Dehra Parker

Dame Dehra S. Parker, GBE, PC (13 August 1882 - 30 November 1963) was the longest serving woman MP in the Northern Ireland House of Commons.

Family life

Dehra Kerr-Fisher was born in a military hospital in Dehra Dun, north of Delhi, India, in 1882, the daughter of James Kerr-Fisher of Kilrea, County Londonderry. The surname has been spelled, alternatively as Ker-Fisher orKer Fisher.

Marriages

She was married on two occasions, firstly to Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Peel Dawson Spencer Chichester, MP, both of whom predeceased her.

She married, secondly, Admiral Henry Wise Parker (CB, CMG) on 4 June 1928.

Political career

Dame Dehra was first elected as a Member of Parliament for Londonderry, as Dehra Chichester (which she was known as prior to her second marriage in 1928), in the Northern Ireland general election, 1921. She stood down at the 1929 election but was again elected in the 1933 election for the South Londonderry constituency following the death of her son-in-law James Lenox-Conyngham Chichester-Clark, and...
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