Xenia Field

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Xenia Noelle Field MBE (née Lowinsky; 25 December 1894 – 24 January 1998) was a British county councillor, prison reformer, philanthropist, horticulturist and author.

Early life[]

Field was born on 25 December 1894 at Secunderabad, India, where her father was general manager of the Hyderabad (Deccan) Co coal mines.[1] On their return to England, the family lived at Tittenhurst Park in Berkshire.[1] Field was a pupil at Heathfield School, and then attended finishing school in Paris.[1] Her father was a keen gardener, who won a Royal Horticultural Society gold medal.[1]

Career[]

In World War II, after a stint in the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, she led the for Herbert Morrison of the Ministry of Supply.[1]

With Morrison's support, she was elected as a Labour member of London County Council in 1946, representing Paddington North electoral division.[1][2] She stood, unsuccessfully, for parliament, first at North Somerset in 1950 and then at Colchester in 1951.[1] She also sat as a magistrate, and became interested in prison reform.[1] She joined the breakaway Social Democratic Party in 1982, shortly after their formation.[1]

She used a bequest from her father to establish a charitable trust, the Field Foundation, under whose auspices she gave financial support to The Salvation Army, persuading them to set up the first bail hostel in Britain, in 1971.[1] She was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1958, and appeared as a castaway on the BBC Radio programme Desert Island Discs on 12 June 1967.[3] She also won the Royal Horticultural Society's Veitch Memorial Medal, in 1972.[1]

Personal life[]

She married Dr. James Field, a much older man, in 1936; he died only five years later.[1]

Death[]

She died at Goldsborough Nursing Home, Ladbroke Road, Kensington, London on 24 January 1998, from a stroke.[1] She was 103.

Bibliography[]

  • Window Box Gardening.
  • Growing Bulbs in the House. 1954.
  • The Housewife Book of House Plants. The Garden City Press Limited. 1956.
  • Under Lock and Key: a Study of Women in Prison. 1963.
  • Indoor Plants. Paul Hamlyn Limited. 1966.
  • Colorful World of Roses. The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited. 1969.
  • Book of Garden Flowers. The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited. 1971.
  • Gardening From Scratch. The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited. 1973.
  • Gardening Week by Week. Crescent Books. 1975.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m Buczacki, Stefan (2004). "Oxford DNB article: Field, Xenia Noelle". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 29 July 2014.
  2. ^ W Eric Jackson (1965). Achievement: A short History of the London County Council. Longmans. p. 262.
  3. ^ "Desert Island Discs - Castaway : Xenia Field". BBC Online. BBC. Retrieved 27 July 2014.
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