Person    | Female  Born 20/7/1870  Died 8/9/1911

Margaret Ethel MacDonald

Feminist and social reformer. Daughter of John & Margaret Gladstone. Born 17 Pembridge Square, her mother dying soon after. Brought up to do good works, she became a socialist, joined the Labour party and married Ramsay MacDonald in 1896, who after her early death would become the first Labour prime minister.

She was interested in the working woman and worked herself to improve the lot of these women. She joined and worked with the Women's Industrial Council, concerned with women working at home in London. Recognising that women needed training to acquire skills for work she participated in the setting up of the first trade schools for girls in 1904.

Ramsay and she lived in a flat at 3 Lincoln's Inn Fields where her children were born and where she died. Ramsay wrote a memoir of her and her ashes are buried at Lossiemouth, Scotland with her husband's.

The photo comes from a book written about her by Ramsay after her death.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Margaret Ethel MacDonald

Commemorated ati

Margaret MacDonald

Bronze statue unveiled on 19 December 1914. Sculpted by Goulden to Ramsay's d...

Read More

Other Subjects

Charlotte Despard

Charlotte Despard

Anglo-Irish suffragist, socialist, pacifist, Sinn Féin activist, and novelist. She was a founding member of the Women's Freedom League, Women's Peace Crusade, and the Irish Women's Franchise League...

Person, Gender Issues, Ireland, Scotland

2 memorials
Dorothy Richardson

Dorothy Richardson

Author and journalist.  Born Abingdon and brought up in Putney. Her father was bankrupt and her mother had died by suicide by the time Dorothy was 22. Moved to Bloomsbury in 1896 and while working ...

Person, Gender Issues, Literature

1 memorial
Women's Initiative Network

Women's Initiative Network

The name 'Women's Initiative Network' seems to be used by groups of women in various organisation. The groups are formed to work towards gender equality and empowerment of women and girls in those ...

Group, Benefactor, Gender Issues

1 memorial
Christabel Pankhurst

Christabel Pankhurst

Suffragette. Born Manchester, daughter of Emmeline, her eldest child and her favourite. Moved to America in 1939 and died in California.

Person, Gender Issues, Politics & Administration, USA

6 memorials
Lilian Faithfull

Lilian Faithfull

English teacher, headmistress, women's rights advocate, magistrate, social worker and humanitarian. Born Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, she graduated with a first in English at Oxford University in 188...

Person, Education, Gender Issues, Social Welfare

1 memorial