Katharine Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl

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Katharine Marjory Stewart-Murray, Duchess of Atholl DBE (6 November 1874 – 21 October 1960), born Katharine Marjory Ramsay and known as the Marchioness of Tullibardine from 1899 to 1917, was a Scottish noblewoman and Unionist politician.

The daughter of Sir James Henry Ramsay, 10th Baronet, she was educated at Wimbledon High School and the Royal College of Music. On 20 July 1899, she married John Stewart-Murray, Marquess of Tullibardine, who succeeded his father as the 8th Duke of Atholl in 1917, whereupon Katharine became known as the Duchess of Atholl. She was active in Scottish social service and local government, and was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1918. She was the Scottish Unionist Party Member of Parliament for Kinross and West Perthshire from 1923 to 1938, and served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education from 1924 to 1929, the first woman to serve in a Conservative government.

She resigned the Conservative whip first in 1935 over the India Bill and the "socialist tendency" of the government's domestic policy. Resuming the Whip she resigned it again in 1937 over the Anglo-Italian Agreement. Finally she resigned her seat in parliament in 1938 in opposition to Neville Chamberlain's policy of appeasement of Adolf Hitler. To permit her resignation (technically proscribed by law), she was named Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds on 28 November 1938. She stood in the subsequent by-election as an Independent but lost her seat.

The Duchess had sometimes confusing opinions. She argued that she actively opposed totalitarian regimes and practices. In 1931 she published The Conscription of a People - a protest against the abuse of rights in the Soviet Union. According to her autobiography Working Partnership (1958) it was at the prompting of Ellen Wilkinson that in April 1937 she, Eleanor Rathbone, and Wilkinson, went to Spain to observe the effects of the Spanish Civil War. In Valencia , Barcelona and Madrid she saw the impact of Luftwaffe bombing on behalf of the Nationalists, visited prisoners of war held by the Republicans and considered the impact of the conflict on women and children in particular. Her book Searchlight on Spain resulted from this involvement, and her support for the Republican side in the conflict led to her being nicknamed by some the 'Red Duchess'. However, Cowling cites her as saying that she supported the Republican government because "a government [Franco's] which used Moors could not be a national government". Her opposition to the British policy of non-intervention in Spain epitomised her attitudes and actions.

She was also a keen composer, composing music to accompany the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson.

[edit] References

• Atholl, Duchess of, (Editor), Military History of Perthshire (1660-1902), 2 volumes, 1908.
• Atholl, Duchess of, Women and Politics, 1931.
• Atholl, Duchess of, Conscription of a People, 1931.
• Atholl, Duchess of, Main Facts of the Indian Problem, 1933.
• Atholl, Duchess of, Searchlight on Spain, 1st & 2nd editions June 1938; 3rd revised edition September 1938 (P/B).
• Cowling, Maurice, The Impact of Hitler - British Politics and Policy 1933-1940, Cambridge University Press, 1975, p.403, ISBN 0-521-20582-4.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by James Gardiner	Member of Parliament for Kinross and West Perthshire 1923 – 1938	Succeeded by William McNair Snadden