Lady
HUMPHREY MACKWORTH (MARGARET HAIG THOMAS), Saloon Class Passenger
margaret
mackworth
image: Cleveland
Plain Dealer,
Sunday, 9 May 1915, Page 10.
Margaret, Lady Mackworth, 32, was born as Margaret Haig Thomas in 1883
as the only child of David Alfred
Thomas (commonly known as D. A. Thomas) and Sybil Haig. As
a child, Margaret was taught to speak in French and German, and grew
up to be very close to her father. Margaret was educated at
Notting
Hill High School, St. Leonards School of St. Andrews, and Somerville
College, Oxford.
Margaret married a neighbor, Sir Humphrey Mackworth, a man twelve years
her senior. The union was a mismatch from the start.
Humphrey loved fox hunting, but Margaret thought hunting to be
uncivilized and ofter prefered to spend her hours reading. Her
married life she found empty, living in a sheltered house. Since
her childhood, she had also noticed that ambition, while nurtured among
young men, was looked upon as a vice among young women. Noting
this disparity, she became an ardent feminist and joined Emmeline
Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1908, four
months after her marriage. Margaret invited Emmeline Pankhurst to
speak at the first meeting in Newport. Emmeline, unable to
attend, sent her daughter Sylvia instead.
Sir Humphrey refused her entry to the house.
In joining the Pankhursts, Margaret Mackworth sought to
educate herself in all facets of feminism and read as much as she
could on the subject. Many of her sources were pamphlets and
news articles, but she found books on the subject to be relatively few.
Lady Mackworth was able to get her books at the Cavendish
Bentinck
Library, which at the time was supplying the suffragettes with books
they could not procure in the ordinary way. She did, however,
find
useful John Stuart Mill's Subjection of Women, Olive
Schreiner's Woman and Labour, Cicely Hamilton's Marriage as
a Trade,
and George Bernard Shaw's Quintessence of Ibsenism. Also
among the books supplied was Havelock Ellis' The Psychology of Sex,
a book which, in those times, would not have been able to be taken out
without a signed doctor's certificate. In an amusing incident,
D. A. Thomas tried to obtain Ellis' book but became indignant when he
was refused access to a book that his daughter had already read.
Lady Mackworth was a reluctant supporter of the WSPU's arson campaign,
and her role in trying to destroy a post box with a chemical bomb
landed her in jail. When she got to her cell, she was appalled at
the dilapidation of the the prison. Nevertheless, she refused to
let her husband bail her out and promptly went on a hunger strike.
The hunger strike, as well as the jailers' growing concern for
her health due to the strike, led to her early release after
five days. She then vowed, "I shall campaign for the suffrage
cause
until the franchise is given to women."
When World War I broke out, the WSPU leadership decided to temporarily
abandon its militant campaign for the vote in order to further the war
effort. Margaret Mackworth then worked closely with D. A. Thomas
as personal assistant and proxy in her father's vast coal and corporate
interests. D. A. Thomas was also sent to the United States by the
future prime minister David Lloyd George to arrange the supply of
munitions for the British armed forces.
In April of 1915, Margaret and her father traveled to the United States
to look at D. A.'s interests in the Pennsylvania coal mines.
Tagging along was D. A.'s secretary, Arnold Rhys-Evans.
Returning home, they chose the Lusitania.
Margaret's
saloon class cabin was B-90.
Margaret was in no hurry to return to England. She remarked, "I
cannot understand it. I just feel so low."
"How can you say that, Margaret," D. A. asked, slightly surprised,
"when you're traveling on the world's greatest liner?"
"Let's not worry, father." Margaret answered with a forced smile,
"It's nobody's fault but mine."
Perhaps, after the excitement of New York, Margaret was not looking
forward to returning to her war-torn home and loveless marriage.
Onboard, the father and daughter befriended Dr. Howard L. Fisher and his
sister-in-law, nurse Dorothy Conner.
Throughout the voyage, Dorothy kept commenting on how she wished
there would be some kind of "thrill." Margaret also agreed that
the trip had been rather boring, but she preferred not to spoil D. A.'s
fun, as he was
rather enjoying himself.
On the afternoon of 7 May, Margaret, D. A., Arnold, Dorothy, and Howard
all sat down to lunch with the foghorn blaring. Margaret
remarked, "Home tomorrow! Aren't you pleased, father?"
"I would be more pleased, my dear," D. A. remarked, "if I believed that
wretched siren hasn't given our whereabouts away."
Margaret and D. A. left the saloon and left Howard and Dorothy to
finish lunch by themselves. The father and daughter stood waiting
for the elevator with Frederick Tootal
and Albert Byington. D. A. then
joked with his daughter, saying, "You know, Margaret, I think we might
stay up
on deck tonight. Just to see if you get your thrill."
Before Margaret could respond, they felt the torpedo rock the ship with
"a dull thudding sound." They were already partially inside the
elevator, but instinctively, they stepped back, a move that would save
their lives. D. A. ran over to a porthole to see what had
happened whereas Margaret went upstairs. She then wondered, "why
am I not more frightened?" and started breaking into a run. She
then thought, "Now I'm beginning to get frightened, but I must not let
myself."
As Margaret ran back to her room, the electricity went out
and she was in the dark. The ship was also listing heavily,
and along the way to her room she collided with a stewardess.
There
the two apologized and laughed about how much time they were wasting
at such a time.
In her room, Margaret grabbed a lifebelt for herself and she ran into
her father's room (B-88) to grab his, hoping that they would meet on
deck. She ran up the companionway to A Deck portside, but did not
find her father. She did, however, run into Howard Fisher and
Dorothy Conner, and asked if she could stay with them while she waited
for her father.
Probably one of the most famous passages of the Lusitania
sinking is attributed to Margaret and Dorothy in the following dialogue:
Lady Mackworth: "I always thought that I
shipwreck was a well-organized affair."
Dorothy: "So did I, but I've learnt a devil
of a lot in the last five minutes."
The three had seen what was probably lifeboat #12 spill half of its
load, and Margaret turned away, horrified. Just then,
Dr. Fisher realized that he and Dorothy, who had come up on deck
directly after lunch, did not have their lifebelts.
Just as Dr. Fisher went to fetch more lifebelts, word was passed that
the bulkheads were closed and the danger was over. At the same
time the Lusitania seemed to right herself. Margaret then
shook Dorothy's hand and laughed, "I guess you've had your thrill."
Dorothy then replied, "And I never want another."
When Howard returned wet and telling of how fast the ship
was flooding, the women were jolted back into realizing what danger
they were in. Margaret unhooked her skirt to enable her to swim
in the water, even though she didn't know how.
The three planned to jump from the ship, after seeing
other lifeboats capsize before reaching the water. It was
bad enough that Margaret did not know how to swim, it was even worse
that she was afraid of heights. A-deck, under normal conditions,
was 60 feet above the water. She saw Howard slip though an open
space on deck and Dorothy climb over the rail. Margaret chided
herself, telling herself how ridiculous it was to be afraid of jumping
when her life was in such danger.
Her fear of heights, however, came to naught. The water was
rising so fast that before she could jump the water had already risen
to her level and swept her as well as the crowd with her off the ship.
Margaret was taken down and her wrist was caught on a
rope. She pulled free, but the rope left a premanent mark on
her wrist. She swallowed a lot of water at first, but then she
shut her mouth to stop it. She noticed that she couldn't move
through the water properly and realized that she was still carrying the
extra lifebelt for her father.
Upon reaching the surface, she grabbed a thin piece of board, thinking
that the board was keeping her afloat when the lifebelt
was what was truly keeping her bouyant. A man with a yellow
mustache came alongside her and also grabbed onto the board. He
was making his way around the board to Margaret's side, but Margaret,
fearing that he would upset the board or even try to use her as a
floatation
device, told him to move back to where he was. After a while, she
noticed that the man had disappeared.
Hypothermia was taking hold of her and Margaret soon lost
consciousness. When the Bluebell picked her up, she was
clinging onto a wicker chair. Although the boat's captain, John
Thompson, believed that she was alive, others weren't so sure.
The men laid her on the deck to avoid crowding in the cabins.
When
she awoke, she found her self covered in blankets, but without clothes.
Three sailors, seeing that she had revived, promptly helped her
inside to the captain's cabin where she fell asleep. Awaking, she
heard a woman, perhaps Beatrice Witherbee,
emotionally scolding Captain
Turner, also on board the Bluebell, at the lack of
organization and discipline on board during the sinking, which had lead
to her baby's death. A sailor bringing Margaret a
cup of tea apologized for the woman's outburst, saying, "I'm sorry, I'm
afraid that lady is hysterical."
Margaret's answer was, "On the contrary, that woman is the only one
aboard the Bluebell who is not hysterical."
The Bluebell reached Queenstown at 11 p.m. Margaret, much
too weak to step onto the gangplank, crawled ashore in a khaki army
greatcoat borrowed from a soldier to her father who was waiting for
news of her on the quay. Afterwards they went to stay at
the Queen's Hotel. Dorothy, still in her fawn tweed suit,
came to visit Lady Mackworth the next morning before parting ways.
Dorothy updated Margaret that Howard was safe. Lady
Mackworth and D. A.
Thomas went home to Wales; Dorothy and Howard continued on to work on
the battlefields of France.
Margaret's brush with death left a deep impression on
her. She believed that her life had been saved to give it
additional purpose and direction. Later in life, she became
a deeply religious and very devout Christian.
In 1917, D. A. Thomas was appointed Minister of Food
and given the title of Lord Rhondda. Margaret was not overlooked,
and also given a position; as Lady Rhondda she became the Director of
Women's Department of the Ministry of National Service. Her 1918
report on the Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) was highly critical of the
WRAF commandant, Violet Douglas-Pennant, and led to
Douglas-Pennant's dismissal. She was replaced by Helen
Gwynne-Vaughan.
Nineteen-eighteen was the year the British government recognized the
right of women over thirty to vote. That same year in
June, David Alfred Thomas was named Viscount Rhondda. He passed
away one month later. When D. A. Thomas died, Margaret attempted
to take her father's seat in the House of Lords as Viscountess Rhondda,
citing the 1919 Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act as her birthright.
The act stated "a person shall not be disqualified by sex or
marriage
from the exercise of any public function." The committee to which
her petition was referred agreed that she had the right to sit in the
House of Lords. This decision, however, alarmed many peers
including
Lord Chancellor Birkenhead. Birkenhead set up another committee
to
reconsider the petition, constituting of himself and thirty other
concerned
peers. Margaret's claim was then swiftly rejected.
Quoting George Bernard Shaw, who highly respected Margaret, the House
of Lords saw Lady Rhondda as a "terror." Because
of her political business acumen, "the House of Lords has risen up
and said, 'If Lady Rhondda comes in here, we go away!' " Shaw
goes further to say that if she had gained entry, "there would be such
a show-up of the general business ignorance and imbecility of the male
sex as never was before."
Margaret persisted to change the law to accommodate women. She
had her lawyer draft a bill to remove the sex bar and had Viscount
Astor propose to Parliament. Although Astor proposed the same
bill almost annually from 1924 to 1930 with the bill at times coming
within two votes of passing, Viscount Astor would not succeed.
Even though denied a seat in the House of Lords, Lady
Rhondda continued to further her cause in the magazine she founded
in 1920, Time and Tide. The magazine supported left-wing
and feminist causes, and was initially edited by Helen Archdale.
Margaret
would take over in 1926.
In her personal life, Margaret divorced Sir Humphrey in 1922. Sir
Humphrey was a Conservative and didn't quite see
eye-to-eye with his Liberal wife. The deterioration of their
relationship had actually occurred very early in their marriage.
Her
autobiography, This Was My World, which showcased her
philosophy
of life, was published in 1933.
The issue of women in the House of Lords was revived in the 1940s, and
Margaret and others launched a petition to show there existed public
support for women in the House of Lords. The first six months saw
50 000 signatures, including the principals of
the women's colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. The Lords
themselves
finally passed a motion for women's admission in 1949, but the Labour
government under Prime Minister Attlee refused to deliver the promised
legislation.
As time went on, Time and Tide and Margaret moved to the right.
Her magazine became an anti-Communist, conservative magazine that
drifted away from the feminist struggle. Despite any changes in
her political philosophy, she did not let politics
interfere with the makings of a good publication. Margaret was
devoted to Time and Tide single-mindedly. Contributors to
Time and Tide over the years included but were not limited
to Nancy Astor, George Orwell, George Bernard Shaw, Emmeline Pankhurst,
Virginia Wolf, and D. H. Lawrence. Even though Time and Tide
commanded international attention, the magazine never became
self-supporting
and it is estimated that in the thirty-eight years Margaret owned the
magazine, the publication cost her over £500 000.
In later years, Margaret unsuccessfully tried to find
new support, a buyer who would continue the publication. By
the time Margaret died suddenly in London on 20 July 1958, the magazine
had exhausted her personal funds and there was not enough money to
cover the major legacies of her will. Time and Tide was
saved temporarily from bankruptcy by friends and readers. It
stopped
publication in 1977.
Slack attendance in the House of Lords during the 50's made the Lords
an ineffective governing body. Full-scale reform could not be
postponed any longer. Faced with this realization, Lord Home
introduced a bill that created peerages for women. Continuing to
exclude half the population when there was a shortage of members, as
Lord Hailsham put it, was "idiotic." Four women were finally
appointed to the House of Lords in 1958 -- Lady Ravensdale, Lady
Swanborough, Lady Elliot, and Lady Wootton. By then it was much
too late
for Margaret, Viscountess Rhondda, but her legacy had paved the way for
women in generations to follow.
Contributors:
Rob Betz
Randy Bryan Bigham
Michael Poirier
References:
Ballard, Dr. Robert D. with Spencer Dunmore. Exploring the Lusitania.
Warner Books, Inc., 1995.
Hickey, Des and Gus Smith. Seven Days to Disaster.
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1981.
Hoehling, A. A. and Mary Hoehling. The Last Voyage of the Lusitania.
Madison Books, 1956.
"Margaret Haig Thomas," Spartacus Educational. Online.
<http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Whaig.htm>.
Preston, Diana. Lusitania: An Epic
Tragedy. Berkley Books, 2002.
Reyher, Rebecca Hourwich. Search and Struggle for Equality and
Independence. Online. <http://texts.cdlib.org/dynaxml/servlet/BookView?source=oac/oh/reyher/reyher.xml&style=oac/xsl/dynaxml/dynaxml.xsl&query=mackworth&doc.view=entire_text>.
Sutherland, Duncan. "The Admission of Women to the House of
Lords," Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics.
Online. <http://www.qub.ac.uk/cawp/research/pitor.htm>.
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