Home Page 

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O PQ R S T U V W XYZ

" It will be years - but not in my lifetime - before a woman becomes leader of a party or the Prime Minister"

Margaret Thatcher .... 1974

Her Name is Margaret

* Margaret Aiken

died 1994

 ..... FIRST woman student of the Inn of court of Northern Ireland in 1925 and then became the FIRST woman to practise at the Bar there

* Margaret Aldred

 ..... FIRST woman to hold the post of private secretary to the Defence Secretary when appointed in 1994 to Malcolm Rifkind

* Margaret Joan Anstee

.....  in 1992 she became the FIRST woman to be in charge of a United Nations peace-keeping operation when she was appointed Special Representative and Chief of the Angola Verification Mission. She co-ordinated current and projected U.N activities in connection with the Angola Peace Awards, including the monitoring of elections. In 1994 she was appointed DBE in recognition of her services

* Margaret Ashton

born January 19th 1856 died October 15th 1937

..... FIRST woman candidate for a seat in the Manchester City Council and in 1908 she actually became the FIRST woman councillor with Manchester City Council after winning the Withington district

* Margaret Mary Beckett

born January 15th 1943

..... FIRST woman deputy leader of the Labour Party in Britain and for a short while was its FIRST woman leader on the death of its leader John Smith.  In 1988 she became the FIRST woman to wear a trouser suit in the Royal Procession. She is also the FIRST female Foreign Secretary

* Margaret Benson and Janet Gourlay

..... amateur archaeologists who were the FIRST women to be given a legal concession to dig in Egypt in 1896 and they found the 12" stone head of an ancient god Amun which in 1991 sold for £572,000 at auction. When they first sought permission to excavate they were given a site where no finds were expected but in fact they found more than 200 statues and the Egyptian Antiquities Service later gave them a few in recognition of their contribution to the history of the XXVth and XXV1th Dynasties

* Margaret Beswick

..... FIRST woman in 40 years to win top prize in the Egton Bridge Old Gooseberry Show in North Yorkshire in 1996. Her winning gooseberry was the size of a hen's egg

* Margaret Grace Bondfield

born June 16th 1873 died 1953

..... in 1899 she was the FIRST woman delegate to a TUC Conference, in 1928 she was the FIRST woman chairman of the TUC and on June 8th 1929 was the FIRST woman to become a Minister in England when appointed Minister of Labour under Ramsay MacDonald. She was not a feminist but believed in and held out for full adult suffrage when many of her colleagues in the Labour Party were prepared to support a bill for limited female emancipation

* Margaret Brent

born c1600 died 1670

..... often looked on as one of America's FIRST feminists because she asked for the 'vote' she was the FIRST Maryland  woman to have her own estate and also a powerful woman in the early government of Maryland.  In 1638 she emigrated to Maryland with a sister and two brothers and with her sister Mary acquired about 70 acres of land which they called Sisters Freehold. In 1642 she acquired a further 1,000 acres from her brother on which she raised livestock. In 1648 when she requested two votes from the Assembly of Maryland, one for herself and the other for Lord Baltimore, it was the FIRST recorded instance of a female in North America requesting the right to vote

* Margaret Eleanor Burbidge

born 1923

neé Peachey

..... FIRST woman director of the Royal Greenwich Observatory from 1972-73 and from 1976-78 was FIRST woman President of the American Astronomical Society. She studied at University College, London and won a PhD in astronomy. In 1964 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1978 of the American National Academy of Science. With her husband she worked on quasars and galaxies at La Jolla in California and together they produced distinguished studies on the creation of elements in space

* Margaret Busby

..... FIRST black woman managing director of a British publishing company in 1971. The firm was Allison and Busby, which she had helped to establish

* Margaret Gorman Cahill

born 1906 died 1995

..... FIRST Miss America on September 7th 1921. She was 15 years old at the time, was only 5'1" and had a 30" bust. She remains the youngest, slightest and shortest contestant ever to have won the title and entered as Miss Washington DC whilst still a pupil at school. She later shunned her notoriety

* Margaret Cavendish

Duchess of Newcastle

..... FIRST woman in England to write mainly for publication and the FIRST woman ever to be allowed the chance to visit, though not to be a member of, the Royal Society. She died in 1673 and was buried in Westminster Abbey

* Margaret Madeline Chase-Smith

born December 14th 1897 died 1995

..... FIRST woman Republican Senator, FIRST woman to serve in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, FIRST American woman politician to wield power through having both political influence and political office (1940). FIRST congresswoman for Maine (1948), FIRST woman elected as a US Senator in her own right (1948) FIRST woman to read the address to the Senate (1949) one of the FIRST Republican Senators to speak out against Senator Joseph McCarthy, campaigned for the office of US President in 1964 the FIRST woman since Victoria Woodhull in 1872. She was also the FIRST woman to sail on a destroyer in wartime after becoming assigned to the House Naval Affairs Committee

* Margaret Church

..... FIRST woman architect to be elected to the Royal Institute of British Architects

* Margaret Clarke

..... FIRST woman canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford when she was installed on April 28th 1990 

* Margaret Clitherow - St

born 1556 died 25th March 1586

..... the pearl of York and the FIRST woman in England to die for the Catholic faith when she was crushed to death under an 800-pound weight after a secret room was found at her home containing the vestments and vessels for Mass. In 1970 she was canonised by Pope Paul V1 and her feast day is 25th October. She is one of the most notable and attractive of the Forty Martyrs and the place of her trial and imprisonment can be seen at York. A relic of her hand is at the Bar Convent in the same town

* Margaret Corbin

born 1751 died 1800

..... in 1779 she was the FIRST woman to receive a military pension from the U.S government

* Margaret Court

neé Smith

born July 16th 1942

..... FIRST Australian woman to win Wimbledon in 1963 when she beat Billie-Jean King, the longest women's final in history - 46 games played over two hours and 27 minutes

* Margaret Cousins

born 1878 died 1954

..... Irish woman who was the FIRST woman magistrate in India in 1920.  Her career began in 1908 as Treasurer of the Irish Women's Franchise League and then in 1910 she went as a delegate to the Parliament of Women. In 1915 she went with her husband to India. Two years later she was a founder member of the Indian Women's Association. When she became paralysed in 1943 she received financial support from the Indian government, Pundit Nehru and other admirers in recognition of her services to the Indian freedom struggle. She was also FIRST headmistress of the National Girl's School in Mangalore from 1919-20 and FIRST non-Indian member of the Indian Women's University at Poona

* Margaret Davies

born 1861 died 1944

..... FIRST woman President of the Co-operative Congress on 5th June 1922. She helped to found the International Women's Co-operative Guild in 1921 and as a supporter of the Russian Revolution was Chairman of the Society for Cultural Relations with the USSR from 1924-1928

* Margaret Davies

..... FIRST chairman of the newly formed Group Travel Organisers' Association (P/L)

* Margaret English

..... in 1979 she became the FIRST woman chairman of Norfolk City Council

* Margaret Eyre

neé Lidderdale

..... died in 1991 three weeks after her 99th birthday she was one of  Gloucestershire's most famous sportswomen and the FIRST woman professional tennis coach. In the 1920s played full-back at hockey for England and was one of the FIRST international hockey umpires

* Margaret Exley

..... a management consultant she was the FIRST ever non-executive director with the Treasury in Britain in 1999 when appointed to attend the fortnightly meetings of the Treasury management board

.....  FIRST woman to fly a Spitfire after she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1941 with 1000 flying hours already to her credit (see Pauline Gower)

* Margaret Clay Ferguson

born 1863 died 1951

..... FIRST woman President of the Botanical Society of America in 1929

* Margaret Forrester

..... in 1997 she was in the running to be the FIRST woman Moderator of the General Assembly in the Church of Scotland

* Margaret Gerkin

born 1860

..... she was born in Greenock, Renfrew and came to Salford c1869 and was possibly the FIRST female licensee - running and owning The Burns Tavern, 116 Slater Street, Manchester. In the 1881 Census she was recorded as living at this address as a Beerseller, unmarried, aged 21 years

* Margaret Gibson

born 11th November 1836 died April 12th 1928

..... schoolmistress who was the FIRST honorary freewoman of Peterborough (U.K)

* Margaret Gilbert

..... English woman who was the FIRST woman vicar to officiate at the wedding of her daughter when she was married in Dublin in 1995

* Margaret Mary Gowing

neé Elliott

born 26th April 1921 died 1998

..... known for her brilliant contributions to the civil history of the Second World War she was the FIRST Professor of History of Science at Oxford in 1973 and with the chair went a fellowship at Linacre College. In 1981 she was made OBE and was one of the very few to hold fellowships of both the Royal Society and the British Academy

* Margaret Hardcastle

..... FIRST woman in Wales to hold the post of Deputy Lifeboat Launch Authority in 1987 when her appointment was confirmed by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution at Poole in Dorset. She took up the post on June 1st. Her late husband had held the post and she was a keen yachtswoman  with and Offshore Yachtmasters Certificate and an Oceangoing Yachtmasters certificate

* Margaret Harker and Heather Angel

..... FIRST two women Presidents in the history of the Royal Photographic Society since it was formed in 1856

* Margaret Heckler

..... America's FIRST female Ambassador to the Irish Republic

* Margaret McCrorie Herbison

born 1903 died 1996

..... Labour MP for North Lanark from 1945 to 1970 and the FIRST woman Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. In 1976 she came out of retirement to become the FIRST Lay Observer appointed to investigate allegations by the public against the handling of complaints by the Law Society of Scotland

..... FIRST librarian of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and later became its FIRST executive secretary

* Margaret Hicks

..... Englishwoman who was the FIRST woman to make a single-handed double Atlantic crossing in a midget-sized yacht and the FIRST woman to sail solo seven times across the Bay of Biscay

* Margaret Hodge

..... Britain's FIRST Minister for Children - 2003

* Margaret Holdsworth

..... FIRST woman undergraduate at St. John's, Cambridge in 1982/83 when she was the FIRST of 45 women who were admitted to the college which was founded in 1511 by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry V11

* Margaret Eadie Holmes

Viscountess Standgate

born 1897 died 1991

..... FIRST lay woman to head a Christian denomination and attended the FIRST world Council Churches Assembly as an Anglican in 1948. She later became a Congregationalist. From 1972 to 1973 she served as the FIRST President of the Congregational Federation. She was the wife of Capt Wedgwood Benn, an MP for many years and her second son was Anthony Wedgwood Benn

* Margaret Hyndman

died 1991

..... FIRST Canadian woman to appear before Privy Council and the second woman in the British Empire to be made a King's Counsel  (1938). She was called to the Ontario Bar in 1926 and persuaded the Canadian Bar Association to provide free legal services to military personnel and their families during the Second World War

* Margaret Mabel Gladys Jennings

neé Allan

born July 26th 1909 died 1998

..... one of a select band of women racing drivers who made their mark in the sport during the 1920s and 30s she was a member of the FIRST all-female Abingdon works team formed by Cecil Kimber when she drove 847cc MGs at Le Mans in 1935. With her co-driver Colleen Eaton, they were nicknamed the Dancing Daughters and took 26th place in the race after covering 1,576 miles. She was only one of four women to hold the Brooklands 120 mph badge and in August 1935 won there, lapping the track at 119 mph

* Margaret Keay

born June 11th 1911 died 1998

..... South African expert in plant pathology who was the FIRST chairman of the Department of Crop Protection in 1968

* Margaret Kelly

neé Majer

..... FIRST woman physical education instructor of co-eds when signed up by the University of Pennsylvania from 1823/24 and FIRST woman to coach the women's swimming team there. She was the mother of Grace Kelly, the film star

* Margaret Henderson Kidd

born 1900 died 1989

..... pioneering Scottish lawyer who was the FIRST woman member of the Faculty of Advocates in Scotland in 1923, FIRST woman barrister to appear before the House of  Lords (1926) FIRST woman counsel to appear before a Parliamentary Select Committee (1927) and FIRST woman to take silk when appointed a King's Counsel on 20th December 1948. In 1960 she was the FIRST woman Sheriff Principal in Scotland. She retired in 1973 after 50 years at the Scottish Bar

* Margaret Kingaby

neé Florence Margaret Charlotte Blenkiron

born April 24th 1904 died 1991

..... FIRST woman to do the "ton-up" on two wheels lapping the Brooklands circuit at 102 mph and earning her the Gold Star of the British Motor Cycle Racing Cup in 1934. In December of the same year she and a female companion made a round trip journey of some 27,000 miles to Capetown and back by motor-cycle and sidecar, towing a light trailer

* Margaret Knowles

..... the FIRST Salford girl to gain international swimming honours when she represented England against Scotland

* Margaret Leech

..... FIRST woman executive director at Arkells Brewery, Swindon, England in 1991 in its 148-year history

* Margaret McGregor

..... FIRST female boxer in the FIRST man v woman boxing match in 1999.  The fight was in Seattle and her opponent was Loi Chow. Margaret won on points after four rounds

* Margaret and Rachel McMillan

..... in 1908 they opened the FIRST school clinic in London and in 1914 opened the FIRST open-air nursery school

* Margaret McTear

..... in 2003 she brought the FIRST damages case in Britain against a cigarette manufacturer when she sued Imperial Tobacco for £500,000 on behalf of her later husband Alfred for failing to warn him of the dangers of smoking

* Margaret Mee

neé Margaret Henderson Brown

born 1909 died 1988

..... botanical artist an redoubtable traveller in the Amazon who was the FIRST woman to climb on the south side of the Picode Nebline, Brazil's highest mountain in 1967 after being sponsored by the National Geographic Society. Her Amazonian adventures began in 1956 and during one of them she discovered a new species of bromeliads which have never been found since and which are known only from her Amazon Collection of 60 paintings.  Her work has been exhibited at the National History Museum and the Missouri Botanical Gardens. Her last Amazon expedition took place in May 1988 shortly before her death in a motor accident in England

* Margaret Alice Murray

born 13th July 1863 died 13th Nov 1963

..... in 1894 she became a student of Egyptology at University College London , quickly learnt to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphs and became the FIRST woman Egyptologist.  She published over 80 books on ancient Egypt and also wrote an autobiography My First Hundred Years in 1963. She was also deeply interested in witchcraft and folklore and was a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute in 1926 and from 1953-55 was President of the Folklore Society

* Margaret Constance Owen

born 1918  died 1989

..... the FIRST woman to break into the exclusive male world of cartoon drawing in Fleet Street where for more than 40 years her pioneer role was concealed by her by-line 'Belsky', taken from her husband's surname. After winning a competition in Punch magazine she began a career in caricature spanning newspapers such as the Daily Herald, the Guardian, New Statesman, Financial Weekly and the People. She also contributed to Punch, women's magazines, taught art, illustrated books and designed dust jackets

* Margaret Pereira

..... FIRST woman controller of the Home Office Forensic Science service. She acquired her honours degree at night school but it was seven years before she was allowed to give evidence in court whereas male university graduates  could get into court in one year

* Margaret Philimore

..... American who was the FIRST woman to preach in Canterbury Cathedral - 1982/83. The congregation was less than 100 and the service included only passing reference in prayer to the controversial debate in the Anglican Church on the ordination of women

* Margaret Pilkington

..... FIRST woman President of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society from 1964-66

* Margaret Rose - Princess

born August 21st 1930 died 2002

..... English Princess and only sister of Queen Elizabeth 11 of England her divorce from Tony Armstrong-Jones in 1978 was the FIRST royal divorce since King Henry V111's divorce from Anne of Cleves in 1533

 * Margaret Isabel Reid

..... born March 17th 1925 died 1992

..... one of the FIRST women journalists to break into the traditionally male bastion of City affairs

* Margaret Salmon

..... Englishwoman who was the FIRST woman to he made a member of the BBC's board of management when appointed Director of Personnel to oversee the reduction of its 27,000 staff and to make other cost cuts in 1990. In 1989 she became personnel director at the Burton Group

* Margaret Louise Sanger

neé Higgins

born September 14th 1883 died September 6th 1966

..... American birth control pioneer who opened her FIRST clinic in Brooklyn in 1916 and in 1921 founded the FIRST American Birth Control League.  She fought for women's rights and disputed the fact that contraception was ' wicked ' and wrote so in newspapers of the day.   By 1932 there were 80 clinics and she travelled to Japan and China to pioneer birth control there. She organised the FIRST world Population Confederation in Geneva in 1927 and  was  the FIRST President of the International Planned Parenthood Federation in 1952. Her books on the subject are Happiness in Marriage (1927) and My Fight For Birth Control (1931)

* Margaret Schutte-Lihotsky

..... FIRST woman architect in Austria

* Margaret Sharp

..... in 1986 she was the FIRST woman to be appointed City Librarian in Edinburgh

* Margaret Sherman

born November 14th 1916 died 1997

..... author of a wartime bestseller describing the experiences of women in the services No Time For Tears (1944) and the FIRST woman reporter for the Bristol Evening World after she had written an article about Nazism which the newspaper had published

* Margaret Smith

..... FIRST woman prison chaplain in Britain when appointed to Net Hall Prison and Young Offender Institution at Flockton in Yorkshire in 1990

* Margaret Smith

..... model for the FIRST ever television advertisement which went out at 8.12 pm on Saturday,

22nd September 1955 during a variety show and which was for Gibbs SR toothpaste

* Margaret Tennant and Mary Patterson

..... Irish women who were the FIRST women factory inspectors in Britain in 1891. Margaret Tennant (1869-1946) worked for the Royal Commission on Labour and this led to her appointment as a factory inspector. As such she concentrated on illegal overtime, bad sanitation and safety. in 1895 she sat on a departmental commission on dangerous trades. She later became chairman of the Industrial Law Commission, a member of the Royal Commission on Divorce and from 1914-1918 was an adviser on Women's Welfare to the Ministry of Munitions. In later life she turned to the problems of women's health and in particular, maternal mortality

* Margaret Hilda Thatcher

neé Roberts

born October 13th 1925

.....  FIRST woman to lead a political party in Britain, on May 4th 1979 she became the FIRST woman Prime Minister of Britain and was the FIRST woman Prime Minister to hold a degree in science. She was also the FIRST international figure to receive the Association of Indonesian Engineers 1992 Honorary Fellowship Award, was FIRST woman Lord of the Treasury and FIRST President of the No Turning Back Group of right wing Tory MPs, FIRST woman member of the Carlton Club, London, when she was made an honorary life member on becoming party leader in 1975 a tradition going back to 1832  and FIRST Lady Taverner. In 2007 she became the FIRST living Prime Minister to have her statue in the House of Commons

* Margaret Thrall

..... FIRST woman deacon to be ordained in Bangor diocese in 1982 and FIRST woman canon in Wales after the Queen who is a honorary canon of St David's Cathedral

* Margaret Elizabeth Harvey Turner- Warwick

born 1924

..... made medical history when she was appointed FIRST woman President of the Royal College of Physicians in its 471-year history. She was a consultant at the Brompton Hospital and dealt with asthma and the association between lung and rheumatic diseases and various occupations

* Margaret Walker

born 1915

..... writer who was a professor of English and African-American literature and history at Jackson State University in Mississippi and established the Institute for the Study of Black Life and Culture there in the 1960s , the FIRST of its kind in the American South. In 1966 she completed her novel Jubilee, based on her great-grandmother's life which took her 20 years researching and it became one of the most famous books ever written by a black woman. She retired from teaching in 1979 to writing full-time

* Margaret Webster

born 1905 died 1972

..... FIRST woman to direct an opera at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York

* Margaret Bourke White

born June 14th 1904 died August 27th 1971

..... famous photographer who was the FIRST Army Air Force woman photographer in action in North Africa and Italy during WW2 and one of the FIRST to enter camps such as Buchenwald. In 1930 she was the FIRST western photographer allowed into the Soviet Union and was the FIRST woman photographer hired by Life magazine. In 1943 she was the FIRST woman to fly on a combat mission. For over 40 years she produced pictures that became world famous from Hitler's soldiers to the India of Gandhi and she was the last person to interview him before he was assassinated. Much of her work and the story of her life is in The Life Of Margaret Bourke-White

* Margaret Cook Whitehead

..... FIRST woman Mayor of Salford, England in 1960. It was the FIRST time in British history that a husband and wife had both held the mayoralty and the FIRST time in Britain that a woman had been both a Mayoress and a Mayor. Her husband was Alderman S W Davies, who was Mayor in 1958, and she retained her maiden name for civic purposes

* Margaret Wintringham

..... FIRST Liberal Member for Parliament in 1921 when she was elected in a by-election after she stood in place of her husband who had recently died

Back to top of page