The statute allowing women to be Members of Parliament passed on 21 November 1918, only shortly before the general election held on 14 December. Seventeen women stood across 710 constituencies, and one was elected: Constance Markievicz, who was one of 73 Sinn Fein MPs elected who refused to take their seat at Westminster. She later became the first women Cabinet minister in Europe in 1919.

While the other candidates were defeated in their constituencies, they were trailblazers nonetheless,  making strides for women's representation in government. Some went on to stand in future general elections, or were elected to local government. The first woman to take her seat in Parliament, Nancy Astor, was elected in December 1919.

This article on the women candidates at the 1918 General Election is taken from the Oxford DNB. Take a look at the Oxford DNB website to discover more about the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.

Image credit: A. Arpingstone, 'Houses of Parliament', 2005, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Women Candidates at the 1918 General Election

Paisley, Ian Richard Kyle, Baron Bannside (1926–2014), first minister of Northern Ireland, was born at Station Terrace, Armagh, co. Armagh, on 6 April 1926.

By the beginning of the 1950s Paisley’s prominence as an evangelical campaigner began to bring him into conflict with the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. Paisley became involved in politics in the late 1950s, later leading and instigating loyalist opposition to the Catholic civil rights movement in Northern Ireland. This contributed to the outbreak of the Troubles in the late 1960s, a conflict that would engulf Northern Ireland for the next thirty years. 

In 1970 he became Member of Parliament for North Antrim and the following year he founded the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which he would lead for almost forty years. In 1979 he became a Member of the European Parliament.

Ian Paisley, (1926–2014), first minister of Northern Ireland - Part 1

Paisley, Ian Richard Kyle, Baron Bannside (1926–2014), first minister of Northern Ireland, was born at Station Terrace, Armagh, co. Armagh, on 6 April 1926.

By the beginning of the 1950s Paisley’s prominence as an evangelical campaigner began to bring him into conflict with the Presbyterian Church of Ireland. Paisley became involved in politics in the late 1950s, later leading and instigating loyalist opposition to the Catholic civil rights movement in Northern Ireland. This contributed to the outbreak of the Troubles in the late 1960s, a conflict that would engulf Northern Ireland for the next thirty years.

In 1970 he became Member of Parliament for North Antrim and the following year he founded the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which he would lead for almost forty years. In 1979 he became a Member of the European Parliament.

Ian Paisley, (1926–2014), first minister of Northern Ireland - Part 2

Lee, William (fl. 1768–1804), slave, was probably born in the mid-eighteenth century in Virginia, the son of African slaves. He first appears in the historical record in 1768 when he was sold to George Washington by Mary Lee, a friend and neighbour of the Washingtons. William, who kept the surname Lee of his former master, became the personal body servant and butler of Washington.

Washington, like many American, British, and French officers, took his body servant with him on campaigns. In the case of slave-owning officers, this servant was usually a slave—William in Washington's case. Throughout the nine-year war, William tended to the personal needs of Washington and his guests. He was forever at Washington's side, enduring the hardships of the continental army as it struggled against the better trained and supplied British forces. He became a fixture of camp life. Washington's letters after the war to former comrades mention William, referring to him as 'your old acquaintance Will'. When painting Washington's portrait from memory while living in London in 1780, John Trumbull, a student of Benjamin West, included William in the background. After the war William continued at Washington's side, serving as butler and messenger. In the Washington family portrait of 1796 William is the only person outside the family to be included. The appearance of slaves in family portraits at the time was not unusual, but the selection of William from the many slaves owned by Washington indicates William's continued importance and prominence in the Mount Vernon household.

This biography of Willaim Lee is taken from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford DNB). Take a look at the Oxford DNB website to discover more about the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.

Image credit: 'George Washington' by John Trumbull, public domain via Wikipedia.

William Lee (fl. 1768–1804), slave

Listen to this Oxford DNB podcast to learn about the life of Jane Seymour (1508/9–1537), Queen of England and third consort to Henry VIII.

Jane Seymour  was probably born at Wolf Hall, Wiltshire, the eldest daughter of ten children of Sir John Seymour (1476?–1536) of Wolf Hall, soldier and courtier, and Margery Wentworth (d. 1550), eldest daughter of Sir Henry Wentworth of Nettlestead, Suffolk.

Nothing is known of Jane's early life and education, but she was probably taught by her father's chaplain at Wolf Hall. She first appeared at court about 1529 and served as a lady-in-waiting to both Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII honoured the Seymour family with a visit to Wolf Hall in September 1535. 

Henry VIII  and Jane were betrothed on 20 May, (the day after Anne Boleyn's execution), and a private marriage took place on 30 May 1536 in the queen's closet at Whitehall. Coming as it did after the death of Queen Katherine and the execution of Queen Anne, there could be no doubt of the lawfulness of Henry's marriage to Jane. The new queen was introduced at court during Whitsuntide festivities and appeared before the Londoners in June when she accompanied Henry to the Mercers' Hall to watch the setting of the ceremonial city watch. 

During her short reign, Jane enjoyed court life to the full, and the queen's became pregnant soon after the marriage. An uneventful pregnancy was followed by a difficult labour that lasted two days and three nights, after which she gave birth to a healthy son at about 2 a.m. on 12 OctoberThe infant's name, Edward, was chosen because of his birth on the eve of the feast of the translation of St Edward the Confessor. Sixteenth-century women were unlikely to survive caesarean delivery, whereas Jane not only survived but initially appeared to be making a normal recovery.

Prince Edward was baptized in the royal chapel at Hampton Court on 15 October. Queen Jane received the last rites of the church two days after the christening. Most historians have assumed that she developed puerperal fever, something for which there was no effective treatment, though at the time the queen's attendants were blamed for allowing her to eat unsuitable food and to take cold. After being queen for less than eighteen months Jane died just before midnight on 24 October, aged twenty-eight. It is not known whether Henry was at her side when she died, but he was at Hampton Court. The grief-stricken king writing to the king of France told how 'Divine Providence has mingled my joy with the bitterness of the death of her who brought me this happiness' (LP Henry VIII, 12/2, no. 972).

This biography of Jane Seymour is taken from the ‘Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’. Take a look at the ODNB Website to discover more about the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.

Image licensed under a Wikimedia Creative Commons license.

Jane Seymour, (1508/9–1537), Queen of England and third consort to Henry VIII

Listen to this ODNB podcast to learn about the life of Lady Sarah Cowper(1644-1720).

Lady Sarah Cowper kept a diary for sixteen years, writing more than 2300 pages in all. Remarkable for its chronicle of family tensions and its commentary on politics, religion, and the later Stuart social scene, this diary is all the more notable because in it Lady Cowper seamlessly blended her own words with those of prescriptive authors in order to indict her husband and sons while valorizing her own performance of the roles of wife, mother, gentlewoman, and pious Anglican. 

This biography of Lady Sarah Cowper, written by Anne Kugler, is taken from the ‘Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’. Take a look at the ODNB Website to discover more about the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.

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Image Credit:  Circle of Enoch Seeman [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Lady Sarah Cowper

Listen to this ODNB podcast to learn about the life of Jennie Lee, Baroness Lee of Asheridge, radical politician and labour party grandee(1904 - 1988). 

Jennie Lee was a Labour Member of Parliament and the youngest woman MP ever elected. For thirteen years she marked time, in politics but out of parliament, lecturing, broadcasting, dabbling in the law, campaigning for international revolutionary socialism, writing for the "New Leader", helping Nye Bevan, Stafford Cripps, William Mellor, and the young Michael Foot to launch "Tribune" and the Unity campaign (which became the British expression of the Popular Front) in 1937 to fight fascism; until the Spanish Civil War and then the Second World War weaned her from the pacifism of the ILP and brought her back into mainstream Labour.

This biography of Jennie Lee, written by Patricia Hollis, is taken from the ‘Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’. Take a look at the ODNB Website to discover more about the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.

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Image Credit: © Jorge Lewinski; collection National Portrait Gallery, London

Jennie Lee, Baroness lee of Asheridge, radical politician and labour party grandee(1904 - 1988)

Listen to this ODNB podcast to learn about the life Melanie Klein, pioneering theorist of psychoanalysis (1882-1960).

Melanie Klein Vienna-born, Melanie Klein became a British subject in 1934, and went on to become a leading figure in British psychoanalysis. Her influence in the British Psychoanalytical Society was substantial, and this influence extended across the Americas and Europe in the 1960s. To reach the younger child's private world, Klein turned to their natural means of expression: play. She gave each child in her practice an individual set of small toys and made interpretations of the unconscious significance of the play. With this technique she was able to analyse children in the third year of life.
This biography of Melanie Klein, written by R.D. Hinshelwood, is taken from the ‘Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’. Take a look at the ODNB Website to discover more about the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.
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Image Credit: © by Jane Bown, 1959

Melanie Klein, pioneering theorist of psychoanalysis (1882-1960)

Listen to this ODNB podcast to learn about the life Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett, songwriter and founding member of Pink Floyd (1946-2006).
Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett, musician and songwriter, was born in Cambridge. In 1965 Barrett (guitar and vocals) founded the band Pink Floyd with Roger Waters (bass), Nick Mason (drums), and Richard Wright (keyboards). Pink Floyd made their presence felt on the London music scene from February 1966 when they began gigging regularly at the Marquee Club in Soho. They soon gained a following as the unofficial band of the developing London counter-culture ‘underground’ scene. For most of his life Barrett was as significant as a symbol for counter-cultural assumptions as he was for his songs, a focus for rock music's questionably romanticized connections between innocence, rebellion, creativity, and mental illness.
This biography of life Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett, written by Rikky Rooksby, is taken from the ‘Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’. Take a look at the ODNB Website to discover more about the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.

Image Credit: © by Gems, 1969
Getty Images

Roger Keith (Syd) Barrett

Listen to this ODNB podcast to learn about the life Winifred Atwell, pianist and entertainer (c. 1913–1983).

Winifred began playing the piano at the age of four and within a couple of years she was giving Chopin recitals at charity concerts. As a young woman she worked in her father's chemist shop, and he insisted that she took a degree in pharmacy. However, in her spare time she entertained friends and continued to take part in charity concerts.

This biography of Winifred Atwell, written by Stephen Bourne, is taken from the ‘Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’. Take a look at the ODNB Website to discover more about the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.
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Image Credit: © by Jane Bown, 1959

Winifred Atwell

Listen to this ODNB podcast to learn about the life of Davey Graham (1940-2008).

Graham first laid hands on a guitar—a neighbour's—in 1952 and recalled how in an afternoon he worked out how to play a pavane on it from sheet music. Fired by Lonnie Donegan and the skiffle boom, he finally acquired his first guitar at the age of sixteen. 'I couldn't concentrate at school thinking of Lonnie Donegan. … I was seized with the desire to sound like that, to play that sort of music' (Hunt, Folk routines). He secured his first booking the same year at the Troubadour coffee-house in Earl's Court, a hub for poetry, folk music, flamenco, and other artistic activity. He left school in 1958 in order to concentrate on his guitar playing.

This biography of Davey Graham, written by Ken Hunt, is taken from the ‘Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’. Take a look at the ODNB Website to discover more about the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.
Image credit: © Brian Shuel, 1966 / National Portrait Gallery, London

Davey Graham

Listen to this ODNB podcast to learn about the life of Lording Barry (1580-1629), playwright and pirate.

In August 1607, a few months after his father's death, Barry and several co-investors borrowed nearly £120 from three different creditors to finance a new boys' theatre company in the Whitefriars district of London. Like several of his co-investors, Barry was a playwright. His only surviving play is 'Ram-Alley', or, 'Merrie-Trickes', set during a single day in and around the seedy Whitefriars district and modelled, sometimes closely, on the popular city comedies of Thomas Middleton.

This biography of Lording Barry, written by David Kathman, is taken from the ‘Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’. Take a look at the ODNB Website to discover more about the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.
Image credit: 'Title page of Ram Alley by Lording Barry' by Papier K, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Lording Barry

Listen to this ODNB podcast to learn about the life John Ward [called Issouf Reis, Captain Wardiyya], pirate (c. 1553-1623?).

John was said to have been a fisherman at Faversham, Kent, perhaps born about 1553. He was later at Plymouth, where he joined the Royal Navy, and may have been on privateering voyages to the West Indies. Apparently he served as a petty officer on the Lion's Whelp, built in 1601. His career of piracy seems to have begun in 1603 with an abortive attempt to seize the considerable wealth a recusant was reported to be carrying over to France. 

This biography of John Ward, written by David R. Ransome, is taken from the ‘Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’. Take a look at the ODNB Website to discover more about the people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.
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Image Credit: depiction of the Lion's Whelp, public domain via Wikimedia Commons

John Ward (aka Issouf Reis)

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography's SoundCloud channel introduces you to notable men and women who've shaped the British past, worldwide. The biographies cover all walks of British life - including literature, the arts, sport, politics, business, and science - and range from pre-history to the 21st century.

The stories are selected from the 60,000 lives within the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The Dictionary is the national record of people who've left their mark on British history, and is the work of 12,000 scholars worldwide. 

A research project of Oxford University's History Faculty, the ODNB is published by Oxford University Press.

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