MRS WINTERINGHAM, M.P.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3101, 9 January 1922, Page 8

MRS WINTERINGHAM, M.P.

Mrs Wintringham,'as member of Parliament for the Louth division of, Lincolnshire, is a woman of the moment, and something more. She is likely to occupy a niche in Parliamentary history for a long period of time. For it is an achievement to be even the second woman returned to the House of Commons. More than that she will be the first woman of British birth and upbringing to sit in that great and renowned House.

Mrs Wintringham was known during the contest at Louth as the silent candidate. That was not because she has not the gift of speech making. She is, on the contrary, an experienced and fluent public speaker. But having regard to her recent bereavement—the sudden death of her husband. in the smoking room of the House of Commons—she naturally thought it more fitting not to take a prominent part in the election. She was, however’, to be seen, in deep mourning, on the platform at Liberal meetings. She is an attractive personality—tall, well built, ruddy-com-plexioned, with large brown eyes and a smije that is most charming for its good humour and kindness. She is a woman that would feel at case in the House of Commons, and stand well the wear and tear of its rather arduous service.

A Yorkshire woman, she was educated at the Girls’ Grammar School, Keighley, and before her marriage at Hkley Congregational church in 1903, she was head mistress in a school .at Grimsby. If there were a pass examination for membership of the House of Commons in knowledge and practical experience of social ' and political work, there could hardly be anything better than something on the lines of Mrs Wintringham’s remarkably varied record.

At Grimsby, where she lived after her marriage, she took an active part in movements social, religious, educational and political. When war broke out she was made a member of the Grimsby committee for the lodging and feeding of Belgian refugees for administering the Prince of Wales 1 und in the relief of industrial distress. _ When she went with her husband to live at Louth she was V.A.D. at the Louth Auxiliary Hospital and chairwoman of the Women’s War Agricultural Committee at Louth for placing women and girls on the land in place of tile young farmers and agricultural labourers called to the colours, and was a member of the County Agricultural Committee for conserving and increasing the food supplies of the country during the war. After her husband’s election as M.P. for Louth she became president of the local Women’s Liberal Association and honorai# secretary of the Lindsey Federation of Women’s Institutes. A Justice of the peace, she is a member of the committee for the provision, of housing in the, Louth rural distict and a member of the local Industries Development Committee under the Lincolnshire County Council. She organised a camp for 150 people rendered homeless by the Louth flood last year.

There are not many men in the House of Commons with so fine a record of service outside. Mrs Wintringham has had to do a considerable amount of speech making in the discharge of these multifarious duties during the past 20 year's. On tlio platform she has a good manner, and is always well informed on the subject with which she deals. The debating jpower of the House of Commons will be enlarged and diversified by her. She has no children, and this absence of home ties affords her all the necessary leisure to devote herself to the business of the House.