Constituency : Louth 1921-24
Margaret took over from her husband Thomas at Louth and became the first female Liberal MP. She excused herself from campaigning due to mourning but her supporters got her through to defeat the Tory despite Labour's intervention. She also drew some support from the Tories' Nancy Astor.
Margaret was born in Keighley. She was educated at Bolton Road School, Silsden where her father was head teacher and then Bedford Training College. She became a teacher then headmistress of a school in Grimsby. She was a former member of the NUWSS and a number of other women's pressure groups. She was also a temperance campaigner. Before her husband's election she had organised flood relief in the area.
Margaret was a radical on the left of the party. She campaigned for equal suffrage. equal pay, state scholarships for girls , retention of female police and women-only railway carriages. She tried to co-ordinate the other female MPs across party lines. She was a friend of Nancy Astor saying of her, " I felt she went about her task like a high stepping pony, while I stumbled along like a cart horse, but we both had our uses and worked in complete harmony together". Margaret held her seat in 1922 and 1923 in straight fights with the Tories. She voted with Labour over the Campbell case. She lost fairly narrowly in 1924 and would easily have re-taken it in 1929 but for Labour's intervention.
Margaret was president of the Women's National Liberal Federation from 1925 to 1926 and elected to the executive of the Liberal Federation in 1927. She served on Lindsey County Council in the thirties.
In 1935, Margaret stood in Aylesbury and substantially increased the Liberal vote but not by enough to seriously challenge the Tory.
She died in 1955 aged 75.
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