Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Born Oswaldtwistle, 1911.

Her obituary in The Independent.

OBITUARY:Margaret McKay - People, News - The Independent

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

thanks for posting that , very interesting , had never heard of her :cool:

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Would be interesting to know her thoughts during her last 25 years living in Abu Dhabi and watching the change 'petro dollar' wealth brought to Abu Dahbi and the rest of the Gulf ,changing them from small mud walled villages living on Pearl diving and smuggling to todays excesses and how she equated that with the plight of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza that she championed .
Maybe its time for you to do a book , "from Ossy to the Gulf via the Hermitage " ;) :cool:

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Neither had I.

She was born the same year as my great aunt and uncle, and there are still lots of Catlows in Ossy, so surely someone must know something about her.

According to this her education was 'elementary only', so it would be interesting to know how a local mill girl got to sit as a MP in the House of Commons, dressed in Arab robes, pitched a Palestinian tent in Trafalgar Square, and had a Jordanian postage stamp issued in her honour.

Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

There's a photograph of her on here, though sadly she's wearing a western style coat and hat.

Gwyneth Dunwoody: a life in pictures | Politics | guardian.co.uk

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

'From an Accrington mill to British MP via a Moscow spy school. The story of Margaret McKay could easily have been the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster.'

Lancashire news, sport and entertainment from Lancashire, Greater Manchester & Merseyside - Margaret's life reads like a film script

Interesting to note from this that she had four books published, including a autobiography A Generation in Revolt, and blamed Robert Maxwell for the fact she didn't have more published.

'In a letter to Jim Ainsworth, author of a book about Hyndburn Trade Unions, Mrs McKay wrote: "..he (Maxwell) was my bitter political foe and aided in driving me out of Parliament.'

At least Jim Ainsworth knows about this local lass, and friend of Lenin's wife!

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Just found her autobiography, which was published under her maiden name of McCarthy...and bought it from a book shop in Ireland.:o:)

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

[quote=garinda;739310]'From an Accrington mill to British MP via a Moscow spy school. The story of Margaret McKay could easily have been the plot of a Hollywood blockbuster.'

Lancashire news, sport and entertainment from Lancashire, Greater Manchester & Merseyside - Margaret's life reads like a film script

Interesting to note from this that she had four books published, including a autobiography A Generation in Revolt, and blamed Robert Maxwell for the fact she didn't have more published.

'In a letter to Jim Ainsworth, author of a book about Hyndburn Trade Unions, Mrs McKay wrote: "..he (Maxwell) was my bitter political foe and aided in driving me out of Parliament.'


It's a remarkable story. Jim Ainsworh's a mate of mine, and knew she had written to him about her recollections of Ossy.

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

never heard of her meself, interesting lass it seems, bit funny were just hearing about her now 13 yrs after she croaked.:confused:

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

I was looking through old obituaries last night, and I read hers, and she seemed fascinating.

There weren't many mill girls from around here who went on to sit in the House of Commons, dressed in Arab robes, was friends with Lenin's widow, and counted Robert Maxwell as her enemy.

Any interesting local information I gleam from her book I shall post on here.

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

nah was meaning, cant remember seeing owt in local tabloids, mind ya was living in blackpool in 96. but still worked here, so was buying em.

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Did she push him?? :rolleyes::D

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

I am reminded of Bob Maxwell every night of my life when.at 10.15pm, my wife says,
" Go out for a drink by all means Bob, but don't go overboard"

There was another Ossy lass, whose name escapes me, who became a leading suffragette about the time that Margaret McCarthy was born.

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Isn't Margaret Beckett's sister local as well?

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

dunno wadey but walking through accy centre i would assume so.:hidewall:

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

If her sister is local then, surely, she would be as well. :confused:

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

I thought that as well , but didn't want to appear "thick" in case I had missed something :D :D

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Beckett's sister is a nun. Though I have no idea where she lives.

She should get thee to a nunnery as well, for all I care.

The long faced, caravaning, husband employing, grace and favour peppercorn renting, mealy mouthed, unapologetic expense whinger, shouldn't be mentioned in the same breath as my new Ossy born, firebrand, heroine.

:D

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

A brilliant description! Karma sent. However, I'm slightly concerned about your new heroine. Someone who admires and visits one of the most repressive, murderous regimes in history, responsible for the deaths of millions of people, seems a bit dodgy to me. And yes, I know she left the communist party eventually. But if she'd joined Mosley's Blackshirts and visited Nazi Germany in the '30's, would you have been able to put it down to youthful naivety, even if she'd renounced her past?

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Until her book arrives in the post I can't really comment, although she was chosen to go to Russia in 1927 by the Accrington Weavers, Winders, and Warpers Association, aged only sixteen, only ten years after the revolution, when to many it still seemed like some worker's Utopia. It will certainly be interesting to read her opinion of working conditions in the still newly formed Soviet Union, compared to those we had in Lancashire at the time.

I doubt at that time she saw any of the terrible things that had already happened, and would happen later under Stalin.

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Well maybe, but I agree, she seems a fascinating character. What puzzles me is that very few seemed to have heard of her, until you unearthed her...I certainly hadn't. It's almost like she's been airbrushed out of local history...I wonder why?

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

That does seem a shame.

Like I say at the moment, until I read her autobiography, I can't really comment on her politics.

Though I would be able to forgive any youthful and naive idealism, especially in those turbulent inter-war years, a period of history I find fascinating, especially the way the political world was portrayed as being very black and white, with a clear case of left versus right.

I'd certainly be more forgiving than I am of any youthful desire to enter politics for personal cynical advancement, rather than an idealistic hope of helping others.

What I do admire is a local mill worker who found herself sitting in parliament, via a route that was still unusual for women of her class, and unlike other women who did the same thing, which was usually through grammar school system and then university, such as Barbara Castle.

Her mother was a Catlow, and a Methodist. Since Ossy had a much smaller population then, and my family were also Methodists and mill workers, some involved with the local Labour party, I'm even more fascinated by her story, especially if she was known by any of my relatives.

I'm off now to research the provenance of my 1920's dining table and chairs, which was given to me by some Ossy Catlows who were Methodists, and who were of a similar age, and to check old sunday school photographs we have when her mother would have been attending in the 1890's.

:D

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

She hasn't been airbrushed out of local Labour Party history. Her story is truly remarkable, when you think that a girl brought up in Ossy in the early 1900s and went on to achieve what she did.

I mentioned in a previous post that she wrote several letters to Jim Ainsworth, when Jim was writing he's book on Labour history in Accrington

Jim incidentally is a Stanley fan, and he sits just behind me in the stand. I'll try and collar him at the match on Saturday.Maybe I can get him to come on Accy Web to explain more about Margaret Mckay

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

The long faced, caravaning, husband employing, grace and favour peppercorn renting, mealy mouthed, unapologetic expense whinger"
Not keen then?

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Not unless she romps home in the next Grand National.

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Sounds interesting, but I must take you to task on your last comment. How can he sit behind you in the stand? I stand behind you, with Cashy and other chaps, and, although seats have invaded the sacred slopes of the Clayton End, there are definitely none behind you! ;)

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

I've to be honest, I'm siting in the main stand this season. I wanted to stay under the cowshed, but there not letting any Stanley fans go there.

I do realise that it's got absolutely nothing with the life of Margaret McKay M.P.

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

OK, well, in that case you've got a double. He was standing with Jeff at one of the last two home matches (Lincoln, I think). I hope he doesn't run on the pitch or anything...you could end up getting barred!

Apologies for thread wander!

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

I stood in the Clayton end for the Rovers friendly probably next to Jeff. But in the league games I've been in the stand. I was at the Rotherham away game with Jeff, could have been that one

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

...and it's said women can talk!

:rolleyes::D

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Yes, that's Lesley Jackson.

She was a Labour councillor, for Rishton I think it was.

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

So she was a local councillor but not locally born and bred?

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Thanks Lilly

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Apparently inbetween working in various local mills, and before she was chosen to go to Russia in 1927, she worked in the offices of a local newspaper.

If such things still exist, the Observer might have an archive to check, because although she doesn't name them, I presume it's the Accrington Observer.

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

McKay Margaret

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/mar...sworth_clapham

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

Be interesting to know what the present day Labour Party leader would think of her views expressed here
Foreign Affairs: 18 Jul 1968: House of Commons debates (TheyWorkForYou.com)

Re: Margaret McKay M.P.
 

I doubt she would have been one of Blair's Babes.

:rolleyes:


I like the cut of her jib.

Hard working, principled, liked dressing up, lived in a tent, and an Ossy lass to boot.

Her biography was an amazing book, though the second half was very heavily political.