jeger (née Chivers; 19 November 1915 – 26 February 2007) was a British Labour MP during two periods. She followed her husband as Member of Parliament for Holborn and St Pancras South, holding the seat from 1953 to 1959. She retook the seat in 1964, retaining it until 1979, when she became a life peer.
She was born Lena May Chivers in Yorkley, Gloucestershire. Her father was a postman. She was educated at Southgate County School in north London, and read English and French at Birkbeck College, University of London. She was vice-president of the National Union of Students. She joined the civil service in 1936, initially in HM Customs & Excise.
During the Second World War she worked at the Ministry of Information and the Foreign Office. A fluent Russian speaker, she edited the British Ally, a newspaper published by the British government in the Soviet Union. She also worked at the British Embassy in Moscow. In 1948 she married Dr Santo Jeger, a general practitioner, who had been Member of Parliament for St Pancras South East since the 1945 UK general election. She left the civil service in 1949, and worked for The Manchester Guardian from 1951–55.
Jeger was elected to the St. Pancras Borough Council (1945–59) and the London County Council (1952–55). Her husband died in 1953 and she was selected as Labour's candidate in the resultant by-election in Holborn and St Pancras South. She won the by-election, held on her birthday, by 1,976 votes, slightly increasing the Labour majority. She just retained her seat at the 1955 general election by 931 votes, but lost the seat to the Conservatives in the 1959 general election by 656 votes, losing to Geoffrey Johnson Smith.
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