KATHARINE (DUCHESS OF ATHOLL) STEWART-MURRAY - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 02/27/1941 - HFSID 143780

DUCHESS OF ATHOLL (KATHARINE STEWART-MURRAY)
Having resigned her seat in Parliament, she signs a typed letter saying she is now too out of touch to give advice but will forward a letter to a female M.P.
Typed Letter signed: "Ever affectionately/Katharine Atholl", 1 page, 6½x8. Eastwood, Dunkeld (Scotland), 1941 February 27. On personal letterhead to "My dear Peggy", in full: "Please forgive the delay in replying to your letter. I am hard pressed with much work and with looking after Atholl who has not been very well for some time, though he is making good progress now. I am afraid that I am so out of things up here, where I have been ever since the war started, that I do not feel that I am a very good person to give you advice, but I am sending your letter on to one of the women M.P.s, (I think Irene Ward for choice), and will ask her to look into it. She is a very nice creature and is very interested in the status of women, though without being a fanatic". Katherine Stewart-Murray, the Duchess of Atholl, gained her title through marriage (1917) to John Stewart-Murray, the Marquess of Tullibardine, a Scottish politician and soldier. For her charitable work, the Duchess was named a Dame Commander of the British Empire in 1918. As a Member of Parliament (1923-1938), she became the first woman to serve in a Conservative government (as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, 1924-1929). She resigned from the House of Commons in 1938 to protest Prime Minister Chamberlain's appeasement policies, and then failed to win re-election as an independent. She wrote six books, mostly on political topics. She also composed music, including the official march of the Scottish Horse, her husband's regiment. Her optimism in this letter about her husband health proved ill-founded; he died in 1942. The Duchess was then made an Honorary Colonel in the Scottish Horse. Paper and adhesive residue (previous mounting) on verso show through at top corners and center left and right margins. Paperclip crease and rust at upper left corner. One vertical and two horizontal and fold creases. Lightly creased.