Frances Henrietta Stewart

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{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2017}}
[[File:1929_Lady_Frances_Stewart.jpg|thumb|right|A Liberal candidate in 1929 by a poster of Lloyd George]]
'''Frances Henrietta Stewart''' [[OBE]] (1883 – 26 September 1962), was a British politician and supporter of [[Indian nationalism]].

==Background==
She was born as '''Frances Henrietta Rickards''', the daughter of Arthur G. Rickards, KC. She had a private education. In 1906 she married Francis Hugh Stewart, a Calcutta merchant. That year, she returned with him to India, where they lived and raised a family. They had three sons and four daughters. In 1916, her husband was knighted, which gave her the title of '''Lady Stewart'''. They returned to Britain in 1919. Sir Francis died in 1921.<ref>‘STEWART, Frances Henrietta, (Lady Stewart)’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012; online edn, Nov 2012 [http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U51897, accessed 6 Dec 2013]</ref>

==Political career==
She joined the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]]. She was an advocate of Indian independence and served as Honorary Secretary of the [[National Indian Association]]. She also took an active interest in infant and school welfare work.<ref>The Times House of Commons, 1929</ref>
She was Liberal candidate for the [[Kensington North (UK Parliament constituency)|Kensington North]] Division of London at the 1929 General Election. It was not a promising seat for the Liberals who had not won since 1906. She finished in third place;
[[File:KensingtonNorth1918.png|right|thumb|260px|Kensington North in the County of London, showing boundaries used in 1929]]
{{Election box begin | title=[[1929 United Kingdom general election|General Election 30 May 1929]]: Kensington, North<ref>British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, F.W.S. Craig</ref>
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
|party = Labour Party (UK)
|candidate = [[Fielding Reginald West]]
|votes = 19,701
|percentage = 48.4
|change = +1.4
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
|party = Conservative Party (UK)
|candidate = [[Percy George Gates]]
|votes = 15,511
|percentage = 38.1
|change = -14.9
}}
{{Election box candidate with party link|
|party = Liberal Party (UK)
|candidate = '''Lady Frances Henrietta Stewart'''
|votes = 5,516
|percentage = 13.5
|change = ''N/A''
}}
{{Election box majority|
|votes = 4,190
|percentage = 10.3
|change =
}}
{{Election box turnout|
|votes = 59,500
|percentage = 68.5
|change = -1.1
}}
{{Election box gain with party link|
|winner = Labour Party (UK)
|loser = Conservative Party (UK)
|swing = +8.2
}}
{{Election box end}}
In 1930 she left the Liberals to join the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]],<ref>Western Morning News, 21 February 1930</ref> and she stood unsuccessfully in [[Balham and Tooting (London County Council constituency)|Balham and Tooting]] at the [[1931 London County Council election]].<ref>{{cite news |title=LCC Election: Seven seats lost by Labour |work=The Times |date=7 March 1931}}</ref> In September 1931, when the Labour Party split over support for the National Government, she followed Labour Prime Minister [[Ramsay MacDonald]] and joined [[National Labour Organisation|National Labour]]. She attempted to run as a National Labour candidate in Kensington North at the 1931 General Election, but when it became clear that supporters of the National Government were uniting behind the Conservative candidate, she withdrew.<ref>Dundee Courier, 16 October 1931</ref> Although she continued to support National Labour throughout the 1930s, she did oppose the National Government's Nazi appeasement policy; in early 1939, before war broke out, she advocated the introduction of conscription and increased arms spending to counter the Nazi threat.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3BU1AAAAIBAJ&sjid=6qULAAAAIBAJ&pg=3891%2C4408480 |title=Good citizens and good neighbours. National Labour speaker and ARP workers |work=[[The Glasgow Herald]] |page=9 |date=27 May 1939 |accessdate=13 March 2016}}</ref> In 1939 she was awarded the OBE.

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:STEWART, Frances Henrietta}}
[[Category:1883 births]]
[[Category:1962 deaths]]
[[Category:Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) people]]
[[Category:National Labour (UK) politicians]]
[[Category:Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire]]

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Frances Henrietta Stewart