Mabel Philipson
Mabel Philipson (1 January 1887 – 8 January 1951) was a British actress and politician. She was the third female member to serve in the House of Commons after this became legally possible in 1918, representing Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Born Mabel Russell, she became a successful music hall and comedy actress. Widowed by 1911, in 1917 she married Hilton Philipson, a business owner and National Liberal politician; they had three children.
On 21 November 1918 the Parliamentary Qualification of Women Act, introduced a few weeks previously by Lord Robert Cecil was given Royal Assent, making women eligible as Members of Parliament.
Hilton Philipson was unseated on petition in 1923, due to a fraud involving his agent. Mabel Philipson won the by-election to follow him, while standing as a Conservative. It was said that she made no secret that she intended to hold the seat until her husband's return;[1] however when her husband's business hit financial difficulties in 1928 she announced her retirement as "the reason why I have held the seat has ceased to exist".[2]
She returned to the stage after leaving Parliament, appearing as Mrs Tilling in Other People's Lives at the Wyndham Theatre in 1929.[3]
References
- John Sleight, Women on the March (1986)
- F. W. S. Craig: British parliamentary election results 1918-1949. 3rd edition Auflage. Parliamentary Research Services, Chichester 1983, ISBN 0-900178-06-X ( [1969]).
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