The Duchess of Atholl | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of Parliament forKinross and West Perthshire | |
| In office 6 December 1923 – 28 November 1938 | |
| Preceded by | James Gardiner |
| Succeeded by | William McNair Snadden |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Katharine Marjory Ramsay 6 November 1874 |
| Died | 21 October 1960(1960-10-21) (aged 85) Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Political party | Scottish Unionist Party |
| Spouse | John Stewart-Murray, 8th Duke of Atholl |
| Parent | Sir James Henry Ramsay, 10th Baronet |
| Alma mater | Royal College of Music |
Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl,DBE (néeRamsay; 6 November 1874 – 21 October 1960), known as theMarchioness of Tullibardine from 1899 to 1917, was aScottish noblewoman andScottish Unionist Party politician. She was the first woman to be elected as aMember of Parliament (MP) in Scotland, despite having campaigned againstwomen's suffrage before it was granted in1918. She was the first woman to serve in aBritish Conservative government. She later found herself at odds with her party and resigned theWhip in 1935 over theIndia Bill. She became stronglyanti-fascist in the 1930s and criticisedauthoritarian regimes inSoviet Russia,Italy andSpain as well asNazi Germany. She was given the nickname 'Red Duchess' for these views.[1]
Katharine Marjory Ramsay was born inEdinburgh on 6 November 1874, the daughter ofSir James Henry Ramsay, 10th Baronet and Charlotte Fanning Ramsay (née Stewart). She was educated atWimbledon High School and theRoyal College of Music. During her school years she was known as Kitty Ramsay. On 20 July 1899, she marriedJohn Stewart-Murray, Marquess of Tullibardine, who succeeded hisfather as 8thDuke of Atholl in 1917, whereupon she became formally styledDuchess of Atholl.
Known as "Kitty", Stewart-Murray was active inScottish social service andlocal government and in 1912 served on the hugely influential "Highlands and Islands Medical Service Committee" (authors of theDewar Report) that has been widely credited with creating the forerunner of theNational Health Service. She was the chairman of the Consultative Council on Highlands and Islands[2]
As the Marchioness of Tullibardine she was an opponent offemale suffrage, with Leah Leneman describing her as 'a key speaker at the most important Scottish anti-suffrage demonstration', which took place in 1912. In 1913 she became vice-president of the branch of theAnti-Suffrage League based in Dundee.[3]
Despite this opposition to women gaining the right to vote in parliamentary elections, she went on to be theScottish UnionistMember of Parliament (MP) forKinross and West Perthshire from 1923 to 1938, and served asParliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education from 1924 to 1929, the first woman other than amistress of the robes to serve in a British Conservative government. She was the first woman elected to represent a Scottish seat atWestminster.[4]
The historian William Knox has argued that, like other early female MPs in the UK, "she literally inherited" her seat from her husband, but Kenneth Baxter disputes this, noting that her husband had stood down from the formerWest Perthshire seat in 1917 when he succeeded to the dukedom and that it had been won by aLiberal candidate in 1918 and 1922.[5][6] Moreover, Baxter claims her victory in 1923 was not seen as "a foregone conclusion".[6] The fact that, prior to 1918, Atholl had been opposed to women's suffrage led to her being criticised in parliament by her Conservative colleagueNancy Astor.[7][8]
Baxter also suggests that she placed her political allegiance ahead of any concept of gender unity, noting her campaigning for the male Unionist candidate inEdinburgh South at the1922 general election against the LiberalCatherine Buchanan Alderton, contrasting this with Labour and Liberal women refusing to campaign against Lady Astor in Plymouth.[7]
She resigned the Conservative Whip first in 1935 over theIndia Bill and the "national-socialist tendency" of the government's domestic policy. Resuming the Whip, she resigned it again in 1938 in opposition toNeville Chamberlain's policy ofappeasement ofAdolf Hitler and to the Anglo-Italian agreement. According to her biography,A Working Partnership she was then deselected by her local party. She tookStewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds on 28 November 1938. She stood unsuccessfully in the subsequentby-election as anIndependent candidate.[9]
She argued that she actively opposed totalitarian regimes and practices. In 1931, she publishedThe Conscription of a People—a protest against the abuse ofhuman rights in theSoviet Union. After reading the German edition ofMein Kampf she also condemnedNazi Germany.[10] In 1936, she was involved in a long-running battle in the pages of various newspapers withLady Houston after the latter had become notorious for her outspoken support ofBenito Mussolini. Stewart-Murray had taken issue with Houston calling in the pages of theSaturday Review forEdward VIII to become a dictator in imitation ofEuropean interwar dictatorships.[11]
In February 1937 three leading British women made a tour of Romania, Czechoslavakia and Yugoslavia. They wereDorothy Layton,Eleanor Rathbone and the Duchess of Atholl. They observed the conditions and they were received by DeputyFrantiška Zeminová in Prague. Zeminová used the occasion to laud the support of Britain.[12] Atholl recalls that it was at the prompting ofEllen Wilkinson that in April 1937 she, Rathbone, and Wilkinson went to Spain to observe the effects of theSpanish Civil War.[13] InValencia,Barcelona andMadrid she saw the impact ofLuftwaffe bombing on behalf of theNationalists, visited prisoners of war held by theRepublicans and considered the impact of the conflict on women and children, in particular. Her bookSearchlight on Spain resulted from the involvement, and her support for theRepublican side in the conflict led to her being nicknamed by some theRed Duchess.[1] She became active in theNational Joint Committee for Spanish Relief, a cross-party group coordinating aid to Spain. She later served as the group's chairwoman. She was instrumental in persuading the British government to accept child refugees fleeing the combat, 4,000 of which arrived on the SSHabana which sailed fromBilbao toSouthampton in May 1937.[14]
Her role in the Spanish Civil War, however, was years later criticized byGeorge Orwell, who saw the Duchess as the "pet of theDaily Worker", and someone who "lent the considerable weight of her authority to every lie theCommunists happened to be uttering at the moment. Now she is fighting against the monster that she helped create. I am sure that neither she nor her Communist ex-friends see any moral in this."[15]
Shortly before or even during 1938, she travelled toRomania where she visited "Satu Mare Romanian Women Association" in the city ofSatu Mare, aiming to support the Romanian cause to preserve the state borders established in 1918, and to keepHungary from regaining the territory that it lost in theTreaty of Trianon.[16]
She campaigned against the Soviet control ofPoland,Czechoslovakia and Hungary as the chairman of the League for European Freedom in Britain from 1945. In 1958, she published a description of her life with her husband entitledWorking Partnership.
She was also a vice-president of theGirls' Public Day School Trust from 1924 to 1960. She was also a keen composer, setting music to accompany the poetry ofRobert Louis Stevenson. In 1927 she opened the new wing atClifton High School, Bristol with the head, Ms Phillips and the architectSir George Oatley
She was closely involved in her husband's regimentThe Scottish Horse and composed the melody "The Scottish Horse" to be played onbagpipes.
She was appointedDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the1918 Birthday Honours.
As Dowager Duchess of Atholl she took over the appointment ofHonorary Colonel ofThe Regiment of Scottish Horse from 1942,[17] until she relinquished it in 1952.[18]
Katharine, Duchess of Atholl, died inEdinburgh, aged 85, in 1960.[19]
Records relating to Atholl can be found at:
Source:"Murray, Katharine Marjory Stewart (1874–1960) née Ramsay, Duchess of Atholl, Conservative MP GB/NNAF/P151487".National Register of Archives.The National Archives. Retrieved5 July 2007.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forKinross & West Perthshire 1923 –1938 | Succeeded by |
| Military offices | ||
| Preceded by | Honorary Colonel of the Scottish Horse May 1942–May 1952 | Succeeded by |