Margaret Wingfield CBE (19 January 1912 – 6 April 2002) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 activist.

Wingfield was the niece of the Liberal Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) Charles McCurdy

Charles McCurdy

Charles Albert McCurdy was a British Liberal Member of Parliament and minister in the Lloyd George Coalition Government. He was made a member of the Privy Council in 1920....

. She was educated at Freiburg University and the London School of Economics

London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

. She was a social worker and housewife.

Wingfield served on the Liberal Party Council from 1962 and was president of the party during the time of the revelations about Jeremy Thorpe

Jeremy Thorpe

John Jeremy Thorpe is a British former politician who was leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976 and was the Member of Parliament for North Devon from 1959 to 1979. His political career was damaged when an acquaintance, Norman Scott, claimed to have had a love affair with Thorpe at a time...

's private life and his subsequent resignation as leader. She stood several times for parliament and the London County Council

London County Council

London County Council was the principal local government body for the County of London, throughout its 1889–1965 existence, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today known as Inner London and was replaced by the Greater London Council...

, for Wokingham

Wokingham (UK Parliament constituency)

Wokingham is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...

 in 1964 and 1966, Walthamstow West

Walthamstow West (UK Parliament constituency)

Walthamstow West was a borough constituency in what is now the London Borough of Waltham Forest, but was until 1965 the Walthamstow Urban District of Essex...

 in a 1967 by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

, and Chippenham

Chippenham (UK Parliament constituency)

Chippenham is a parliamentary constituency, abolished in 1983 but recreated in 2010, and represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...

 in 1970, but was never elected.

Her granddaughter is Carita Ogden, who is a Liberal Democrat Councillor in the London Borough of Lambeth.

External links

• "She kept the Liberals together after the Jeremy Thorpe affair" (obituary), The Guardian, London, 17 April 2002.