By Mari Takayanagi, Senior Archivist On 22 September 1921, Margaret Wintringham (1879-1955) was elected MP for Louth in Lincolnshire in a by-election, becoming the first ever Liberal woman MP. She was the third woman MP ever elected, following Constance Markievicz in 1918 and …
In August 2021 Henley Royal Regatta changed its dress code to allow women to wear trousers in the Steward's Enclosure after a petition the previous year by University of Oxford rower Georgia Grant called the dress code ‘draconian’. [1] The …
Over the past year of Elizabeth Tower blog posts from the Parliamentary Archives, we’ve taken a deeper look at the Ayrton Light, Big Ben and the quarter bells and the decorative shields which adorn the Tower’s façade. As restoration of …
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passing of the Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Act. So, here’s ten things you need to know about this seminal piece of legislation. This blog was written by Richard Ward, Assistant Archives Officer. …
In this period, Poplar was one of the poorest areas of London, with high levels of unemployment, poverty and hunger. Under the Poor Law, initiatives to alleviate these issues by the Poplar Poor Law Union had to be funded by …
Since the medieval period, permission for building roads and other public works has been granted by acts of Parliament. Permission to build canals and railways has been granted this way since the eighteenth century, and since 1794 promoters of these …
This blog article was written by Sandip Samra. Sandip is a Customer Marketing and Communications Manager in the Research and Information department. She manages the House of Commons Library and POST's marketing and Communications to Parliamentarians. Sandip is currently co-Secretary …
By Mari Takayanagi, Senior Archivist Did you know the House of Lords set up a commission in India in 1938? The Lords Committee for Privileges was investigating a peerage claim and found that not all witnesses could travel to London …
Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs National Portrait Gallery To mark South Asian Heritage Month, here’s a profile of Shapurji Saklatvala, a pioneering British Parliamentarian of Indian birth. Prepare to be enlightened about The Man, The Myth, The Marxist. This blog was …
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the coronation of George IV. It took place on 19th July 1821. The coronation ceremony was held in Westminster Abbey, followed by an extravagant coronation banquet held in Westminster Hall. There is a …
