{{Short description|British politician and peer (1918–2004)}} {{More footnotes needed|date=January 2022}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2014}} {{Use British English|date=November 2014}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = The Baroness Pike | honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|DBE}} | image = Mervynpike.jpg | caption = Pike in 1959 | office = Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for&nbsp;Home Affairs | prime_minister = {{ubl|Harold Macmillan|Alec Douglas-Home}} | term_start = 1 March 1963 | term_end = 16 October 1964 | predecessor = Charles Fletcher-Cooke | successor = George Thomas | office1 = Assistant Postmaster-General | prime_minister1 = Harold Macmillan | term_start1 = 22 October 1959 | term_end1 = 1 March 1963 | predecessor1 = Kenneth Thompson | successor1 = Ray Mawby | office2 = Member of the House of Lords | status2 = Lord Temporal | term_label2 = Life peerage | term_start2 = 15 May 1974 | term_end2 = 11 January 2004 | parliament3 = United Kingdom | constituency_MP3 = Melton | term_start3 = 19 December 1956 | term_end3 = 8 February 1974 | predecessor3 = Anthony Nutting | successor3 = Michael Latham | birth_name = Irene Mervyn Parnicott Pike | birth_date = {{birth date|1918|09|16|df=yes}} | birth_place = Castleford, Yorkshire, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|2004|01|11|1918|09|16|df=yes}} | death_place = Kelso, Scottish Borders | party = Conservative | alma_mater = University of Reading <!--Military service--> | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = {{air force|UK}} | unit = Women's Auxiliary Air Force }}

'''Irene Mervyn Parnicott Pike, Baroness Pike''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|DBE}} (16 September 1918 – 11 January 2004) was a British Conservative politician. The name by which she came to be known, Mervyn, had been the name of her father's best friend, who was to have been her godfather; when he was killed in action, a few days before she was born, her father decided that the baby would take his name.<ref name="guardianobit">{{cite news |last1=Roth |first1=Andrew |authorlink1=Andrew Roth |title=Obituary: Baroness Pike of Melton |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jan/16/guardianobituaries.conservatives |accessdate=11 May 2015 |work=The Guardian |date=16 January 2004}}</ref>

== Early life == Born in Castleford, Yorkshire,<ref name=ODNB/> into a family of Castleford pottery manufacturers, Pike was educated at Hunmanby Hall (East Riding of Yorkshire) and at Reading University and served with the Women's Auxiliary Air Force during World War II. She was managing director of a firm of pottery manufacturers.<ref name="guardianobit"/>

== Career == Pike contested Pontefract in 1951 and Leek in 1955 without success. She was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Melton at a by-election in December 1956. She held several positions including Assistant Postmaster-General from 1959 to 1963, joint Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from 1963 to 1964 and Chair of the WRVS from 1974 to 1981 and the Broadcasting Complaints Commission from 1981 to 1985.

== Awards == Pike was created a life peer on 15 May 1974 as '''Baroness Pike''', of Melton in Leicestershire,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=46292|date=17 May 1974|page=6033}}</ref> and was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 1981 Birthday Honours.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=48639|date=13 June 1981|page=8|supp=y|nolink=y}}</ref>

{{Infobox COA wide |image = Pike Achievement.png |escutcheon = Or on a cross Gules a churchwarden's staff headed of a mitre Or on a chief Sable a castleford fine stoneware teapot Proper. |supporters = On either side a fox that on the dexter gorged with a wreath of ivy and that on the sinister with a wreath of rosemary Proper and each resting the interior hind foot on a portcullis Or. |compartment = A grassy mount Proper. |motto = Faithful Endeavour |orders=Order of the British Empire<ref>{{cite book|title=Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage |title-link=Debrett's |date=2000}}</ref>}}

== Death == She died in 2004, unmarried, at a nursing home in Kelso, Scottish Borders, aged 85, from pneumonia following a stroke.<ref name=ODNB/>

== References == {{Reflist|refs= <ref name=ODNB>{{cite ODNB | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/93152 | title = Pike, (Irene) Mervyn Parnicott, Baroness Pike (1918–2004), businesswoman, politician, and voluntary worker | first = Duncan | last = Sutherland | date = 2008-05-24 }}</ref> }}

==External links== *[https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200304/minutes/040113/ldminute.htm Announcement of Pike's death in the House of Lords] &ndash; minutes of proceedings, 13 January 2004

{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Melton | years = 1956 – February 1974 | before = Anthony Nutting | after = Michael Latham}} {{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pike, Mervyn}} Category:1918 births Category:2004 deaths Category:Alumni of the University of Reading Category:British women in World War II Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Category:Conservative Party (UK) life peers Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Category:Politicians from Castleford Category:Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II Category:UK MPs 1955–1959 Category:UK MPs 1959–1964 Category:UK MPs 1964–1966 Category:UK MPs 1966–1970 Category:UK MPs 1970–1974 Category:UK MPs who were granted peerages Category:20th-century British women politicians Category:Ministers in the Macmillan and Douglas-Home governments, 1957–1964 Category:20th-century English women Category:20th-century English people