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

Lolita Roy

Lolita Roy

Also known as Mrs. P. L. Roy. Indian social reformer and suffragist who played an active role in the social life of Indians in London, as well as in campaigns for women's suffrage in Britain and In...

Person, Gender Issues, India

1 memorial
Barbara Harmer

Barbara Harmer

The first qualified female supersonic pilot and the first to fly Concorde. Born at the house with the plaque, she was raised in Bognor Regis and left school aged 15 to become a hairdresser but the...

Person, Gender Issues, Transport

1 memorial
Margaret Haig Thomas, Viscountess Rhondda

Margaret Haig Thomas, Viscountess Rhondda

The Women's Social and Political Union, secretary of Newport branch, founder of Time and Tide and the Six Point Group. Institute of Directors' first female president in 1926. Born as Margaret Haig...

Person, Gender Issues, Wales

1 memorial
Henrietta Franklin

Henrietta Franklin

Education reformer and leader of Jewish League for Woman Suffrage. She championed the Parents' National Educational Union and the ideas of Charlotte Mason. Born as Henrietta Montagu in London into...

Person, Education, Gender Issues

1 memorial
Lady Mary Coke

Lady Mary Coke

Letter writer and noblewoman. Born Lady Mary Campbell at either Sudbrook, Surrey or 27 Bruton Street, London. After a strained courtship, she married Edward, Viscount Coke in 1747. He retaliated by...

Person, Gender Issues

1 memorial