Lucy Blanche Masterman (née ''Lyttelton''; 19 July 188422 April 1977) was a British poet and diarist from the

Lyttelton family The Lyttelton family (sometimes spelled Littleton) is a British nobility, British aristocratic family. Over time, several members of the Lyttelton family were made knights, baronets and peers. Hereditary titles held by the Lyttelton family inclu ...

. In 1908 she married the

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

journalist

Charles Masterman Charles Frederick Gurney Masterman PC (24 October 1873 – 17 November 1927) was a British radical Liberal Party politician, intellectual and man of letters. He worked closely with such Liberal leaders as David Lloyd George and Winston Church ...

, who was later elected to parliament and briefly served as

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster The chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. The position is the second highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the Prime Minister, and senior to the Minist ...

. After his death, she stood for parliament unsuccessfully as a Liberal.

Early life

Born Lucy Blanche Lyttelton, the eldest daughter of General Sir Neville Lyttelton and his wife Katherine Sarah Stuart-Wortley, she joined the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...

and in 1908 married

. They had one son, Neville Masterman, who became a history lecturer at the University College of Swansea, and two daughters, including

Margaret Masterman Margaret Masterman (4 May 1910 – 1 April 1986) was a British linguist and philosopher, most known for her pioneering work in the field of computational linguistics and especially machine translation. She founded the Cambridge Language R ...

, a linguist.

Literary career

Masterman was the author of ''A Book of Wild Things'' (1910), ''Lyrical Poems'' (1912) and ''Poems'' (1913). She worked as

literary editor A literary editor is an editor in a newspaper, magazine or similar publication who deals with aspects concerning literature and books, especially reviews.

for ''

Outlook Outlook or The Outlook may refer to: Computing * Microsoft Outlook, an e-mail and personal information management software product from Microsoft * Outlook.com, a web mail service from Microsoft * Outlook on the web, a suite of web applications ...

'' and kept a diary while her husband was in government. In 1918, together with Elizabeth Lee, she published ''Wives of the Prime Ministers 1844-1906'', and in 1939 followed this with ''C. F. G. Masterman: a biography''. In 1930 she edited the papers of

Mary Gladstone Mary Drew (''née'' Gladstone; 23 November 1847 – 1 January 1927) was a political secretary, writer, and hostess. She was the daughter of the British prime minister William Ewart Gladstone, and achieved notability as his advisor, confidant ...

, published as ''Mary Gladstone (Mrs Drew): her diaries and letters''. Her final publication was ''London from the Bus-top'' (1951).

Political career

At the 1929 General Election, two years after her husband’s death, Masterman was the

candidate for the Conservative-held seat of

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

. The Liberals had last won the seat in 1923 and had come second in 1924. She finished a strong second, well ahead of Labour.

F. W. S. Craig Frederick Walter Scott Craig (10 December 1929 – 23 March 1989) was a Scottish psephologist and compiler of the standard reference books covering United Kingdom Parliamentary election results. He originally worked in public relations, compilin ...

, ''British parliamentary election results 1918–1949'' (Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services, 3rd edition, 1983)

969 Year 969 ( CMLXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar, the 969th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 969th year of the 1st millennium, the 69th ...

p. 497 Masterman remained active for the Liberals in Salisbury and was again their candidate at the Salisbury by-election in March 1931, when she again finished second; after that, she continued as prospective Liberal candidate for Salisbury until being stood down in September 1931. In August of that year the Liberals and Conservatives had joined the new National Government, and the Salisbury Liberals agreed not to contest the seat. Masterman did not stand at an election again, but she remained politically active. In June 1936 she was elected to serve on the Liberal Party Council.The Liberal Magazine, 1936

Election results

References

External links

*
Who's WhoOxford Dictionary of National Biography
*The Times Guide to the House of Commons 1929 {{DEFAULTSORT:Masterman, Lucy 1884 births 1977 deaths British diarists British women writers Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates

Lucy Lucy is an English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings are Luci, Luce, Lu ...

Spouses of British politicians Women diarists Members of the Fabian Society