Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor, CH,
(May 19, 1879 – May 2,
1964) was the first woman to serve as a Member of
Parliament (MP) in the British House of Commons. She was the wife of
Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor.
Early life
Nancy Astor was born Nancy Witcher Langhorne on May 19, 1879, in Danville, Virginia, in the United States. The former business
of her father, Chiswell Dabney Langhorne, had depended at least in part upon slave labour and
had been badly damaged by the effects of the Civil War. Because of this, Nancy
Langhorne's early years were spent in near-poverty conditions, but shortly after her birth her father regained the family wealth,
first as an auctioneer and later through his involvement with the railroad.
Nancy Langhorne had four sisters and three brothers. All of the sisters were known for their beauty; her sister Irene later
married the artist Charles Dana Gibson and became a model for the Gibson girl. Nancy and Irene both went to a finishing school in
New York City. In New York, Nancy met and married her first husband, Robert Gould Shaw, a
relative of Robert Gould Shaw of Fort Wagner fame, on 27
October, 1897, when she was 18.
This first marriage was a disaster. Shaw's friends accused Nancy of becoming puritanical and rigid after she married; Nancy's
friends contended that Shaw was an alcoholic adulterer. The couple was married for four years
and had one son, Bobbie. Nancy left Shaw numerous times during their brief
marriage, the first time during their honeymoon. In 1903,
Nancy's mother died and Nancy moved back to Mirador, her father's home in Virginia. She tried to run the household for him but
was unsuccessful. She left there and took a tour of England, and fell in love with the country
while she was there. Because she was so happy there, her father suggested that Nancy move to England. Nancy was reluctant to go,
so he suggested that the move had been her mother’s wish and that it would also be good for Nancy's younger sister, Phyllis, to
accompany her. Nancy and Phyllis finally moved to England in 1904.
England
The earlier trip to England had launched Nancy's reputation there as an interesting and witty American. Her tendency to be
witty and saucy in conversation, yet religiously devout and almost prudish in behaviour, confused many of the English men but
pleased some of the older socialites. They liked conversing with the lively and exciting American who at the same time largely
conformed to decency and restraint. Nancy also began at this time to show her skill at winning over critics. She was once asked
by an English woman, "Have you come to get our husbands?" Her unexpected response, "If you knew the trouble I had getting rid of
mine..." charmed her listeners and displayed the wit that would later become so famous.[citation needed]
Despite her protestations, however, she did indeed marry an English man. Her second husband, Waldorf Astor, was born in the
United States but his father had moved the family to England
when Waldorf was twelve and raised his children as English aristocrats. The pair was well matched from the start. Not only were
they both American expatriates with similar temperaments, but they were even born on the
exact same day. He shared some of her moral attitudes, and his heart condition may have encouraged him toward a restraint that
she found comforting. The marriage's success, therefore, seemed assured.
After the Astors married, Nancy moved into Cliveden, a lavish estate, and began her life as
a prominent hostess for the social elite. The Astors also owned a grand London house,
No. 4 St. James's Square, which is now the premises of the Naval & Military Club. Through her many social connections, Lady Astor became involved in
a kind of political circle called Milner's Kindergarten. Considered
liberal in their age, the group advocated unity and equality among English speaking people
and a continuance or expansion of British imperialism.
Christian Science
The group’s political significance was limited, but it yielded a much more significant result for Lady Astor personally. It
was the source of her friendship with Philip Kerr, which was to be
one of the most important relationships of her life. Indeed, it came at a critical juncture for both of them. The two met shortly
after Kerr had suffered a spiritual crisis regarding his once devout Catholicism.
The two of them were both searching for spiritual stability and their search led them toward Christian Science, to which they both eventually converted. Astor's beliefs and activities as a
Christian Scientist would become one of the most consistent elements of her life.
A statue at Cliveden, overlooking 42 inscribed stones dedicated to the dead of World War I.
Sir Bertram MacKennal's figure represents Canada with the head reputedly modelled by Lady
Astor.
Astor's conversion was gradual and was influenced by a number of factors. Her sister Phyllis had given her Science and Health by Mary Baker
Eddy because she thought Nancy might find it interesting. (Phyllis, however, never became a Christian Scientist.) At first
Lady Astor had only marginal interest, but after a period of illness and surgery, she decided that those events had not been what
God wanted. In the past she had been the type of person whose illnesses had largely been psychosomatic, so this rang true for her and she embraced the belief system wholeheartedly. Her
former spiritual mentor and good friend, Archdeacon Frederick Neve, disapproved of her conversion and their relationship
soured.
Lady Astor's devotion to Christian Science was more intense than orthodox, and she sent some practitioners away for
disagreeing with her. But she was deeply committed to her own interpretation of the faith and held to it almost fanatically. Many
of her letters from that time on mentioned Christian Science, and letters from others to her joked about her efforts to convert
peers to her beliefs.
Philip Kerr's conversion came only after experimenting with Eastern religion, but he
later became a spiritual advisor for Astor. In time, his bitter rejection of Catholicism also influenced Lady Astor, intensifying
her opinions in that direction. She was also affected when her friendship with Hillaire
Belloc, who was Catholic, began to grow cold because of his disdain for the rich and her efforts to convert his daughters
to Christian Science. The loss of that relationship further alienated her against Roman Catholicism.
During World War I Cliveden was turned into a hospital for Canadian soldiers. Although Astor, as a Christian Scientist, did not believe in the use of medical practices, she
got along well with doctors, especially a surgeon named Colonel Mewburn. She justified her position there by helping those who
needed non-medical assistance. This work built a public image of Lady Astor as a friend to soldiers, and that proved useful when
she ran for office. At the same time, horrible poison gas attacks and the deaths of friends turned her against war itself.
First campaign for Parliament
Several elements of Lady Astor's life to this point influenced her first campaign, but the main reason she became a candidate
in the first place was her husband's situation. He had enjoyed a promising career for several years before World War I in the
House of Commons, but then he succeeded to his father's peerage as the 2nd Viscount Astor. This meant that he automatically became a member of the House of Lords and forfeited his seat of Plymouth Sutton in the House of Commons. So Lady Astor decided to contest
the vacant parliamentary seat.
Astor had several disadvantages in her campaign. One of them was her lack of connection with the women's suffrage movement. The first woman elected to the British Parliament, Constance
Markiewicz, said Lady Astor was "of the upper classes, out of touch". (While Lady Astor was the first female member of the
House of Commons who actually took up her seat, she was not the first woman to be elected to the House. Markiewicz did not take
up her seat because of her Irish nationalist views.) Countess Markiewicz had been in
prison for Sinn Féin activities during her election, and other suffragettes had been imprisoned for arson; Astor had no such background.
Even more damaging to Astor's campaign were her well-known hostility to alcohol consumption and her lack of knowledge of current
political issues. These points did not endear her to the people of Plymouth, the constituency
from which she was elected. Perhaps worst of all, her tendency to say odd or outlandish things sometimes made her look rather
unstable.
However, Astor also had some positive attributes in her campaign, such as her earlier work with the Canadian soldiers, her
other charitable work during the war, her vast financial resources for the campaign and, most of all, her ability to improvise.
Her ability to turn the tables on the hecklers was particularly useful. Once a man asked her
what the Astors had done for him and she responded with, "Why, Charlie, you know", and later had a picture taken with him. This
informal style baffled yet amused the British public. She rallied the supporters of the current government, was pragmatic enough
to moderate her Prohibitionist views, and used women’s meetings to gain the support of female voters. A by-election was held on 28 November, 1919, and she took up her seat in the House on 1 December as a
Unionist (also known as "Tory") Member of
Parliament.
Early years in Parliament
Astor's parliamentary career was the most public phase of her life, during which she was an object of both love and hatred.
Her presence almost immediately gained attention, both as a woman and as someone who did not follow the rules. On her first day
in the House of Commons, she was called to order for chatting with a fellow House member, not realising that she was the person
who was causing the commotion. She did try in some ways to minimise disruption by dressing more sedately than usual and by
avoiding the bars and smoking rooms frequented
by the men.
Early in her first term, a fellow Member of Parliament named Horatio Bottomley, who
felt Astor was an obstacle in his desire to dominate the "soldier’s friend" issue, sought to ruin her political career. He did
this by capitalising on the first substantial controversies in which she participated, namely her opposition to divorce reform
and her efforts to maintain wartime alcohol restrictions. He depicted her as a hypocrite in his newspaper, saying that the
divorce reform bill she opposed allowed women to have the kind of divorce she had had in America. However, a budget crisis and
his bitter tone caused this effort to backfire. Bottomley eventually went to prison for fraud, a
fact that Astor used to her advantage in later campaigns.
Among her early political friends were the first female candidates to follow her to Parliament, including members of the other
parties. The first of them began when Ellen Wintringham was elected after Astor had been in office for two years, but the most
surprising might have been her friendship with "Red Ellen" Wilkinson, a former
Communist representative in the Labour Party. Astor later proposed creating a "Women’s Party",
but the female Labour MPs thought it was a ridiculous idea because at that time their party had power and promised them
positions. Astor conceded this, but her closeness with other female MPs dissipated with time and by 1931 she even became hostile to female Labour members like Susan
Lawrence.
Unlike most of the other women, Lady Astor's accomplishments in the House of Commons were relatively minor. She never held a
position of much influence. Indeed, the Duchess of
Atholl rose to higher levels in the Tory Party before Astor did, and this was largely as Astor wished. She felt that if
she had a position in the party, she would be less free to criticise her party’s government. One of her few significant
achievements in the House was the passage of a bill she sponsored to increase the legal
drinking age to eighteen unless the minor has parental approval.
Lady Astor did do some significant work outside the political sphere. The most famous was her support for nursery schools. Her involvement with this cause was somewhat surprising in a way because the woman who
first focused her attention on it was a Socialist named Margaret McMillan who believed that
her dead sister still had a role in guiding her. Lady Astor was initially skeptical, but later the two women became close and
Astor used her wealth to aid their efforts.
Astor's positive traits and good works do not negate the fact her political career displayed some cruelty and callousness. On
hearing of the death of a political enemy, she openly expressed her pleasure. When people complained about this, she did not
apologise but instead said, "I’m a Virginian; we shoot to kill". A friend from Virginia, Angus McDonnell, had angered her when he
married without consulting her after having agreed to seek her permission first. She later told him, regarding his maiden speech,
that he "really must do better than that". In addition to these, she also alienated several others with her sharp tongue
throughout her life.
The 1920s were Astor's most positive period in Parliament, when she made several effective
speeches and introduced a bill that passed. Although she was not always the ideal Member of Parliament, her wealth and striking
persona brought some attention to women in the House. She worked to bring more women into the civil service and the police force and to reform education and the House of Lords. In addition, she
remained popular in her district and well liked in the U.S. during the 1920s, but this period of success would not continue
forever.
The Depression Years
Unlike the previous decade, the 1930s would be one of personal and professional difficulty for
Lady Astor. An early sign of future problems came in 1928 when she only barely defeated the Labour
candidate. In 1931 her problems became more acute when her son from her first marriage, Bobbie, was arrested for homosexuality. Because Bobbie had previously shown tendencies toward alcoholism and instability, Astor's
friend Philip Kerr, now Marquess of Lothian, told her that the arrest might be
positive for him. This would turn out to be incorrect. Astor also made a disastrous speech stating that the British
cricket team lost to the Australian team because of alcohol
use. Both the British and Australian teams objected to this. Astor remained oblivious to her growing unpopularity almost to the
end.
A mixed element in these difficult years was Astor's friendship with George Bernard
Shaw. He helped her through some of her problems, but also made some things worse. Their friendship was somewhat peculiar
because they held opposing political views and had very different temperaments, but he liked her as a fellow non-conformist, and
she had a fondness for writers in general. Nevertheless, his tendency to make controversial statements or put her into awkward
situations proved to be a drawback for her.
After Astor's son Bobbie was arrested, Shaw invited her to accompany him on his trip to the Soviet Union. Although it was helpful in some ways, this trip turned out to be bad overall for Lady Astor's
political career. During the trip Shaw made many flattering statements about Stalinist
Russia, while Nancy often disparaged it because she was generally not in favor of Communism. She
even asked Stalin point-blank why he had slaughtered so many Russians, but many of her
criticisms were translated into innocuous statements instead. This led many of her conservative supporters to fear she had "gone
soft" on Communism. Even her question to Stalin may have been likewise translated if he had not insisted that he be told what she
had actually said. Furthermore, Shaw's praise of the USSR made the trip seem like a coup for Soviet propaganda and made her presence there disturbing for the Tories.
As bad as the Soviet trip was, it was minor compared to what would follow. Although Astor had criticised the Nazis for devaluing the position of women, she was also adamantly opposed to another World War. Several of her
friends and associates, especially Lord Lothian (Philip Kerr), became heavily involved in the German appeasement policy; this group became known as the "Cliveden set." The term was first used in the newspaper run by reformist
Claud Cockburn; excitement over it grew and the allegations became more elaborate. The
Cliveden set was seen variously as the prime mover for appeasement, or a society that secretly ran the nation, or even as a
beachhead for Nazism in Britain. Astor was viewed by some as Hitler’s woman in Britain, and
some went so far as to claim that she had hypnotic powers.
Evidence supporting these allegations is weak, but Astor did occasionally meet with Nazi officials in keeping with
Neville Chamberlain's ideals. She told one such Nazi official, who later turned out
to be trying to ruin the Nazis from within, that she supported their re-armament. However, she did so because Germany was
"surrounded by Catholics" in her opinion. She also told Joachim von Ribbentrop,
the German ambassador who would later become the Foreign Minister of Germany, that Hitler looked too much like Charlie Chaplin to be taken seriously. These statements are the only documented incidents of Nazi
sympathy of any kind, although it is true that she distrusted and disliked British Foreign Secretary (and later Prime Minister)
Anthony Eden, stating that the more she saw of him the "more certain" she was that he would
"never be a Disraeli".
Lady Astor seemed largely unbothered by the fact that so many of her public statements caused difficulties. She became even
harsher in her anti-Catholicism and anti-Communism. After passage of the Munich Agreement, she said
that if the Czech refugees fleeing Nazi oppression were
Communists, they should seek asylum with the Soviets instead of the British. Even supporters of appeasement felt this insult to
be out of line, but Lord Lothian encouraged her attitudes. He railed against the pope for not
supporting Hitler's annexation of Austria and in many ways continued to influence Lady
Astor.
World War II
When war did come, Astor admitted that she had made mistakes, and even voted against Chamberlain, but hostility remained. She
was taken far less seriously than before, with some calling her "The Right Honourable Member from Berlin." In addition, her
abilities as an MP had declined with age. Her increasing fear of Catholics led her to make a speech regarding her belief that a
Catholic conspiracy was subverting the foreign office. Her long-time hatred of Communists continued and she insulted Stalin's
role as an ally during the war. Her speeches became rambling and incomprehensible, and even her enemies lamented that debating
her had become "like playing squash with a dish of scrambled eggs".[1] She had become more of a joke than an adversary to her enemies.
The period from 1937 to the end of the war were traumatic on a personal level. In the period of
1937-38 Astor's sister Phyllis and only surviving brother died. In 1940 her close friend and
spiritual advisor Lord Lothian died as well. Although his influence had a definite negative aspect, he had been her closest
Christian Scientist friend even after her husband converted. George Bernard Shaw’s wife also died about two years later. During
the war, Astor got into a fight with her husband about chocolate and soon
after he had a heart attack. After this, their marriage grew cold, probably due at least in part to the harsh effects of such a
petty argument and her subsequent discomfort with his health problems. She ran a hospital for Canadian soldiers as she had
before, but openly expressed a preference for the veterans of the previous World War.
It is generally believed that it was Lady Astor who, during a World War II speech, first
referred to the men of the 8th Army who were fighting in the Italian
campaign as the "D-Day Dodgers".[citation needed] Her implication was that they had it easy because they were avoiding the
"real war" in France and the future invasion. The Allied soldiers in Italy were so incensed that they composed a
bitingly sarcastic song to the tune of the haunting German song Lili Marleen
(popularised in English by Marlene Dietrich) that they called "The Ballad Of The D-Day
Dodgers".
She also made a disparaging remark about troops involved in the Burma Campaign,
warning the public to "Beware the men with crows' feet".[citation needed] This was an allusion to the white lines often found around the eyes of
white soldiers in hot climates due to squinting in the bright sunlight as it tanned their faces. Soldiers of the 14th Army were slightly bemused to be accorded such attention and it was strongly rumoured among them that
her prejudice was the result of a 14th Army officer on leave either impregnating Astor's daughter or infecting her with a
sexually transmitted disease.[citation needed]
Final Years
Lady Astor did not feel that her final years were a period of personal decline. Instead, in her opinion, it was her party and
her husband who caused her retirement. The Tories felt that she had become a liability in the
final years of World War II, and her husband told her that if she ran for office again the family would not support her. She
conceded, but with irritation and anger, according to contemporary reports.[citation needed]
Lady Astor's retirement years proved difficult, especially for her marriage. She publicly blamed her husband for forcing her
to retire; for example, in a speech commemorating her 25 years in office she stated that her retirement was forced on her and
that it should please the men of Britain. The couple began travelling separately and living apart soon after. Lord Astor also
began moving to the left politically in his last years, and that exacerbated their differences. The couple did, however,
reconcile to some degree before his death.
This period also proved to be hard on Lady Astor's public image. Her racial views were increasingly out of touch with cultural
changes, and she expressed a growing paranoia regarding ethnic minorities. In one instance she
stated that the President of the United States had become too dependent
on New York City. To her this city represented "Jewish and foreign" influences that she feared.
During her U.S. tour she also told a group of African American students that they
should aspire to be like the Black servants she remembered from her youth. On a later trip she told African American church
members that they should be grateful for slavery because it had allowed them to be introduced to Christianity. In Rhodesia she proudly told the White minority government
leaders that she was the daughter of a slave owner.
After 1956 Lady Astor became increasingly isolated. Her sisters had all died, "Red Ellen"
Wilkinson committed suicide in 1947, George Bernard Shaw died in 1950, and she did not take well
to widowhood. Her son Bobbie became increasingly combative and after her death he committed suicide. Her son Jakie married a
prominent Catholic woman, which hurt his relationship with his mother, and her other children became largely estranged from her
as well. Ironically, these events in some ways mellowed her and she even began to accept Catholics as friends toward the end of
her life. However, she expressed clearly that her final years were lonely ones. Lady Astor died in 1964 at her daughter's home at
Grimsthorpe in Lincolnshire.
Quotes
Lady Astor is nearly as famous for her scathing wit as she is for her political career. Many of her best known quotes are
indicative of her personal and political views, such as feminism, temperance, and conservatism; others are merely humorous. Some
examples:
- I married beneath me. All women do.
- I refuse to admit that I am more than fifty-two, even if that does make my sons illegitimate.
- In passing, also, I would like to say that the first time Adam had a chance he laid the blame on a woman.
- My vigour, vitality, and cheek repel me. I am the kind of woman I would run from.
- One reason why I don't drink is because I wish to know when I am having a good time.
- Pioneers may be picturesque figures, but they are often rather lonely ones.
- Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer; into a selflessness which links us with all
humanity.
- The main dangers in this life are the people who want to change everything... or nothing.
- The only thing I like about rich people is their money.
- The penalty for success is to be bored by the people who used to snub you.
- Women have got to make the world safe for men since men have made it so darned unsafe for women.
But by far the most famous were her frequent sharp exchanges with Winston
Churchill. He once told her that having a woman in Parliament was like having one intrude on him in the bathroom, to which
she retorted, "You’re not handsome enough to have such fears". Another time when Lady Astor was giving a costume ball, Churchill
asked her what disguise she would recommend for him. She replied, "Why don't you come sober, Mr Prime Minister?" The most famous
of all such anecdotes occurred when Lady Astor said to Churchill, "If you were my husband, I'd put arsenic in your coffee." He responded, "Madam, if I were your husband, I'd drink it!" Years later, she used the
"arsenic in your coffee" line on Senator Joseph McCarthy to somewhat less successful
effect.[citation needed]
Children
- Robert Gould Shaw III (1898-1970)
- William Waldorf Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor (1907-1966)
- Nancy Phyllis Louise Astor (1909-1975)
- Francis David Langhorne Astor (1912-2001)
- Michael Langhorne Astor (1916-1980)
- John Jacob Astor (1918-2000)
Notes
- ^ Harold Nicolson in a letter to his
sons, 18 March 1943
References
- Astor, Michael, Tribal Feelings (Readers Union, 1964)
- Cowling, Maurice, The Impact of Hitler - British Policies and Policy 1933-1940, Cambridge University Press, 1975, p.402, ISBN 0-521-20582-4
- Musolf, Karen J, From Plymouth to Parliament (St. Martin’s Press, 1999)
- Masters, Anthony, Nancy Astor A Biography (McGraw Hill. 1981)
- Thornton, Martin, (editor): Nancy Astor’s Canadian Correspondence, 1912-1962 (Edwin Mellen Press, 1997)
- Sykes, Christopher, Nancy the life of Lady Astor (Academy Chicago, 1984)
- Wearing, J.P., (editor) Bernard Shaw and Nancy Astor (University of Toronto Press, 2005)
External links
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Astor, Nancy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
Astor, Nancy, Viscountess Astor; Nancy, Viscountess Astor |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
Member of Parliament (British House of Commons) |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
May 19, 1879 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Danville, Virginia, United States of
America |
| DATE OF DEATH |
May 2, 1964 |
| PLACE OF DEATH |
Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincolnshire,
England, United Kingdom |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
