Ruth Dalton

Ruth Dalton
Member of Parliament for Bishop Auckland
In office 7 February 1929 – 30 May 1929
Preceded by	Ben Spoor
Succeeded by	Hugh Dalton
Majority	7,072 (27.2%)
Personal details
Born	Hamiliton Fox 9 March 1890 Oak House, Farnborough, England
Died	15 March 1966 (aged 76) London, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Hugh Dalton
Alma mater	London School of Economics

Florence Ruth Dalton (born Hamiliton Fox, 9 March 1890 – 15 March 1966), known as Ruth Dalton and later Lady Dalton, was a British Labour Party politician. A long serving member of the London County Council, she also holds the record for the shortest-serving female Member of Parliament (MP).

A graduate of the London School of Economics, she married Hugh Dalton, later a Labour Party Member of Parliament, in 1914; they had one child, a daughter. The family lived at West Leaze, Aldbourne, Wiltshire and at Carlisle Mansions, Carlisle Place, London.

In 1925 she was elected a member of the London County Council.

Her husband was MP for Peckham in South London, later a solidly Labour seat, but then highly marginal; his majority in 1924 was only 947 votes. He had been selected as Labour candidate for the safe seat of Bishop Auckland in County Durham, where the sitting MP Ben Spoor was retiring, but Spoor died shortly before Christmas 1928, necessitating a by-election. However, Hugh Dalton could not stand without resigning his Peckham seat, and the candidate selected to succeed him in Peckham was John Beckett, then MP for Gateshead, so Hugh Dalton could not stand without triggering another two by-elections.

The Bishop Auckland Constituency Labour Party therefore needed a candidate who would agree to stand down at the next general election. The seventy-strong general committee unanimously chose Ruth Dalton, because she could be relied on to resign in favour of her husband as soon as Parliament was dissolved; no other candidate was even considered.

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