Katharine
Ramsay,
the
eldest daughter
of Sir James Ramsay, was
born in Edinburgh on
6th November 1874. She was educated at Wimbledon High School and the
Royal College of Music. In 1890 she married John Stewart-Murray, the
eldest son of the 7th Duke of Atholl to whose title he succeeded in
1917.
A member of the
Conservative Party, the Duchess of
Atholl was elected to the House of Commons
to represent Kinross and West Perthshire in 1923. She therefore became
the first woman in Scotland to be elected
to Parliament. In 1924 Stanley Baldwin
appointed Atholl as parliamentary secretary to the Board of Education.
After losing office
in 1929 Atholl concentrated on campaigning against oppression in the
Soviet Union and published The
Conscription of a People in 1930. This was followed by
Women and Politics (1931). Along
with Eleanor
Rathbone she
campaigned against female circumcision in Africa.
Atholl
also took a keen interest in foreign policy and was a strong opponent
of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia
and Non-Intervention
in the Spanish
Civil War.
In April 1937, Atholl, Eleanor
Rathbone
and Ellen
Wilkinson travelled
to Spain on a fact-finding mission. The
party visited Madrid,
Barcelona
and Valencia
and observed
the havoc being caused by the Luftwaffe.
In May 1937
Atholl joined with Charlotte
Haldane,
Eleanor
Rathbone,
Ellen
Wilkinson and J.
B. Priestley to
establish the Dependents Aid Committee, an organization which raised
money for the families of men who were members of the International
Brigades. Later
she became chairman of the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief.
Atholl also wrote the book, Searchlight on
Spain (1938).
Atholl
grew increasingly concerned about Adolf Hitler
and his government in Nazi Germany.
She totally opposed the British government's policy of appeasement
and in 1938 resigned her seat and sought re-election on this issue.
However she lost by 1,313 votes to the official Conservative
Party candidate.
In 1945
Atholl became chairman of the British League for European Freedom.
In this post she campaigned against the Soviet control of Poland,
Czechoslovakia
andHungary.
Her autobiography, Working Partnership,
was published in 1958. Katharine Stewart-Murray, the Duchess of Atholl,
died in Edinburgh
on 21st
October 1960.
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Last updated: 10th April, 2002
(1)
Katharine Stewart-Murray, the Duchess of Atholl, wrote about the Spanish
Civil War in her
autobiography, Working Partnership (1958)
Ellen
Wilkinson, who was keenly interested in Spain, asked me if I would
consider a short visit there to see what was going on. She was going
herself, as were Eleanor Rathbone and Dame Rachel Crowdie, whom I
had met on a Red Cross Committee. We went by train to Toulouse, whence
I took my first trip by plane to Barcelona, and in Barcelona
we were warmly received at the beautiful old Generalitat by Senor
Companys, President of Catalonia.
The seat of the Spanish
government had by then been moved and our Minister there, Mr Ogilvie
Forbes, was a former officer in the Scottish Horse. We found him both
friendly and on good terms with the Spanish authorities, and we were
soon presented to the President, Senor Azana. Azana was apparently
friendly, but rather annoyed at some recent interference by British
ships with ships bringing supplies to Spanish ports.
At Valencia the first
thing we saw was one of the schools for refugee children, which showed
clearly the interest in education taken by the Republican government.
Next came a visit to a prison for political prisoners, until lately
occupied by the present President and Prime Minister.
The prison consisted of
a large well-lit building with a central hall from which radiated
staircases to various galleries. Outside these there was a good-sized
gravelled recreation ground in which some fifty men were standing
about, looking well clothed and fed. We were allowed to call out for
men who could speak French or English, and any who could do so were
hastily pushed forward. In reply to our questions they said that little
was wrong with the food, and that letters and gifts from friends were
received regularly. The only complaint made to us was that no visitors
had been allowed for a month.
In another prison we visited,
two hundred Italian prisoners-of-war, Mussolini's so-called 'volunteers',
were confined. We were allowed to talk to them freely and we asked
them how they came to be here. Several replied that they had thought
they were being taken to one of the
Italian colonies. Others had come with their own officers, as a regiment.
When we asked them how they were being treated, several ran off to
fetch samples of the bread they were getting, which they
obviously found satisfactory. They looked well cared for, and happy
to be out of the fighting.
The Prime Minister, Senor
Caballero, found time to see us, and in reply to a question I put
to him, assured me that, in the event of a Republican victory, there
would be full religious liberty. But by far the most interesting personality
I met was the woman member of the Cortes, Dolores Ibarruri, commonly
known as La Pasionaria. I had been reluctant to see her, as her nickname
had suggested to me a rather over-emotional young person, but on Ellen
Wilkinson's pressure I agreed to meet her.
I have never ceased to
be glad that I did so, for the only person with whom I felt La Pasionaria
could be compared was the woman I had always regarded as the greatest
actress I had seen, Eleonora Duse. She had Duse's wonderful grace
and voice, but she was much more beautiful, with rich colouring, large
dark eyes, and black wavy hair. She swept into the room like a queen,
yet she was a miner's daughter married to a miner - a woman who had
had the sorrow of losing six out of eight children. I could understand
nothing that she said, and she talked with great rapidity, but to
look and to listen was pleasure enough for me.
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