Waldorf
Astor, the son of William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor, was
born on 19th May 1879. Educated at Eton and
New College, Oxford,
he married Nancy Langhorne in 1906.
A member
of the Conservative
Party,
Astor was elected to represented
the Sutton division of Plymouth in the
House of Commons in 1910.
Astor was a supporter of
the coalition government established by David
Lloyd George in
the First World War. In January 1917 he was
appointed as the prime minister's parliamentary secretary. In July
1918 Astor became parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Food.
On the death of his father
in 1919, Astor became a member of the House of
Lords. His wife now became the party's candidate in the resulting
by-election. Nancy
Astor beat
the Liberal Party candidate, Isaac
Foot, and on
1st December 1919 became the first woman to take her seat in the House
of Commons (the first woman to be elected was Constance
Markievicz in
1918 but as a member of Sinn
Fein had
disqualified herself by refusing to take the oath).
Astor remained in the government
and served as parliamentary secretary to the Local Government Board
(January 1919 to June 1919) and parliamentary secretary to the Ministry
of Health (June 1919 to April 1921).
Astor became proprietor
of The
Observer in
1919. He also served as a governor of Guy's Hospital and of the Peabody
Trust. Other posts held by Astor included Chairman of the Royal Institute
of International Affairs (1935-1949) and Lord Mayor of Plymouth
(1939-44). Waldorf
Astor,
died on 30th September 1952.
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