Subject

Feminist and social reformer. Daughter of John & Margaret Gladstone. Born 17 Pembridge Square, her mother dying soon after. Brought up to do good works, she became a socialist, joined the Labour party and married Ramsay MacDonald in 1896, who after her early death would become the first Labour prime minister.

She was interested in the working woman and worked herself to improve the lot of these women. She joined and worked with the Women's Industrial Council, concerned with women working at home in London. Recognising that women needed training to acquire skills for work she participated in the setting up of the first trade schools for girls in 1904.

Ramsay and she lived in a flat at 3 Lincoln's Inn Fields where her children were born and where she died. Ramsay wrote a memoir of her and her ashes are buried at Lossiemouth, Scotland with her husband's.

The photo comes from a book written about her by Ramsay after her death.