Background
SQUIRE, Rachel was born on July 13, 1954 in London. Parents: Percy Garfield Squire (stepfather) and Louise Anne Squire.
SQUIRE, Rachel was born on July 13, 1954 in London. Parents: Percy Garfield Squire (stepfather) and Louise Anne Squire.
She attended the all-female Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith and then proceeded to a degree in Archaeology and Anthropology at Durham University, and a social work qualification at Birmingham University.
After university, Squire became a social worker, also working in factories and other manual jobs. She became a full-time official with National Union of Public Employees, the public sector union, later part of UNISON. Working for the union took her to Merseyside and then to Scotland, where she became the union"s education officer She served on the Labour Scottish Executive.
Rachel Squire was known as "one of the most committed and successful constituency advocates in Parliament".
She worked to get regeneration funds for her constituency, campaigned for the Rosyth Dockyard and secured funds to put off the closure of the Longannet coal mine. Squire was a patron for Brain Tumour Action, a cancer charity.
She was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 1993, and a second one in 2003. On 2 June 2005, she was admitted to hospital after suffering a stroke, thought to have been caused by bleeding stemming from the second brain tumor.
She did not recover, and died on 5 January 2006.
Various
Her death prompted the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election, held on 9 February 2006, in which her former seat was won by Willie Rennie for the Liberal Democrats.
51st United Kingdom Parliament. 52nd United Kingdom Parliament. 53rd United Kingdom Parliament.
54th United Kingdom Parliament]
She was the (Member of Parliament) for Dunfermline West from 1992 to 2005, and then for Dunfermline and West Fife from 2005 until her death after a long series of illnesses.
In Parliament, Squire was a member of the Defence Select Committee and served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Education ministers Stephen Byers and Estelle Morris from 1997 to 2001.
Spouse Allan Lee Mason, 1984.