Nancy Astor First Female British MP

 


American-born Nancy Astor, elected as the First Female Member of the British House of Commons in the United Kingdom, took her seat in the Parliament on 28 November 1919.  

Divorcee Nancy Langhorne Shaw married hotel heir Waldorf Astor in 1906 and their grand country home at Cliveden, in Buckinghamshire, became an important political salon (meeting place) in the early 20th century.

Nancy Astor began her political career after her husband succeeded to the peerage (ancestral post) and entered the House of Lords. She was elected in her husband's former seat in 1919 and became the first woman to sit in the House of Commons. She held her seat until her retirement in 1945.

Although not a suffragette, Astor's political career set an important precedent. She frequently advocated for women's participation in public life. Her political views were often controversial. She was antisemitic and sometimes xenophobic. She initially regarded Nazism in a good light. Born on May 19, 1879 in Danville, Virginia, United States of America. Died aged 84 on May 2, 1964. 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hermann Wilhelm Göring

Image
  Hermann Wilhelm Göring  was  born on January 12, 1893, in  Rosenheim, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire. He was  a German politician, Nazi military leader, and convicted war criminal, known as one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. A decorated World War I fighter pilot ace, he was a recipient of the Pour le Mérite ("The Blue Max") and the last commander of Jagdgeschwader 1, a fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen. As an early member of the Nazi Party, Göring was among those wounded in Adolf Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, Göring was named minister without portfolio and oversaw the creation of the Gestapo, Hitler's secret organization. Göring's rise in power made him the second most powerful man in Germany. He held the position of commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe (air force) until the regime's final days and was entrusted with mobilizin...
Read more

Phoenix Settlement and Tolstoy Farm

Image
  Phoenix Settlement   Tolstoy Farm   Mohanchand Karamchand Gandhi founded two ashrams for community living in South Africa. The Phoenix Settlement was the first ashram-like settlement established near Durban, KwaZulu-Natal in 1904.   This was the home for Gandhi and his family from its founding until his return to India on 9 January 1915.  Tolstoy Farm, the second ashram in South Africa, was  initiated and organized  in Johannesburg in 1910 during his South African Movement.  It  was meant for training and preparing people for non-violent satyagraha and served  f rom 1910 to 1913  as the headquarters for campaigning satyagraha against discrimination against Indians in Transvaal, where it was located. Hermann Kallenbach, a Gandhian supporter, allowed Gandhi and seventy to eighty others to live there as long as their local movement was in effect.   Kallenbach  suggested the name for the community, which soon const...
Read more

BLOODY OR RED SUNDAY OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

Image
  By 1905, the aging Russian autocracy was in terminal decline. Strikes, unrest, and mutiny sprang up across the vast Russian landscape where, for centuries, people had been told that the Tsar was a saintly father figure; inviolable, all-powerful, and divinely appointed. Demonstrations led by Father Georgy Gapon in St. Petersburg on 22 January 1905 helped to shatter this illusion.  Fr. Gapon was a charismatic speaker and effective organizer who took an interest in the working  and lower classes  of the Russian cities.  Tsarist soldiers opened fire on protesters, killing 140 to 240 people and injuring 33 as per official figures. The crowd had been pro-Tsar, carrying pictures and banners of Tsar Nicholas II, and only wished to present a petition to him  calling for reforms such as limitations on state officials' power, improvements to working conditions and hours, and the introduction of a national . This Bloody Sunday or Red Sunday with a series of events sp...
Read more