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Evelyn Sharp, Baroness Sharp
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Evelyn Sharp, Baroness Sharp
Evelyn Adelaide Sharp, Baroness Sharp, GBE (25 May 1903 – 1 September 1985) was a British civil servant. She was the first woman to hold the position of Permanent Secretary, the most senior civil servant in a Ministry, at the Ministry of Housing and Local Government from 1955 to her retirement in 1966.
Sharp was born in Hornsey, Middlesex (now part of Haringey in north London). She was the third of five children, with three sisters and a younger brother. Her parents were the Reverend Charles James Sharp, the Vicar of Ealing, and his wife, Mary Frances Musgrave Harvey. Her uncles included Richard Harvey, Archdeacon of Halifax; Sir John Harvey, Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales; and Sir Ernest Harvey, Bt, Chief Cashier of the Bank of England.
She was educated at Dana House in Crouch Hill, and the North London Collegiate School. At St Paul's Girls' School, she captained both cricket and netball teams. In 1922 she moved to Somerville College, Oxford, graduating with a second in Modern History in 1925.
In 1926, she joined the Civil Service as an administrator, at first in the Board of Trade then after 18 months the Ministry of Health. Although the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act had been enacted in 1919, the examinations to enter the administrative grades at the civil service had only been opened to women in 1925. The first three in 1925 were Alix Kilroy (a college friend), Enid Russell-Smith and Mary Smieton; all three would later be named Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
The Ministry of Health at the time was concerned with housing and local government, and this soon became her specialty. During the Second World War she was seconded to the Treasury. At the end of the war she returned to the Ministry of Health as an under-secretary in 1945, before becoming Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Town and Country Planning in 1946. As no other woman had been as senior, there were no established women's pay scales, so she received the same pay as men on the same grade, a decade before equal pay became official policy. She played an important role in the development of post-war planning policy, including the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 and championed the development of new towns. She argued that for new towns to work they must not act against economic and social forces or be cross-subsidised, embracing the notion that they should be competitive. Sharp was committed to local government and strengthening its influence through reforms, and was dedicated to visiting local authorities over the country. Her obituary in The Times described her as doing "more than anyone else in this century to bring local and central government closely together. In local government circles she earnt a personal trust that was unique."
When the Ministry of Housing and Local Government was formed in 1951, she became the Deputy Secretary. She worked with Harold Macmillan, who later described her as "without exception the ablest woman I have ever known". In October 1955, she was promoted to be the Permanent Secretary. By this she became the first woman to be in the highest executive position with a Ministry, and she worked for five different Ministers during her time: Duncan Sandys, Henry Brooke, Charles Hill, Keith Joseph and Richard Crossman. She held the post to her retirement in 1966. She developed a reputation for her depth of specialist knowledge and experience, direct approach and strength of character (to the extent that she is often described as "formidable"), and an ability to identify solutions, a 'maker of civil servant history'.
From 1964, her Minister was Labour's Richard Crossman, who described his battles with her in the first of his three-volume Diaries of a Cabinet Minister. Sharp succeeded in keeping planning within her ministry's remit, after the government formed a new Ministry of Land and Natural Resources.
She was a member of the Plowden committee, which examined the control of public expenditure, from 1959 to 1961. After her retirement, she served on the Royal Commission on local government in England from 1966 to 1969 (see Redcliffe-Maud Report), and she was a member of the Independent Broadcasting Authority from 1966 to 1973. She also served as a director of the construction company Bovis, and as president of the London and Quadrant Housing Trust.
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Evelyn Sharp, Baroness Sharp
Evelyn Adelaide Sharp, Baroness Sharp, GBE (25 May 1903 – 1 September 1985) was a British civil servant. She was the first woman to hold the position of Permanent Secretary, the most senior civil servant in a Ministry, at the Ministry of Housing and Local Government from 1955 to her retirement in 1966.
Sharp was born in Hornsey, Middlesex (now part of Haringey in north London). She was the third of five children, with three sisters and a younger brother. Her parents were the Reverend Charles James Sharp, the Vicar of Ealing, and his wife, Mary Frances Musgrave Harvey. Her uncles included Richard Harvey, Archdeacon of Halifax; Sir John Harvey, Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales; and Sir Ernest Harvey, Bt, Chief Cashier of the Bank of England.
She was educated at Dana House in Crouch Hill, and the North London Collegiate School. At St Paul's Girls' School, she captained both cricket and netball teams. In 1922 she moved to Somerville College, Oxford, graduating with a second in Modern History in 1925.
In 1926, she joined the Civil Service as an administrator, at first in the Board of Trade then after 18 months the Ministry of Health. Although the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act had been enacted in 1919, the examinations to enter the administrative grades at the civil service had only been opened to women in 1925. The first three in 1925 were Alix Kilroy (a college friend), Enid Russell-Smith and Mary Smieton; all three would later be named Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
The Ministry of Health at the time was concerned with housing and local government, and this soon became her specialty. During the Second World War she was seconded to the Treasury. At the end of the war she returned to the Ministry of Health as an under-secretary in 1945, before becoming Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Town and Country Planning in 1946. As no other woman had been as senior, there were no established women's pay scales, so she received the same pay as men on the same grade, a decade before equal pay became official policy. She played an important role in the development of post-war planning policy, including the Town and Country Planning Act 1947 and championed the development of new towns. She argued that for new towns to work they must not act against economic and social forces or be cross-subsidised, embracing the notion that they should be competitive. Sharp was committed to local government and strengthening its influence through reforms, and was dedicated to visiting local authorities over the country. Her obituary in The Times described her as doing "more than anyone else in this century to bring local and central government closely together. In local government circles she earnt a personal trust that was unique."
When the Ministry of Housing and Local Government was formed in 1951, she became the Deputy Secretary. She worked with Harold Macmillan, who later described her as "without exception the ablest woman I have ever known". In October 1955, she was promoted to be the Permanent Secretary. By this she became the first woman to be in the highest executive position with a Ministry, and she worked for five different Ministers during her time: Duncan Sandys, Henry Brooke, Charles Hill, Keith Joseph and Richard Crossman. She held the post to her retirement in 1966. She developed a reputation for her depth of specialist knowledge and experience, direct approach and strength of character (to the extent that she is often described as "formidable"), and an ability to identify solutions, a 'maker of civil servant history'.
From 1964, her Minister was Labour's Richard Crossman, who described his battles with her in the first of his three-volume Diaries of a Cabinet Minister. Sharp succeeded in keeping planning within her ministry's remit, after the government formed a new Ministry of Land and Natural Resources.
She was a member of the Plowden committee, which examined the control of public expenditure, from 1959 to 1961. After her retirement, she served on the Royal Commission on local government in England from 1966 to 1969 (see Redcliffe-Maud Report), and she was a member of the Independent Broadcasting Authority from 1966 to 1973. She also served as a director of the construction company Bovis, and as president of the London and Quadrant Housing Trust.
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