Margaret Haig Thomas, known as Lady Rhondda or 2nd Viscountess Rhondda, was born on the 12th of June, 1883, and died on the 20th of July, 1958.
Born in London as Margaret Haig Thomas, her father was politician David Alfred Thomas, the first Viscount Rhondda, and her mother was Sybil Thomas, a suffragette, who prayed that her daughter would become a feminist.
Margaret was raised at Llanwern House, near Newport, until she went to boarding school, and then Oxford, and she was an only child. She became a debutante, and worked for her father at Consolidated Cambrian in Cardiff.
In 1908, she joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), becoming their Newport secretary, and married Newport landowner Humphrey Mackworth, becoming Margaret Haig Mackworth.
Margaret campaigned for suffrage across South Wales and in July 1913, attempted to destroy a Royal Mail postbox with a chemical bomb. After refusing to pay a £10 fine, she was sentence to one month in jail, in Usk. She went on hunger strike and was released after 5 days, receiving a Hunger Strike Medal.
On the 7th of May, 1915, travelling with her father and depressed over tensions in her marriage, she was on the RMS Lusitania when it was torpedoed. Though she suffered from hypothermia, she was rescued by an Irish trawler and recovered at home with her parents for months.
On the 3rd of July, 1918, Margaret’s father died and she became Viscountess Rhondda. She tried to take his seat in the House of Lords but was rejected. She also inherited his title as chair of his company, and was director of 33 companies in her lifetime, 28 of which she inherited from her father.
In 1920, Margaret founded ‘Time and Tide’ a left-wing feminist magazine, a mouthpiece for the Six Point Group, also set up by Margaret, to focus on equality and rights of children.
She divorced her husband in 1923 and lived with the first editor of ‘Time and Tide,’ Helen Archdale, and then had a relationship with author Winifred Holtby (who was in a relationship with Vera Brittain). Her partner of 25 years however was Theodora Bosanquet.
After her death in 1958, women soon were allowed to enter the House of Lords, and Time and Tide continued to run until 1979.
Margaret is pictured and named as ‘Margaret Haig Viscountess Rhondda (1883-1958)’ on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in London.
There is also a campaign for a statue of her in Newport.
Further reading: Angela V. John, Turning the Tide: The Life of Lady Rhondda, Cardigan, Parthian Press, 2014.
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