Dame Dehra S. Parker, GBE, PC (NI) (13 August 1882 – 30 November 1963), was the longest-serving female Member of Parliament in the House of Commons of Northern Ireland.

Family Life

Born in 1882 in a military hospital in Dehra Dun, northern India, Dehra Kerr-Fisher was the only child of James Kerr-Fisher and his wife, Annie. Her father, originally from Kilrea, County Londonderry, was a successful financier. She was educated in the United States, where her father had extensive property holdings, and later in Germany.

Marriages

Dehra married twice. Her first husband was Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Peel Dawson Spencer Chichester, MP, with whom she had two children: Robert James Spencer Chichester (1902–1920) and Marion Caroline Dehra Chichester (1904–1976). Her son predeceased her. Following Chichester’s death in 1921, she remarried on 4 June 1928, becoming the wife of Admiral Henry Wise Parker, CB, CMG.

Political Career

Dame Dehra was first elected to the Northern Ireland Parliament in the 1921 general election, representing Londonderry as Dehra Chichester. She stepped down in 1929 ahead of her second marriage but returned to politics in a 1933 by-election for South Londonderry, following the death of her son-in-law, James Lenox-Conyngham Chichester-Clark. She served until her resignation on 15 June 1960, after which her grandson, James Chichester-Clark, succeeded her. He later became Northern Ireland’s fifth Prime Minister (1969–1971).

During her long tenure, she faced electoral opposition only once, in the 1949 general election, when she defeated Nationalist candidate T.B. Agnew. She held several government roles, serving as Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education (1937–1944), Chair of the Northern Ireland General Health Services Board (1948–1949), and Minister of Health and Local Government (1949–1957). She was also appointed to the Privy Council of Northern Ireland in 1949, earning the title *The Right Honourable.

Dame Dehra was recognized for her public service, receiving an OBE before being promoted to Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1949 and later Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 1957*. At age 67, she became the first and only woman to serve in the Northern Ireland Cabinet under Prime Minister Sir Basil Brooke, as part of his effort to bring fresh leadership into government.

Extra-Parliamentary Activities

Beyond her parliamentary duties, Dame Dehra was an active local councillor on Magherafelt Rural District Council. She held leadership roles in various organizations, serving as president of both the Northern Ireland Physical Training Association and the Girls' Training Corps, as well as chairing the Ancient Monuments Advisory Committee. In 1944, she was appointed senior vice-chairman of the Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts (CEMA NI), becoming its president in 1949—a position she held until 1960. She was also named an honorary member of the Ulster Society of Women Artists in 1958.