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Sarah Brown
Spouse of the Prime Minister
of the United Kingdom
In office
27 June 2007 – 11 May 2010
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterGordon Brown
Preceded byCherie Blair
Succeeded bySamantha Cameron
Personal details
BornSarah Jane Macaulay
(1963-10-31) 31 October 1963 (age 61)
Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England
Political partyLabour
Spouse(s)Gordon Brown
(m. 2000–present)
ChildrenJennifer Jane (Deceased)
John Macaulay
James Fraser
ResidenceNorth Queensferry (private)
Alma materUniversity of Bristol

Sarah Jane Brown (née Macaulay; born 31 October 1963) is a campaigner for global health and education, founder and president of Theirworld, a children's charity, the Executive Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education and the co-founder of A World At School. She was a founding partner of Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications, a public relations company. She is married to UN Special Envoy for Global Education and former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown.

Early life and career

Sarah Jane Macaulay was born in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire on 31 October 1963. Her mother Pauline was a teacher and her father Iain worked for publisher Longman. Macaulay spent her infancy in Fife, before her family moved to Tanzania—where her mother was to operate a school—when she was two. When she was eight her parents separated. Both then remarried and her mother and stepfather took her and her two younger brothers, Sean and Bruce, to live in North London.

She was educated in North London at Acland Burghley School and Camden School for Girls, and took a psychology degree at the University of Bristol.

After leaving university, she worked at the brand consultancy Wolff Olins. At age 30 she founded the public-relations firm Hobsbawm Macaulay, in partnership with an old school friend, Julia Hobsbawm. Their clients included the New Statesman (owned by Geoffrey Robinson), the Labour Party and trade unions. In 2001, she left Hobsbawm Macaulay after finding out she was pregnant with her, and her husband Gordon Brown's, first child.

Marriage to Gordon Brown

Sarah's relationship with Gordon Brown started after sharing a flight from London to Scotland for the Scottish Labour Party conference in 1994. The relationship was kept secret until 1997, when the News of the World published a picture of them together in a restaurant in London. They were married on 3 August 2000 in Brown's home town, North Queensferry, Fife.

On 28 December 2001 she gave birth prematurely to daughter Jennifer Jane, who died at 10 days old. Gordon spoke of Sarah's bravery after their daughter's death.

On 17 October 2003, she gave birth to their second child and first son, John. Another son, James Fraser, arrived on 17 July 2006 and was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis that November.

Brown listening to her husband's speech at the Diversity Reception, Labour conference, 2009

Spouse of the Prime Minister

Gordon Brown became Prime Minister on 27 June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair. As wife of the Prime Minister, Sarah Brown was generally viewed favourably. The Guardian noted her public image, describing her as "a truly modern public figure: talkative, empathetic, informal but infinitely connected, ubiquitous as any celebrity, an avid exploiter of new digital media, an expert assembler of charitable and political coalitions", noting "her positive profile could be the best thing Labour has got going for it with the election looming." The Telegraph noted that " It is hard to find people with a bad word to say about Mrs Brown."

Sarah introduced Gordon at the 2008 and 2009 Labour Party Conferences. It was her idea to do so at the 2008 conference, after having seen the similar role Michelle Obama had performed for her husband, the United States President Barack Obama.

According to Anthony Seldon and Guy Lodge, the authors of a book on Gordon's tenure as Prime Minister, Sarah brought stability to both Gordon and his office, and was "a forceful voice in encouraging him to stay on until the very end". That end came following the 2010 general election, which saw no party command an overall majority. The Conservative Party led by David Cameron won the most seats, and on 11 May 2010 formed a government in coalition with the Liberal Democrats after Gordon's attempts to keep Labour in power failed.

Memoir

Brown with other leader spouses at the 34th G8 summit (2008)

Brown published a memoir of her role as the Prime Minister's spouse, entitled Behind the Black Door, through Ebury Press in 2011.

The book received a mixed reception from reviewers. Written in a diary style, the New Statesman referred to it as a "domestic take on politics". While Woman's Own called it "fascinating and endearing", the London Evening Standard described it as "perhaps the dimmest diary ever to have been professionally published" and "one long, formulaic press release in praise of Gordon Brown."

The Telegraph concludes it is a "strange book" and "plea for redemption" though the reviewer decides that Brown's description of the international charity circuit is "fun at last", and that Brown "wins sympathy that boastfulness would have forfeited."

The Irish Independent describes the book as a "disturbingly giddy, schoolgirlish, exclamation mark-littered diary form" and "nothing in the slightest bit revelatory about it... tiptoeingly discreet", but that "Brown comes across in these pages as a decent and likeable" with "enough gossipy details to satisfy star-hungry readers", with Caitlin Moran declaring: "School run, conference call, Obama for tea - Sarah Brown smiled, and tweeted, through it all. I love this woman."

The New Statesman observed that Brown successfully describes "the awkwardness of the lifestyle" and "the vagueness of the position", and that while "political events and what must have been some fairly traumatic personal moments" seem "airbrushed", leaving "the diary feeling a little empty", the book demonstrates how "collision of the political with the personal... jars and is sometimes funny", concluding it is full of "thoughtfulness and... courtesy", "precisely the sort of thing that is genuine Sarah Brown".

Commenting on some of the reaction to the book, David Mitchell noted in the Guardian that "The amount of crap we expect prime ministers' wives to endure, unpaid, for having the temerity to be married to the country's most successful politician is a national disgrace", and The Lady magazine concluded that "whatever reviewers say, she is a natural heroine to the Mumsnet demographic".

Charitable work and public health advocacy

Child and maternal health

In 2002 Brown founded the charity Theirworld—originally known as PiggyBankKids—which began as a research fund to tackle complications in pregnancy, and in 2004 the charity founded the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory at the University of Edinburgh. The laboratory's work is notable for its unified obstetric and neonatal approach to complications in pregnancy and childbirth, with a particular focus on preterm births.

Theirworld broadened its work into a range of projects around disadvantaged children, with a particular focus on education through the A World at School platform, of which Brown is a co-founder.

Brown is also the Founding Chair of the Global Business Coalition for Education, the objective of which is to work with business leaders and CEOs to support and galvanise international action to achieve quality education for all the world's children; she is also a member of the High Level Panel for Global Education, initiated by the Coalition.

In 2008 Brown started championing the cause of maternal health more intensively in her role as Global Patron of The White Ribbon Alliance for Safe Motherhood and co-founding of the Maternal Mortality Campaign. Her leadership on the issue has been recognised with her appointment as a member of the External Advisory Group of the world-leading Centre for Maternal and Newborn Health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and as an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London.

File:Sarah Brown and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the 62nd World Health Assembly in Geneva.jpg
Sarah Brown and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the 62nd World Health Assembly in Geneva

In 2009, Brown gave the keynote speech at the World Health Organisation's 62nd World Health Assembly, alongside United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In her speech she asked "where is the M in MCH?’ " in an echo of Allan Rosenfield's landmark Lancet article of 1985, highlighting that the numbers of women dying in pregnancy and childbirth were still the same approximately 20 years later.

Brown, with Bience Gawanas, was co-chair of the Leadership Group on Maternal and Newborn Mortality, launched in September 2009. Jens Stoltenberg, then Prime Minister of Norway, said "We welcome and support the establishment of this important group. Every minute a mother dies in pregnancy or childbirth... women need a strong voice that will bring attention to their plight and push for the support they need."

Brown chaired the launch of the "new Consensus for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health” at a 2009 high level event at the United Nations. At the meeting 10 countries, including Sierra Leone, Ghana and Liberia, declared that they would be dropping medical charges ("user fees") to pregnant women around the time of birth. The Consensus also set out key action steps that research showed could save the lives of more than 10 million women and children by 2015, and that were endorsed by the G8 at their July meeting of that year.

Brown's strategic leadership on worldwide efforts to save and change the lives of women and children has been recognised with the Vision and Impact Award from the Global Business Coalition for Health, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Global Leadership Award, an Honorary Fellowship from Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Recognition Award from the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, which she was awarded alongside UN Women Executive Director Michelle Bachelet.

Brown has been a leading user of social media to promote the causes of education and maternal health, and has been named on various Twitter and social media 'most influential' lists, including "The eight most influential women tweeters" by Forbes Magazine, and the second "most powerful Briton" on Twitter by The Independent.

Other activities

Brown is the patron of domestic violence charity Women's Aid (from 2004, ongoing in 2013), of Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres (since 2007, ongoing in 2013), and of the SHINE Education Trust.

Brown is also patron of the CBI First Women Awards, which since 2004 have celebrated "pioneering women; successful role-models who have broken new ground and opened up opportunities for other women".

Brown is also a friend of writer J.K. Rowling (who donated £1 million to the Labour Party in 2008), and the two co-authored a children's book for the One Parent Families charity organisation. She is a former patron of Gingerbread.

References

  1. http://gordonandsarahbrown.com/sarah-brown/
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  14. "Snapper grabs photo of Chancellor with woman!". The Independent. findarticles.com. 29 June 1997. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
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  16. "Chancellor becomes a father". BBC News. 28 December 2001.
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Honorary titles
Preceded byCherie Blair Spouse of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
2007–2010 		Succeeded bySamantha Cameron
Gordon Brown
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