The Elusive Lady Apsley

This article proposes to assess the career and political significance of Bristol's first woman M.P., Lady Apsley (1895–1966) who held office between 1943 and 1945. It seeks to do this with reference both to feminist historiography, which questions traditional demarcations between ‘women's activities’ and mainstream politics, and to the post-colonial scholarship which challenges a strictly metropolitan approach to analysing British political figures.