Megan Lloyd George
Lady Megan Lloyd George CH (22 April 1902 – 14 May 1966) was a British politician, who became the first female Member of Parliament (MP) for a Welsh constituency. She also served as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party, before later becoming a Labour MP. In 2016, she was named as one of "the 50 greatest Welsh men and women of all time".[1]
Background
She was the youngest child of David Lloyd George and his wife, Margaret, being born in 1902 in Criccieth, Caernarfonshire (present-day Gwynedd). Her name at birth was registered as "Megan Arvon George", but she was known as "Megan Lloyd George". After her father was raised to the peerage as Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, she was accorded the style of Lady Megan Lloyd George.[2]
Childhood
Lady Megan was imaginative and "sprite-like" when young, and was described in the local press as a "daring sceptic", disliking her father's stories of Daniel in the lions' den.[3][4] Around the age of five, she would travel with her father to their house in Brighton, and delight his guests by bringing them an early morning cup of tea while they were still in bed.[4]
She began public engagements at an early age, and on 16 November 1910, at the age of eight, performed the opening ceremony of the extension of the Claremont Central Mission in Pentonville.[5]
Liberal Party
Like her brother, Gwilym, she followed her father into politics. She became the first female MP in Wales when she won Anglesey for the Liberals in 1929.
Along with her father, she refused to support Ramsay MacDonald's National Government in 1931 and successfully held Anglesey as an opposition Liberal at the 1931 General Election. She held the seat again as a Liberal from 1935 to 1951. During World War II, she was a member of Radical Action, which called for a more radical political stance and for the party to withdraw from the war-time electoral truce.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s she campaigned for a Welsh Parliament and the creation of a Secretary of State for Wales. Prominent among the radicals in the Liberal Party, she opposed what she saw as the party's drift away from her father's brand of liberalism. In 1949 Lady Megan was elected Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in a bid to create unity, but after losing her seat she stood down in 1952.
Labour Party
In 1955 Lady Megan defected to the Labour Party. In 1957 she stood against the Liberals as the Labour Party candidate at a by-election in Carmarthen and won the seat, which she held until her death from breast cancer at Pwllheli in 1966, aged 64.
She was Lord Noel-Baker's romantic partner from 1936 until Lady Noel-Baker's death in 1956.[6]
Lady Megan received posthumous appointment as a Companion of Honour in the Dissolution Honours List published five days after her death.[7]
Further reading
- Jones, J. Graham, entry in Dictionary of Liberal Biography Brack et al. (eds.) Politico's Publishing, 1998
- Jones, J. Graham, 'A breach in the family: the defection from the Liberal Party of Megan and Gwilym Lloyd George'
- Jones, Mervyn. A Radical Life: The Biography of Megan Lloyd George, 1902-66. London: Hutchinson, 1991. ISBN 0-09-174829-1
- Price, Emyr Megan Lloyd George; Gwynedd Archives Service, 1983
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Megan Lloyd George
- "Archival material relating to Megan Lloyd George". UK National Archives.
References
- ↑ "The 50 Greatest Welsh Men and Women of All Time". Wales Online.
- ↑ Mosley, Charles (ed.) (2003). Burke's Peerage & Baronetage, 107th edn. London: Burke's Peerage & Gentry Ltd. p. 2375 (LLOYD-GEORGE OF DWYFOR, E). ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
- ↑ "Megan Lloyd George - A "Daring Sceptic" at five years of age!". Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald and North and South Wales Independent. 1910-10-07. Retrieved 2016-08-24 – via Welsh Newspapers Online.
- 1 2 "Lloyd George and Megan - Welsh Household in Downing-Street". Carnarvon and Denbigh Herald and North and South Wales Independent. 1909-05-07. Retrieved 2016-08-24 – via Welsh Newspapers Online.
- ↑ "Miss Megan Lloyd George". Evening Express. 1910-08-25. Retrieved 2016-08-24 – via Welsh Newspapers Online.
- ↑ David Howell, "Baker, Philip John Noel-, Baron Noel-Baker (1889–1982)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2012; accessed 30 July 2012
- ↑ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 43981. p. 5786. 19 May 1966. Retrieved 11 Sep 2015.
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Sir Robert Thomas |
Member of Parliament for Anglesey 1929 – 1951 |
Succeeded by Cledwyn Hughes |
| Preceded by Sir Rhys Hopkin Morris |
Member of Parliament for Carmarthen 1957 – 1966 |
Succeeded by Gwynfor Evans |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by post vacant Previous incumbent: Percy Harris |
Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party 1949 – 1951 |
Succeeded by post vacant Next incumbent: Donald Wade |