Ida Copeland

Ida Copeland (née Fenzi; born 15 April 1881 – 29 June 1964) was an Anglo-Italian British politician. She was active in social welfare both locally and nationally, particularly the Girl Guides, and was one of the earliest women to enter Parliament, sitting as Conservative MP for Stoke from 1931 to 1935. Family and early life Ida was born in Florence, Tuscany, the daughter of Italian Cavalier Camillo Fenzi (1852–1883), and his English wife, Evelyne Isabella, daughter of Sir Douglas Strutt Galton and Marianne (née Nicholson), a first cousin of Florence Nightingale, who were married in 1875. Ida was the great-granddaughter of Cavalier Emanuele Fenzi, Senator of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and banker (Banco Fenzi), granddaughter of Cavalier Sebastiano Fenzi and his wife, Emily Verity. On the death of her father, she and her brother Leone inherited the Villa di Rusciano designed by Brunelleschi for the Dukes of Urbino. Copeland grew up in Italy and moved to England at the end of the 19th century. In 1898, her mother married Leonard Daneham Cunliffe, an influential London financier, brother of Walter Cunliffe Governor of the Bank of England, President of the Hudson's Bay Company and one of the major investors in the Harrods department stores. On 28 July 1915, Ida Fenzi wed Ronald Copeland (1884–1958) of Staffordshire, grandson of William Taylor Copeland, Mayor of London, president and chairman of the Spode-Copeland firm of bone china manufacturers in Staffordshire, potters to the royal family since 1806.