In Eleanor Rathbone the House of Commons loses one of
its most sincerely and universally respected members. To her colleagues there the news of her death will come as a surprise no less than as a grief, for right down to the adjournment on December loth she was in her familiar place—on the second Opposition bench below the gangway—clutching firmly her inseparable bag and paper- crowded satchel, rising constantly to put supplementaries in her clear, commanding voice on displaced persons or the oppressed or the hungry or anyone who might seem to have a claim on her limit- less, but always practical, sympathy. Her lasting memorial is, of course, Family Allowances, of which she was, though by no means the only champion, the one effective pioneer. She lived long enough to see her dreams realised, and to have public tribute justly paid to her for her part in initiating a great social reform. In her a very
notable figure has gone from our public life. * * * *
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