{{Short description|British politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Eleanor Joan Nathan, Lady Nathan''' (1892–1972) was a British politician and member of the London County Council (LCC) from 1928 to 1934 for the Liberal Party and from 1937 to 1948 for the Labour Party, serving the last year as the council's chair. Her husband was Harry Nathan, 1st Baron Nathan, who was MP for Wandsworth Central.
== Personal life and family == Nathan was born as the daughter of Carl Stettauer in 1892<ref name="alderman">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nZc9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA70|title=London Jewry and London Politics, 1889–1986|last=Alderman|first=Geoffrey|date=1989|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=9780415022040|pages=70–71|language=en}}</ref> and was educated at Queen's College, London and Girton College, Cambridge.<ref name="guardian-obit" /><ref name="theage">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?spot=14538257|title=Woman Chairman of London County Council|date=1947-08-14|work=The Age|access-date=2017-10-20|language=en}}</ref> She took an honours degree in economics and mathematics and was a governor of the college.<ref name="theage" />
In 1919, she married Harry Nathan.<ref name="alderman" /> They had two children, Roger Nathan (1922–2007) and Joyce Constance Ina Waley-Cohen (1920–2013), later the wife of London Lord Mayor Bernard Waley-Cohen. Nathan, as well as her father and husband, were British Jews and their views guided her career, although she herself was not known to be particularly interested in defending Jewish interests.<ref name="alderman" /><ref name="alderman2008">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ifOnge30CkC&pg=PA223|title=Controversy and Crisis: Studies in the History of the Jews in Modern Britain|last=Alderman|first=Geoffrey|date=2008|publisher=Academic Studies Press|isbn=9781934843222|pages=223–225|language=en}}</ref> She was the president of the Union of Jewish Women for 12 years.<ref name="guardian-obit" /> She died in 1972, aged 79, in her London home.<ref name="guardian-obit">{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/14538260/the_guardian/|title=Obituary: Lady Nathan|date=1972-06-07|work=The Guardian|access-date=2017-10-20|pages=6}}</ref>
== Political career == A well-known communal worker and expert in housing and juvenile delinquency, Nathan was first elected to the London County Council (LCC) for Bethnal Green North East as a Liberal Party candidate in 1928, receiving almost twice as many votes as any Labour candidate.<ref name="alderman" /><ref name="alderman2008" /> In 1931, she was reelected to the same seat.<ref name="alderman" />
After losing to a Labour candidate in 1934, both she and her husband switched parties and joined the Labour Party. In 1937, Nathan returned to the council as a member for Wandsworth Central and served until 1948.<ref name="alderman" /> In 1947, she became the first woman to become chairman of the council, and the second, after Eveline Lowe, to chair sessions of the council.<ref name="alderman" /> She was a member of the education committees of the LCC and the Inner London Education Authority from 1939 to 1967<ref name="alderman" /> as well as a justice of the peace from 1928 and member of the Juvenile Court Panel.<ref name="theage" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-civic}} {{succession box|title=Chairman of the London County Council|years=1947–1948|before=John Cliff|after=Walter Richard Owen}} {{s-end}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nathan, Eleanor}} Category:1892 births Category:1972 deaths Category:Place of birth missing Category:Place of death missing Category:Labour Party (UK) councillors Category:Members of London County Council Category:Liberal Party (UK) councillors Category:English justices of the peace Category:Jewish British politicians Category:British baronesses by marriage Category:People educated at Queen's College, London Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Category:20th-century English women politicians Category:20th-century English politicians Category:Jewish women politicians Eleanor Category:Women councillors in England