A SPECTATOR 'S NOTEBOOK
THE death of Ellen Wilkinson occurred just too late for mention in last week's Spectator. Now she has been buried, and the memorial service at St. Margaret's held. That is very far from mean- ing that she has been forgotten. Her memory, indeed, will live long She was only the second woman to hold office in this country, and all things considered, in view particularly of the entry into force of the new Education Act, her responsibilities were greater than those of Miss Bondfield. That she was ideally suited to her office it would be hardly honest to maintain. Few people, men or women, are equal to the vast task of directing the nation's education in the fifth decade of the twentieth century. But Miss Wilkinson did possess many of the necessary qualities. She had personal experience of secondary and university education ; she manifested a zest for education ; she was a tireless worker ; she was resolutely pertinacious in the prosecu- tion of her ideals. Her colleagues past and present in the House of Commons have spoken of her courage when she was dealing with Home Security at the Home Office and of her general loyalty to those with whom she worked. I remember her first as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Susan Lawrence. That, I suppose, was the be- ginning of her effective political career. Nothing in that career will be remembered longer than her march to London with the unem- ployed of Jarrow, which she represented in Parliament.
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