Mabel Philipson

Mabel Philipson (1887–1951) was a British actress and politician. She was the third female member to serve in the House of Commons after this became legally possible in 1918, as Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Biography

Early life

She was born Mabel Russell on 1 January 1887.

Career

She became a successful music hall and comedy actress.

On 21 November 1918 the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act 1918, introduced a few weeks previously by Lord Robert Cecil was given Royal Assent, making women eligible as Members of Parliament. Hilton Philipson, her husband, was unseated on petition in 1923, due to a fraud involving his agent. Mabel Philipson won the by-election to follow him, while standing as a Conservative. It was said that she made no secret that she intended to hold the seat until her husband's return;^[1] however when her husband's business hit financial difficulties in 1928 she announced her retirement as "the reason why I have held the seat has ceased to exist".^[2]

She returned to the stage after leaving Parliament, appearing as Mrs Tilling in Other People's Lives at the Wyndham Theatre in 1929.^[3]

Personal life

Widowed by 1911, in 1917 she married Hilton Philipson, a business owner and National Liberal politician; they had three children. She died on 8 January 1951.

Selected filmography

• Tilly of Bloomsbury (1931)

References

• John Sleight, Women on the March (1986)
• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd edition ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X. 

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Mabel Philipson