Alice Cullen, (née McLaughlin; 18 March 1891 – 31 May 1969) was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

Labour Party politician. She was the first female Roman Catholic Member of Parliament.

Early life

Educated at Lochwinnoch Elementary School, Cullen was a housewife, twice widowed, and married three times. She was a member of

Glasgow Corporation The politics of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city by population, are expressed in the deliberations and decisions of Glasgow City Council, in elections to the council, the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament. Local government As one of ...

from 1935 until 1945, and became a

justice of the peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

in 1941.

Political career

She was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Glasgow Gorbals, which was

safe A safe (also called a strongbox or coffer) is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or fire. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face being removable or hinged to form a door. The body and ...

for Labour, at a by-election in 1948. She competed with three men to secure the position, which was vacated due to the resignation of the previous MP, George Buchanan, who assumed the position of Chairman of the National Assistance Board. She held the seat at subsequent general elections, until her death in 1969 at the age of 78. She was MP for Glasgow Gorbals at the time of "The Gorbals Vampire" incident in September 1954 when hundreds of schoolchildren went searching the Southern Necropolis cemetery armed with stakes to find a vampire with iron teeth. She led the city council in blaming horror comics and films for the incident. This resulted to a call for the ban of American horror comics to minors which she supported, along with all the other Glasgow MPs. A play loosely based on this incident, ''The Gorbals Vampire'', was performed at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow in October 2016.

External links

Centre for Advancement of Women in politics: Alice Cullen
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References

1891 births 1969 deaths 20th-century Scottish women politicians 20th-century Scottish politicians Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Gorbals Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Glasgow constituencies Scottish justices of the peace Scottish Labour MPs Scottish Roman Catholics UK MPs 1945–1950 UK MPs 1950–1951 UK MPs 1951–1955 UK MPs 1955–1959 UK MPs 1959–1964 UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 {{Scotland-Labour-UK-MP-stub