Nancy Astor, Cliveden Trailblazer

The wealthy and formidable ‘women’s champion’ who went her own way whether it was applauded or decried

- Natalie Livingston

TRYING to sum up the extraordinary life of Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, has never been an easy task, although some notable authors, and subsequently their readers, have enjoyably followed her path through high society and political power.

As Christopher Sykes, in his biography, Nancy: The Life of Lady Astor (1972): sets down, she was to become “among the five or six most famous women in the world... loved and hated, admired and deplored.”

Perhaps it was always going to take such a contrary person to finally walk into the House of Commons as the first woman to claim a place there. The Parliament (Qualification of Women Act) 1918 had given women over 21 the right to stand for election, though females still had to be 30 to vote. What often gets overlooked is that Cliveden’s Conservative lady of the house was not the first woman MP to be elected, but instead had the honour of being the first to actually take a seat on the benches.

The first woman elected was another full of passions, but for very different causes.