Nancy Astor

Nancy Witcher Astor (Viscountess Astor), famously known as Lady Astor, was the first woman to take seat as a Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons. She belonged to a family of ex-slave owners in Virginia, United States, and was raised in an upper-class environment. Her unfortunate and disastrous first marriage to a drunken army commander led her to English countryside in search of peace and direction. After this she soon became famous in the elite class for her intelligence, wit and charm. It was her second marriage to the Viscount Astor that gave her an opportunity to contest in the Westminster Parliament. She died on May 2 in 1964 at her daughter's home at Grimsthorpe Castle in Lincolnshire. She was cremated and her ashes interred at the Octagon Temple at Cliveden.