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Margaret Wintringham (née Longbottom; 4 August 1879 – 10 March 1955) was a British Liberal Party politician. She was the second woman, and the first British-born woman, to take her seat in the
At the 1924 general election, she lost her seat in Parliament to the Conservative Arthur Heneage. Although she stood again in Louth at the 1929 general election and in
House of Commons of the United Kingdom
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England.
The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 ...
.
Early life
Margaret Longbottom was born in the hamlet of Oldfield in the West Riding approximately four miles west ofKeighley
Keighley ( ) is a market town and a civil parish
in the City of Bradford Borough of West Yorkshire, England. It is the second largest settlement in the borough, after Bradford.
Keighley is north-west of Bradford city centre, north-west o ...
, West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...
, and educated at Bolton Road School, Silsden where her father was the head teacher, and then Keighley Girls' Grammar School. After training at Bedford Training College, she worked as a teacher, eventually becoming headmistress of a school in Grimsby
Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of L ...
. In 1903 she married Thomas Wintringham, a timber merchant.
They had no children, and Margaret Wintringham became a magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...
and a member of the Grimsby Education Committee. She was involved in many political movements, including the National Union of Women Workers
The National Council of Women exists to co-ordinate the voluntary efforts of women across Great Britain. Founded as the National Union of Women Workers, it said that it would "promote sympathy of thought and purpose among the women of Great Brita ...
, the British Temperance Association, the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship
The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the ''suffragists'' (not to be confused with the suffragettes) was an organisation founded in 1897 of women's suffrage societies around the United Kingdom. In 1919 it was re ...
(NUSEC), the Women's Institute, the Electrical Association for Women, the Townswomen's Guild
Members representing their Federation at the 2009 AGM in Birmingham
The Townswomen's Guild (TG) is a British women's organisation. There are approximately 30,000 members, 706 branches and 77 Federations throughout England, Scotland, Wales an ...
and the Liberal Party.
Political career
When her husband was elected asMember of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for Louth in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-we ...
, she moved with him from Grimsby to Louth and remained politically active. When Thomas Wintringham died in 1921, she was selected as the Liberal candidate to replace him, and on 22 September she won the 1921 Louth by-election, becoming the first ever female Liberal MP and the third woman elected to the House of Commons
The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...
. The first woman to be elected had been the abstentionist Constance Markievicz
Constance Georgine Markievicz ( pl, Markiewicz ; ' Gore-Booth; 4 February 1868 – 15 July 1927), also known as Countess Markievicz and Madame Markievicz, was an Irish politician, revolutionary, nationalist, suffragist, socialist, and the fir ...
in 1918
This year is noted for the end of the First World War, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, as well as for the Spanish flu pandemic that killed 50–100 million people worldwide.
Events
Below, the events ...
; the first to take her seat was the Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
Nancy Astor, elected in 1919. Wintringham was elected again in the 1922
Events
January
* January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes.
* January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...
and 1923 general elections.
In Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: representing the electorate, making laws, and overseeing the government via hearings and inquiries. Th ...
, she campaigned for an equal franchise; the Representation of the People Act 1918
The Representation of the People Act 1918 was an Act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in Great Britain and Ireland. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act. The Act extended the franchise in parliamentary elections, al ...
had extended the vote to all men over the age of 21, but only to some women over the age of 30.
She also campaigned for equal pay for women
Equal pay for equal work is the concept of labour rights that individuals in the same workplace be given equal pay. It is most commonly used in the context of sexual discrimination, in relation to the gender pay gap. Equal pay relates to the ful ...
, for state scholarships for girls as well as boys, and women-only railway carriages.
At the 1924 general election, she lost her seat in Parliament to the Conservative Arthur Heneage. Although she stood again in Louth at the 1929 general election and in Aylesbury
Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamshire, midway between High Wy ...
at the 1935 election she did not return to the House of Commons.
She was the president of the Louth Women's Liberal Association and from 1925 to 1926 she was president of the Women's National Liberal Federation. In 1927 she was one of two women elected to the national executive of the National Liberal Federation. She was a Vice President of the Electrical Association for Women.
See also
* 1921 Louth by-electionReferences
Sources
* * *External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wintringham, Margaret 1879 births 1955 deaths People from Keighley Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies English justices of the peace UK MPs 1918–1922 UK MPs 1922–1923 UK MPs 1923–1924 Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies National Council of Women of Great Britain members 20th-century English women politicians 20th-century English politicians Spouses of British politicians