ENGAGED TO WED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22963, 15 February 1938, Page 11

ENGAGED TO WED

MISS ISHBEL MaoDONALD LATE PREMIER'S DAUGHTER LONDON, Feb. 13 It is announced that Miss Ishbel Mac Donald, eldest daughter of the late Mr. Ramsay Mac Donald. has become affianced to Mr Norman Ridgle.y, of Spee.n, where Miss Ishbel is the licensee of an inn. Mr. Ridgley is a house decorator.

At the end of 1935, after the defeat of her father at the* poll in Seaham, Miss Ishbel Mac Donald bought the picturesque Old Plow Inn at Speen, Buckinghamshire. She had seen it while at Chequers, the country retreat of Premiers, from which it is only three miles distant. It had long been her wish to run such a hostelry on really "social service lines." This wish had been

prompted by her experience of very uncomfortable and cheerless inns. She also desired to do something for the servants her father had employed at 10 Downing Street while he was Prime Minister. The Old Plow is a favourite resort of motorists. It was originally two tinv cottages built in 1621 which were converted into a single house in 1727. In January, 1936, Miss Mac Donald appeared at Aylesbury Police Court to obtain the transfer of the licence. Nextday, as "mine hostess," she was serving drinks to local customers and to crowds of motor its whom the spectacle of an ex-Premier's daughter handing out beer in a tap-room had attracted. from London. She had made her first appearance there the night before, when she had given beer all round to the habitues. By February, 1936, Miss Mac Donald had decided to extend the hostelry in view of the astonishing increase in business. It had only three small rooms for visitors and only one double bedroom, which had been occupied steadily since she took over. The facade was not interfered with, but her architect brother designed a dining room annexe. She was especially pleased that local custom had increased. Asked whether she was going to give up , politics, she said: "Not at all."