Margaret Wintringham
Encyclopedia
Margaret Wintringham née Longbottom, was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 politician. She was the second woman to take her seat in the British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

.

Early life

She was born in Keighley
Keighley
Keighley is a town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated northwest of Bradford and is at the confluence of the River Aire and the River Worth...

, West Riding of Yorkshire
West Riding of Yorkshire
The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of the three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county, County of York, West Riding , was based closely on the historic boundaries...

, and educated at Bolton Road School, Silsden
Silsden
Silsden is a town and civil parish situated in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the northern slope of the Aire Valley between Keighley and Skipton. It is about from the river. Along the lower edge of the town is the Leeds and Liverpool Canal...

 where here father was the head teacher, and then Keighley Girls' Grammar School before training as a teacher at Bedford Training College. She then worked as a teacher, becoming headmistress of a school in Grimsby
Grimsby
Grimsby is a seaport on the Humber Estuary in Lincolnshire, England. It has been the administrative centre of the unitary authority area of North East Lincolnshire since 1996...

, and in 1903 she married Thomas Wintringham
Thomas Wintringham (Liberal politician)
Thomas Wintringham was a British Liberal Party politician. He was elected as Member of Parliament for Louth in Lincolnshire at a by-election in June 1920, but died in office the following year, aged 53...

, a timber merchant.

They had no children, and Margaret Wintringham became a magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...

 and a member of the Grimsby Education Committee. She was involved in many political movements, including the National Union of Women Workers, the British Temperance Association, the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (NUSEC), the Women's Institute, the Townswomen's Guild
Townswomen's Guild
The Townswomen's Guild is a British women's organisation. There are approximately 34,000 members, 840 branches and 86 Federations throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.....

, and the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

.

Political career

When her husband was elected as Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Louth
Louth, Lincolnshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Louth was a county constituency in Lincolnshire which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1885 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election....

 in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

, she moved with him from Grimsby to Louth
Louth, Lincolnshire
Louth is a market town and civil parish within the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England.-Geography:Known as the "capital of the Lincolnshire Wolds", it is situated where the ancient trackway Barton Street crosses the River Lud, and has a total resident population of 15,930.The Greenwich...

 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
Louth by-election, 1921
The Louth by-election, 1921 was a by-election held on 22 September 1921 for the British House of Commons constituency of Louth in Lincolnshire....

, becoming the first ever female Liberal MP and the third woman elected to the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

. The first woman to be elected had been the abstentionist Constance Markievicz in 1918
United Kingdom general election, 1918
The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...

; the first to take her seat was the Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 Nancy Astor, elected in 1919.

In Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

, she campaigned for an equal franchise; the Representation of the People Act 1918
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 the United Kingdom. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act...

 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, for state scholarships for girls as well as boys, and women-only railway carriages.

At the 1924 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1924
- Seats summary :- References :* F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* - External links :* * *...

, she lost her seat in Parliament to the Conservative Arthur Heneage
Arthur Heneage
Lt. Col. Sir Arthur Pelham Heneage, D.S.O. was a British Conservative Party politician. He was elected as Member of Parliament for the Louth constituency in Lincolnshire at the 1924 general election, defeating the Liberal Margaret Wintringham, who had been the second woman to take her seat in...

. Although she stood again in Louth at the 1929 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1929
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...

 and in Aylesbury
Aylesbury (UK Parliament constituency)
Aylesbury is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The Conservative Party has held the seat since 1924, and held it at the 2010 general election with a 52.2% share of the vote.-Boundaries:...

 at the 1935 election
United Kingdom general election, 1935
The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...

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 Liberal Federation.
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