Emma Margaret Asquith, Countess of Oxford and Asquith (' Tennant; 2 February 1864 – 28 July 1945), known as Margot Asquith, was a British socialite, author. She was married to
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom f ...
,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern ...
, from 1894 until his death in 1928.
Early life
Emma Margaret Tennant was born in
Peeblesshire, of Scottish and English descent, the sixth daughter and eleventh child of
Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet
Sir Charles Clow Tennant, 1st Baronet JP DL (4 November 1823 – 4 June 1906) was a Scottish businessman, industrialist and Liberal politician.
Early life
Tennant was the son of John Tennant (1796–1878) and Robina (née Arrol) Tennant. His ...
, an industrialist and politician, and Emma Winsloe. Known always as Margot, Tennant was brought up at ''
The Glen'', the family's
country estate
An estate is a large parcel of land under single ownership, which would historically generate income for its owner.
British context
In the UK, historically an estate comprises the houses, outbuildings, supporting farmland, and woods that s ...
; Margot and her sister Laura grew up wild and uninhibited. Margot was a "venturesome child", for example roaming the
moors
The term Moor, derived from the ancient Mauri, is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a distinct or ...
, climbing to the top of the roof by moonlight, riding her horse up the front steps of the
estate house
An estate is a large parcel of land under single ownership, which would historically generate income for its owner.
British context
In the UK, historically an estate comprises the houses, outbuildings, supporting farmland, and woods that s ...
.
Riding and golf were her lifelong passions.
The two girls were inseparable,
entering society together in London in 1881. She and Laura became the central female figures of an
aristocratic
Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'.
At the time of the word' ...
group of intellectuals called "
The Souls
The Souls was a small loosely-knit but distinctive elite social and intellectual group in the United Kingdom from 1885 to the turn of the century. Many of the most distinguished British politicians and intellectuals of the time were members. Th ...
" ("You are always talking about your souls," complained
Lord Charles Beresford, thereby providing them with a suitable label). Laura married
Alfred Lyttelton
Alfred Lyttelton KC (7 February 1857 – 5 July 1913) was a British politician and sportsman from the Lyttelton family who excelled at both football and cricket. During his time at university he participated in Varsity Matches in five sports ...
in 1885 and died in 1888, and Margot's life was strongly impacted by these events.
Mrs Asquith
![Margot Asquith](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Margot_Asquith.jpg)
On 10 May 1894, Margot married
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom f ...
and became a "spur to his ambition". She brought him into the glittering social world, which he had in no way experienced with his first wife. However, Margot had known her slightly and she always spoke of her warmly. She also became an unenthusiastic stepmother to five children who were bemused by this creature, so different from their quiet mother. "She flashed into our lives like some dazzling
bird of paradise, filling us with amazement, amusement, excitement, sometimes with a vague uneasiness as to what she might do next," wrote
Violet Asquith.
Margot bore five children of her own, but only two of them survived infancy.
Elizabeth Asquith, born in 1897, married Prince
Antoine Bibesco
Prince Antoine Bibesco ( ro, Prințul Anton Bibescu; July 19, 1878 – September 2, 1951) was a Romanian aristocrat, lawyer, diplomat, and writer.
Biography
His father was Prince Alexandre Bibesco, the last surviving son of the ''hospodar'' ...
of
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
in 1919 and became a writer of some note.
Anthony Asquith
Anthony William Landon Asquith (; 9 November 1902 – 20 February 1968) was an English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on ''The Winslow Boy'' (1948) and '' The Browning Version'' (1951), among oth ...
, born in 1902 became a leading English film director. In 1908, when Asquith became prime minister, Violet was the only child of his first wife still at home, and the two shared a deep interest in politics. In contrast, relations between stepmother and stepdaughter were frequently strained, prompting H. H. Asquith to write lamentingly of how the two were 'on terms of chronic misunderstanding.'
A huge house in
Cavendish Square
Cavendish Square is a public garden square in Marylebone in the West End of London. It has a double-helix underground commercial car park. Its northern road forms ends of four streets: of Wigmore Street that runs to Portman Square in the much la ...
in London with a staff of 14 servants was the Asquith home until they moved to the prime minister's residence at
10 Downing Street in 1908. The residence of most importance in the life of the Asquiths was
The Wharf in
Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, built in 1912. This became their weekend home away from home. It is here that literary, artistic and political luminaries would gather.
She was a staunch opponent of
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
, once saying in a letter that 'women have no reason, very little humour, hardly any sense of honour...and no sense of proportion'.
On holiday in 1909 in
Clovelly Court
Clovelly Court is a privately owned country house in Clovelly, Devon. The house and adjacent stable block are Grade II listed buildings. The gardens and parts of the estate are open to the public.
History
The manor of Clovelly was for over 600 y ...
, Devon the Asquiths were followed by suffragettes
Elsie Howey
Rose Elsie Neville Howey (1 December 1884 – 13 March 1963), known as Elsie Howey, was an English suffragette. She was a militant activist with the Women's Social and Political Union and was jailed at least six times between 1908 and 1912.
Earl ...
,
Jessie Kenney
Jessica "Jessie" Kenney (1887 – 1985) was an English suffragette who was jailed for assaulting the Prime Minister and Home Secretary in a protest to gain suffrage for women in the UK. Details of a bombing campaign to support their cause were ...
and
Vera Wentworth, whom Margot recognised again at church and they also hid in her garden, covering plants with the colours of the movement purple, white and green.
She attended the debate on the aborted
Conciliation Bill with other politicians' wives, and in 1911 she 'seemed highly amused at the earnestness' of women's suffrage lobbyists, whilst near to
Constance Lytton
Lady Constance Georgina Bulwer-Lytton (12 February 1869 – 2 May 1923), usually known as Constance Lytton, was an influential British suffragette activist, writer, speaker and campaigner for prison reform, votes for women, and birth control. Sh ...
and
Annie Kenney
Ann "Annie" Kenney (13 September 1879 – 9 July 1953) was an English working-class suffragette and socialist feminist who became a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union. She co-founded its first branch in London with Minnie ...
, who remembered her as unpleasant and sarcastic.
In 2012 an article in
''Votes for Women'' told of Asquith's 'stealth' journey when travelling with her husband as Prime Minister via Wolverhampton and Holyhead ferry to Dublin, when their ferry was still met by a yacht of
Irish Women's Franchise League demanding the female vote be included in the
Irish Home Rule Bill
The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the e ...
.
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
Margot Asquith's outspokenness led to a public outcry. For example, she visited a German
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...
camp, and she accused her
shell-shocked
Shell shock is a term coined in World War I by the British psychologist Charles Samuel Myers to describe the type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) many soldiers were afflicted with during the war (before PTSD was termed). It is a react ...
stepson
Herbert
Herbert may refer to:
People Individuals
* Herbert (musician), a pseudonym of Matthew Herbert
Name
* Herbert (given name)
* Herbert (surname)
Places Antarctica
* Herbert Mountains, Coats Land
* Herbert Sound, Graham Land
Australia
* Herbert ...
of being drunk. The negative public and media response may well have contributed to the political downfall of her husband. In 1918 she was publicly attacked in court by
Noel Pemberton Billing
Noel Pemberton Billing (31 January 1881 – 11 November 1948), sometimes known as Noel Pemberton-Billing, was a British aviator, inventor, publisher and Member of Parliament for Hertford. He founded the firm that became Supermarine and promoted ...
, a right-wing MP, who was convinced that the nation's war effort was being undermined by homosexuality in high society. He hinted that she was associated with the conspirators. Billing also published a poem written by
Lord Alfred Douglas which referred to "merry Margot, bound With Lesbian fillets".
After the war
![Margaret Emma Alice ('Margot') Asquith (née Tennant), Countess of Oxford and Asquith](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Margaret_Emma_Alice_%28%27Margot%27%29_Asquith_%28n%C3%A9e_Tennant%29%2C_Countess_of_Oxford_and_Asquith.jpg)
In 1920 the mansion in Cavendish Square was sold and the Asquiths moved to 44
Bedford Square
Bedford Square is a garden square in the Bloomsbury district of the Borough of Camden in London, England.
History
Built between 1775 and 1783 as an upper middle class residential area, the square has had many distinguished residents, inclu ...
, a beautiful house formerly occupied by
salonière Ottoline Morrell
Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell (16 June 1873 – 21 April 1938) was an English aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befriended writers including Aldous Huxley, Siegfr ...
. She became Countess of Oxford and Asquith in 1925 when her husband was granted a peerage.
In the late 1920s, Margot and her husband were seriously in debt: she admitted to owing £15,000 (over £800,000 at 2015 prices) and having pawned her pearls for £2,000 despite, she claimed, having made £18,000 from books and £10,000 from various writings. A whip-round of Liberal sympathisers had to be organised to provide for them.
[Koss 1985, pp282-3]
Her writing style was not always critically accepted—the most famous review of Margot's work came from New York wit
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet, writer, critic, and satirist based in New York; she was known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles.
From a conflicted and unhap ...
, who wrote, "The affair between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith will live as one of the prettiest love stories in all literature". In 1921 humorist
Barry Pain
Barry Eric Odell Pain (28 September 18645 May 1928) was an English journalist, poet, humorist and writer.
Biography
Born in Cambridge, Barry Pain was educated at Sedbergh School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He became a prominent contri ...
published a book called ''Marge Askinforit'', described on the cover as "a rollicking skit on the Margot Asquith memoirs". Wrote Pain in his author's note, "There was a quality in that autobiography which seemed to demand parody." Margot was known for her outspokenness and acerbic wit. A possibly
apocryphal but typical story has her meeting the American film actress
Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow (born Harlean Harlow Carpenter; March 3, 1911 – June 7, 1937) was an American actress. Known for her portrayal of "bad girl" characters, she was the leading sex symbol of the early 1930s and one of the defining figures of the ...
and correcting Harlow's mispronunciation of her first name – "No, no; the 't' is silent, as in 'Harlow'." The story was recorded by the Liberal MP
Robert Bernays
Robert Hamilton Bernays (6 May 1902 – 23 January 1945) was a Liberal Party and later Liberal National politician in the United Kingdom who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1931 to 1945.
Early life
Bernays was the third son and four ...
in his diary entry for 26 June 1934, but Bernays does not claim to have witnessed the alleged encounter himself.
Her husband left her only £300 (just over £16,000 at 2015 prices) on his death in 1928 as he had to use his life insurance to provide for his children. She was left in near penury and her financial position caused her constant concern. Thereafter she made money by advising on “matters of taste” in interior design and advertising Wix cigarettes, often issued "
IOU"s which she hoped would never be cashed and, beginning before her husband's death, was given regular gifts of money by
Lord Beaverbrook.
After her husband's death Margot slowly moved down the residential rungs to rooms at the
Savoy Hotel
The Savoy Hotel is a luxury hotel located in the Strand in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Built by the impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions, it opened on 6 August ...
. Her final home was in
Thurloe Place,
Kensington. She told
Harold Nicolson that
Neville Chamberlain was "the greatest Englishman that ever lived" for signing the
Munich Agreement
The Munich Agreement ( cs, Mnichovská dohoda; sk, Mníchovská dohoda; german: Münchner Abkommen) was an agreement concluded at Munich on 30 September 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. It provided "cession to Germany ...
.
[Nigel Nicolson (ed.), ''Harold Nicolson. Diaries and Letters 1930–1939'' (London: Collins, 1966), p. 371.]
Her final overwhelming sadness was the separation from her daughter, Elizabeth, who had been trapped in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
since 1940. Margot schemed for her rescue, but Elizabeth died of
pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...
in April 1945; heartbroken, she outlived her daughter by three months. Margot's diaries covering 1914–16 were published by
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
in June 2014 as ''Margot Asquith's Great War Diaries''.
Publications
*''An Autobiography'', 1920
*''My Impressions of America'', 1922
*''Places & Persons'', 1925
*''Lay Sermons'', 1927
*''Octavia'', 1928
*''More Memories'', 1933
*''More or Less about Myself'', 1934
*"Off the Record", 1943
Arms
References
Further reading
* Ellenberger, Nancy W. ''Balfour's World: Aristocracy and Political Culture at the Fin de Siècle'' (2015)
excerpt*
*
External links
*
*
* Full text of
Margot Asquith, An Autobiography' from
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...
*
Bodleian Library catalogue of Margot Asquith's private papers*
ttps://archives.parliament.uk/collections/getrecord/GB61_ASQ Parliamentary Archives, Asquith Papers*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asquith, Margot
1864 births
1945 deaths
Margot Margot (; ) is a feminine French given name, a variant of Marguerite. It is also occasionally a surname. Persons named Margot include the following:
People with the given name Margot
* Margot Asquith, countess of Oxford and Asquith
* Marguerite ...
Scottish autobiographers
British debutantes
Oxford and Asquith
British diarists
Daughters of baronets
People from the Scottish Borders
Scottish people of English descent
Scottish socialites
Spouses of prime ministers of the United Kingdom
Women diarists
20th-century Scottish writers
20th-century British women writers
Tennant family
Anti-suffragists
Wives of knights