A Varied Career

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 54, 1 September 1934, Page 19

A Varied Career

The life story of a woman who was presented at Court in the early stage of her career, was sentenced to death by court-martial "for rebellion against tho British Government,, and then be- ( came.,the first woman member of the British Parliament though she never took .her seat,.is given in, a book published, recently, Estates an exchange. Sho was Countess Markievicz (Constance Gore-Booth),'who died in 1927. In the Irish rebellion of 1916, when she was 48, sho' took her. place in the trenches of the rebels, armed .with a pistol an.d amnmnition, and wearing a Sam Browne belt,: .' :

As a result of i her exploits, she was court-martialled and sentenced to death, with a recommendation to mercy ' f solely and noly on account of her sax." The sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life. ■■'"• ■■,:.■ >■;■ ■ .;■■ .'''-. , < . After being in prison, for a year she was released under an amnesty, and thenceforward for some six years was in. and out of gaol. in. England and Ireland for political offences. The book gives her own account of experiences in various gaols. • The old controversy about her tussles with Mr. Lloyd George is recalled in a .biographical sketch of her life, which precedes tho letters in the book. When ghe was interned-in Holloway by the British Government after her election as an M.P. in 1918 for one. of the Dublin constituencies, "she received a letter in the prison from. Mr.- Lloyd George, the Prime Minister,. exhorting her to be present in'the House of Commons on the opening day of the cony ing important session. It evidently was 6ent to all M.P.s indiscriminately. " An unfortunate official blunder, and one not without a flavour of grim irony. On^ another occasion slie encountered in prison the woman who, in tho war, had been convicted of an attempt to assassinate Mr. Lloyd George—Mrs> Wheeldon. Countess Markievicz managed, as they passed to greet her and say, "Oh, I know you, you're- in for trying to kill Lloyd George." "But I didn't,'? protested <Mrs. Wheeldon, as she was hurried away. When recounting the incident afterwards, ''with some lurid remarks on the politician concerned," the- Countess was asked.what she would do to Mr. Lloyd George if he was wounded and on her doorstep.. • • "Take:him in and look after Mm, of course," she replied—not, however, too pleased to have been made to admit the undramatic truth, remarks her biographer.

HUBBY/S TH&EE CUPS OF TEA. .■■.-■ : '• ..■.■■■■-.»'■

The plain kitchen tea baddy was quite uncommunicative as to why hubby was,a regular attendant at morning and afternoon tea over" weekends. Of course, it was Wardell's 2s lOd Blend that had him pouring two, and sometimes three, cups. For the sake of economy, too, his wife is a regular buyer of Wardell's famous 2s lOd tea— so richly full flavoured, satisfying, and tannin free. You owe it to- your discriminating taste to try Wardell's 2s lOd —every new user beconiesa regular, satisfied user.—Advt,