Biography Larry Iles and Robert Ingham take a look at the life and political career of the first woman Liberal MP, Margaret Wintringham (1879–1955). TheThe firstfirst womanwoman LiberalLiberal MPMP
t is well known that the US-born Conservative in the country, and was involved with Louth Auxil- socialite Viscountess Nancy Astor was the first iary Hospital. I woman to sit in the House of Commons, for Ply- Thomas Wintringham was elected as Member for mouth Sutton from . Perhaps less well known is Louth at a by-election in June as an Asquithian the first woman to be elected to Parliament, Countess Liberal. The seat had traditionally been Liberal, with Markievicz (née Gore-Booth). elected as Sinn Fein a strong dissenting vote in its many villages and Member for Dublin St Patrick’s in who, of hamlets, but the result was still something of a sur- course, never took her seat. Now unknown is the first prise and was the only independent Liberal gain of UK-born woman MP, Margaret Wintringham, the the year. His wife’s local prominence may have con- Liberal Member for Louth from to . She tributed to his success, not least because she had or- blazed a trail as the first radical woman MP in an era ganised relief work following a severe flood in the when the House of Commons truly was an all-male district. His career was brief – he died of a heart at- institution and scorn was often poured on the notion tack in the House of Commons Smoking Room on of there being a relevant and distinctive women’s per- August , aged . Margaret Wintringham was spective on important political issues. chosen to contest the resulting by-election; the local Margaret Longbottom was born on August Liberals no doubt were keen to benefit from the in Oldfield, West Yorkshire, the daughter of sympathy she might attract as well as her own public David Longbottom of nearby Silsden. She was edu- record. She was advised by the party leadership to cated at Keighley Grammar School and trained as a keep quiet at hustings and to wear widow’s weeds. teacher at Bedford College, gaining work in The Tories fought hard to regain the seat, accusing Grimsby. The school of which she became headmis- the Liberals of calling the by-election in indecent tress in Grimsby is now named after her. In Grimsby haste, but Wintringham’s easy manner on the door- she met Thomas Wintringham, a timber inspector step and, crucially, the support she received from who had unsuccessfully sought to represent the women’s suffrage societies across the UK ensured town in the Liberal interest in a by-election in . she won by votes. It was a particularly impressive They married in at Ilkley Congregational victory given that Labour had intervened for the Church and settled in Louth, Lincolnshire. first time in Louth and had taken nearly one-fifth of Wintringham soon became involved in a wide- the vote, primarily from the industrial areas on the range of voluntary organisations, becoming a promi- constituency’s Yorkshire fringe. nent member of the local community. Inspired by its Her campaign generated much interest in the role in Canada, she founded a branch of the Wom- press, both at home and overseas, The Times being en’s Institute and was later involved with the organi- particularly horrified that a Liberal woman should sation at a national level. She chaired the Women’s have defeated a Tory knight. Women’s groups were War Agriculture Committee and was a member of naturally delighted that a further blow had been the Lincolnshire Agriculture Committee, which struck for their cause and that, unlike Lady Astor, promoted home-grown food at the expense of im- Wintringham was one of their own. It must have ports. She was President of Louth Women’s Liberal been intimidating for Wintringham to enter the Association, which she built into one of the biggest House of Commons as one of only two women
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 36 Autumn 2002 19 Members. In later speeches she often introducing its own measures and asked men in the audience to appreci- eventually formed the basis of Tory ate how uncomfortable they would legislation. have felt joining an almost entirely fe- With her emphasis on social issues, male assembly. Some MPs, most nota- and her outspoken contempt for the bly the veteran Conservative Sir cosy, all-male boorishness of the House Frederick Banbury, were openly hostile, of Commons, Wintringham came as was the Tory press, which often chose across to many as a wild radical. She was to report the activities of women certainly portrayed as such by her Tory Members in a flagrantly sexist manner. opponent in after being one of When eight women Members were re- only fifteen Liberal MPs to back the turned in , Wintringham acted as Government over its Russian policy, their unofficial cross-party co- the issue on which it fell. Her family ordinator (a difficult job given the dif- background was one of conventional ferences between them) and she used Liberalism, however – she once remi- this role to raise the profile of ‘women’s nisced in the House of Commons issues’, such as birth control. about walking miles with her brothers exclusion from the new ideas fer- The House of Commons quickly to hear Gladstone speak – and she was mented by Lloyd George and his sup- discovered that Wintringham was a at heart a party loyalist. She also com- porters. Few Liberals stood in and new phenomenon: an energetic, radi- manded the respect of the House when Wintringham was no exception, but in cal woman. Her maiden speech, which she spoke on agricultural questions, she contested Aylesbury. If not to- made the front page of the New York something to which The Times paid tally hopeless – the division had re- Times, savaged as ‘false economy’ the tribute in her obituary. Wintringham turned a Liberal in – it was a safe public expenditure cuts of the Lloyd had urged the party leadership to focus To ry seat and an odd choice for a George coalition. She was firmly on on the Liberals’ positive domestic former MP. She lost by over , the left of the Liberal Party, describing agenda rather than to talk up the Bol- votes. She was not asked to contest the herself as a progressive, and spoke shevik menace in , and she backed by-election for the seat, nor did mainly on social issues. She made good the official Liberal line against the she pursue an initial interest in contest- use of parliamentary questions and General Strike. She was in favour of the ing the Gainsborough constituency. brought new issues to the fore, such as National Government, at least at Wintringham was an active con- women’s pay and employment condi- first. Had she followed many of her tributor to many aspects of Liberal tions. Amongst the causes she took up contemporaries into Labour in the politics. She was President of the Wom- were the failure of the Hong Kong au- mid-s she might well have re- en’s Liberal Federation on three sepa- thorities to tackle child slavery and turned to Parliament, but she stuck rate occasions and regularly contrib- prostitution; the dismissal, on eco- with the Liberals. uted to the Women’s Liberal News until it nomic grounds, of Fiji’s only woman Wintringham increased her majority was closed down in . She used this maternity doctor; the deportation to in the election to , though she platform to give her views on social is- the Irish Free State of supporters of de probably expected to do better than that. sues in the many countries she visited, Valera in the civil war, who were likely Labour’s withdrawal from the hustings, causing controversy in when she to face execution; and the failure of apparently in her favour, benefited the praised nursery education and the the Canadian authorities to extract two older parties in almost equal meas- equality of men’s and women’s working maintenance payments from former ure. Although her majority again in- conditions in the Soviet Union. She World War One soldiers who had fa- creased in , this time to ,, was also a regular contributor to the US thered illegitimate children in the UK. Wintringham could not resist the tide Christian Science Monitor. During the At the Women’s Liberal Federation’s which swept away most Liberal MPs in Second World War she called in the let- conference in she made a strong . In that election she lost by , ters page of The Times for more to be attack on the Labour Government’s votes to the Conservative candidate, A. P. done for injured merchant seamen, a failure to sign up to the new Interna- Heneage, a moderate local farmer, who particularly emotive issue in Grimsby. tional Labour Organisation covenants was to hold the seat until . She served for many years on the ex- on the exploitation of women and Wintringham made two unsuccess- ecutive of the radical women’s Six child labour, which contributed to a ful attempts to return to Parliament. In Points Group, was an independent ministerial U-turn on the issue. she must have been hopeful of re- member of Lindsey County Council, Wintringham also introduced a Private gaining Louth: she polled her highest and was also a magistrate in the county. Member’s Bill to make the provision of ever total – , – but lost by Late in life Wintringham moved child support more egalitarian, which votes. Labour’s return to the fray may from Louth to Lincoln and then Lon- was opposed by some reactionary ele- have been a decisive factor, but her don, where she died in a nursing home ments in her own party but which election address was uncharacteristi- on March , aged . Even at the spurred the Labour Government into cally lacking in vigour, reflecting her time of her death she was unknown to
20 Journal of Liberal Democrat History 36 Autumn 2002 most Liberals, her name preserved only being dangerously left-wing. The Lib- was published in the Christian Science as the title of a prize awarded at Wom- eral Party lost one of its biggest assets by Monitor on October . en’s Liberal Federation conferences. marginalising Wintringham from the Wintringham played a crucial role in s until her death. It is tempting to Lawrence Irvine Iles is the US/Canada the process by which ‘women’s issues’ think that she would have been better representative of the British Labour Party were recognised as being of central im- suited to the politics of more recent Heritage Group and an adjunct visiting his- portance to society, and in beginning to years than to the more conservative tory instructor at Kirksville Adult Education break down the overt sexism of the ‘safety first’ politics of the s. Te c hnical Center, Missouri, US. Robert British establishment. Margaret Wintringham is the sub- Ingham is Biographies Editor of the Journal Wintringham’s disappearance from ject of only one other biographical es- of Liberal Democrat History. the upper echelons of the Liberal Party say, in A Biographical Dictionary of Femi- after the s is both curious and dis- nists. She was profiled in the New 1 See Daily Telegraph, ‘Mrs Wintringham’s Ad- appointing, but perhaps she lacked the York magazine Current Opinion in dress’, 18 May 1922. 2 Women’s Liberal News, ‘Impressions of Russia’, social connections of the Bonham March and a statement of her po- July 1934. Carters and Lloyd Georges or was re- litical beliefs, in the form of two ad- 3Vol. 2 , O. Banks (Ed.), London, 1990. garded by the party establishment as dresses to the Liberal Summer School,
Research in Progress If you can help any of the individuals listed below with sources, contacts, or any other information — or if you know anyone who can — please pass on details to them. Details of other research projects in progress should be sent to the Editor (see page 2) for inclusion here.
The party agent and English electoral culture, c.1880 – c.1906. The Liberals and the local government of London 1919–39. Chris Fox, development of political agency as a profession, the role of the 173 Worplesdon Road, Guildford GU2 6XD; election agent in managing election campaigns during this period, [email protected]. and the changing nature of elections, as increased use was made of Crouch End or Hornsey Liberal Association or Young Liberals in the the press and the platform. Kathryn Rix, Christ's College, 1920s and 1930s; especially any details of James Gleeson or Patrick Cambridge, CB2 2BU; [email protected]. Moir, who are believed to have been Chairmen. Tony Marriott, Flat Liberal policy towards Austria-Hungary, 1905–16. Andrew A, 13 Coleridge Road, Crouch End, London N8 8EH. Gardner, 22 Birdbrook House, Popham Road, Islington, London N1 Liberal foreign policy in the 1930s. Focussing particularly on Liberal 8TA; [email protected]. anti-appeasers. Michael Kelly, 12 Collinbridge Road, Whitewell, The Hon H. G. Beaumont (MP for Eastbourne 1906–10). Any Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim BT36 7SN information welcome, particularly on his political views (he stood as The Liberal Party and the wartime coalition 1940–45. Sources, a Radical). Tim Beaumont, 40 Elms Road, London SW4 9EX. particularly on Sinclair as Air Minister, and on Harcourt Johnstone, Edmund Lamb (Liberal MP for Leominster 1906–10). Any Dingle Foot, Lord Sherwood and Sir Geoffrey Maunder (Sinclair's information on his election and period as MP; wanted for biography PPS) particularly welcome. Ian Hunter, 9 Defoe Avenue, Kew, of his daughter, Winfred Lamb. Dr David Gill, Richmond TW9 4DL; [email protected]. [email protected]. The Unservile State Group, 1953–1970s. Dr Peter Barberis, 24 Joseph King (Liberal MP for North Somerset during the Great War). Lime Avenue, Flixton, Manchester M41 5DE. Any information welcome, particularly on his links with the Union The Young Liberal Movement 1959–1985; including in particular of Democratic Control and other opponents of the war (including relations with the leadership, and between NLYL and ULS. Carrie his friend George Raffalovich). Colin Houlding; Park, 89 Coombe Lane, Bristol BS9 2AR; [email protected] [email protected]. The political life and times of Josiah Wedgwood MP. Study of the The revival of the Liberal Party in the 1960s and ‘70s; including the political life of this radical MP, hoping to shed light on the question relationships between local and parliamentary electoral of why the Labour Party replaced the Liberals as the primary performance. Access to party records (constituency- and ward- popular representatives of radicalism in the 1920s. level) relating to local activity in London and Birmingham, and Paul Mulvey, 112 Richmond Avenue, London N1 0LS; interviews with key activists of particular interest. Paul Lambe, [email protected]. University of Plymouth; [email protected]. Recruitment of Liberals into the Conservative Party, 1906–1935. The political and electoral strategy of the Liberal Party 1970–79. Aims to suggest reasons for defections of individuals and develop Individual constituency papers, and contact with members of the an understanding of changes in electoral alignment. Sources Party’s policy committees and/or the Party Council, particularly include personal papers and newspapers; suggestions about how welcome. Ruth Fox, 7 Mulberry Court, Bishop’s Stortford, Herts to get hold of the papers of more obscure Liberal defectors CM23 3JW. welcome. Cllr Nick Cott, 1a Henry Street, Gosforth, Newcastle- upon-Tyne, NE3 1DQ; [email protected].
Journal of Liberal Democrat History 36 Autumn 2002 21