Nancy Astor

NANCY WITCHER ASTOR (VICOUNTESS ASTOR) d1964. American born English socialite who was the first female Member of Parliament to take her seat. She married Waldorf Astor and after he succeeded to the peerage and entered the House of Lords, she herself entered politics in 1919 (winning his former seat in Plymouth) and becoming the first woman to sit as an MP in the House of Commons. She served in Parliament as a member of the Conservative Party until 1945 when she was persuaded to step down. She died aged 84 in Grimsthorpe Castle Lincolnshire on 2nd May 1964.