Margaret Mansfield, Baroness Sandhurst (née Fellowes, ca. 1828 - 7 January 1892) was a noted

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

who was one of the first women elected to a city council in the United Kingdom. She was also a prominent spiritualist.

Personal life

Sandhurst was the youngest of the seven children of Robert Fellowes (1779–1869) of Shotesham Park, Norfolk, and his second wife, Jane Louisa Sheldon (d. 1871). In 1854, Sandhurst married Sir William Mansfield, an administrator in the British Raj, who was later made the first Baron Sandhurst. They had four sons and a daughter. After her husband's death in 1876 Lady Sandhurst became increasingly involved in both spiritualism and Liberal politics.

Political activities

She was an active member of the Women's Liberal Association, and later of the

Women's Liberal Federation The Women's Liberal Federation was an organisation that was part of the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom. History The Women's Liberal Federation (WLF) was formed on the initiative of Sophia Fry, who in 1886 called a meeting at her house of fi ...

, and was head of the order's Marylebone branch. An active philanthropist, Sandhurst ran her own home for sick children in the Marylebone Road. In January 1889, Lady Sandhurst was elected to the London County Council at the head of the poll. However, because she was a woman, one of the defeated candidates, the Conservative Beresford Hope, petitioned against her election, and both the Court of Queen's Bench and the Court of Appeal ruled against her. Sandhurst's seat was given to Beresford Hope in May 1889, and Sandhurst was fined £5 for every vote she had given during her tenure on the council. In recognition of her sympathy towards Ireland, in September 1889, Sandhurst was awarded the

Freedom of the City of Dublin The Freedom of the City of Dublin is awarded by Dublin City Council after approving a person nominated by the Lord Mayor. Eighty-two people have been honoured under the current process introduced in 1876. Most honourees have made a contribution ...

.D. Reynolds, ‘Mansfield , Margaret, Lady Sandhurst (bap. 1827, d. 1892)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 200
accessed 12 Jan 2017
/ref> That same year, she was also a council member of the

Women's Franchise League The Women's Franchise League was a British organisation created by the suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst together with her husband Richard and others in 1889, fourteen years before the creation of the Women's Social and Political Union in 1903. The Pr ...

, and supported in the formation of the Women's Trade Union Association. From 1889, also, she was a member of the executive committee of the Central National Society for Women's Suffrage. In 1890, she was elected president of the Society for Promoting the Return of Women as County Councillors, later (1893) renamed the

Women's Local Government Society The Women's Local Government Society was a British campaign group which aimed to get women into local government. Its initial focus was on county councils but its remit later covered other local government roles such as school boards. History The ...

Later life

Sandhurst wrote at least two pamphlets on her political interests, one of which, ''Conversations on Political Principles'', was published by the

. Lady Sandhurst died suddenly in London on 7 January 1892, at her home, 29 Park Road, Regent's Park, and was buried with her husband at Digswell, Hertfordshire. Her descendants include the later Lord Sandhursts and the present

Earl of Macclesfield Earl of Macclesfield is a title that has been created twice. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1679 in favour of the soldier and politician Charles Gerard, 1st Baron Gerard. He had already been created Baron Gerard, of Bran ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandhurst, Margaret 1828 births 1892 deaths 19th-century English people British women's rights activists British feminists English suffragists Women councillors in England Feminism and history Women of the Victorian era Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom British baronesses National Society for Women's Suffrage Members of London County Council