Sarah Melville, Lady Melville (1884 or 1885 – 19 October 1974) was a British political activist. Born Sarah Tugander, she met

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

politician

Bonar Law Andrew Bonar Law ( ; 16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1922 to May 1923. Law was born in the British colony of New Brunswick (now a ...

in 1907 and became his private secretary. She continued in post until 1916, by which time Bonar Law had served as leader of his party. Despite this, her personal politics were

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

, and she was active in the Fabian Society. In 1916, she married James Melville, and the two soon became founder members of the South Kensington Constituency Labour Party.Archie Potts, "Melville, James", ''Dictionary of Labour Biography'', vol.9, pp.214-215 Sarah campaigned for her husband in

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

at the

1929 UK general election The 1929 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 30 May 1929 and resulted in a hung parliament. It stands as the fourth of six instances under the secret ballot, and the first of three under universal suffrage, in which a party has ...

, and he won election. The following year, she was elected to the executive of the Fabian Society. When James died, early in 1931, local Labour Party activists asked her to be the new candidate, but she declined. She spent the remainder of her life in retirement, dying in 1974.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melville, Sarah 1880s births 1974 deaths Members of the Fabian Society

External links

Parliamentary Archives, Papers of Lady Sarah Melville (nee Tugander), secretary to Andrew Bonar Law