Margaret Wintringham: ‘Our Institute MP’

2018 has been an important year for celebrating women’s suffrage and rights. In February we celebrated the centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918, which gave women over 30 with a property qualification the right to vote for the first time. Many of the earliest members of the WI including Lady Denman and Grace Hadow were involved in the suffrage movement and we are proud to recognise their contribution.

Today we mark another milestone as it is 100 years since the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act passed, enabling women to stand for Parliament for the first time. While the WI is non-party political, this anniversary is also special to the organisation.

Margaret Wintringham 1930

Margaret Wintringham was the second female MP to take her seat in the House of Commons and a very active WI member. Margaret was supported by the NFWI in her career and was known as ‘our Institute MP’ by other WI members.

Margaret’s role in Parliament was celebrated in Home & Country, the WI’s membership magazine, which reported:

‘The election of Mrs Wintringham to Parliament is a matter for rejoicing among Institute members, not only because she is a well-known Institute worker, but also because she is the first woman to represent a rural constituency’.

Margaret was elected MP for Louth, Lincolnshire in 1921, three years after the law changed to allow women to stand and two years after her close friend, Lady Nancy Astor, the first female MP, took her seat.  Margaret Wintringham and Nancy Astor worked closely together in Parliament and it is believed Nancy Astor was also a member of the WI, although this is unconfirmed.

The two politicians campaigned in Parliament to maintain the numbers of women police after the First World War, an issue that was also the subject of two WI resolutions passed in 1922 and 1924. With Margaret elected to the NFWI Executive Committee in 1922, it gave the WI a direct line of communication into the House of Commons.

Margaret Wintringham and Nancy Astor 1922

Throughout her three years in office, Margaret Wintringham continued to assist the NFWI with parliamentary matters. She spoke about her work at the NFWI’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on numerous occasions and invited members in attendance at the London AGM for a tour around the Houses of Parliament. While on this tour, Margaret told her fellow members that her many years in the WI was the best training she could have had for her work as an MP.

Margaret Wintringham was succeeded in the House of Commons by Arthur Heneage in 1924. She remained part of many social and political women’s organisations for the rest of her life including her role as President of the Women’s Liberal Federation. Margaret Wintringham died in 1955, aged 75. We are proud of the lasting legacy she has left for women in politics and the WI.