Aline Mackinnon

Aline Mackinnon (1902-1970) was a British radical feminist, Liberal Party politician and Civil Servant.

She was a daughter of Percy Graham MacKinnon and Mabel Lockett. She was educated at Newnham College, Cambridge and Edinburgh University, where she received a Master of Arts.

In 1921 she attended the first Liberal Summer School. She was the Honorary Parliamentary Secretary to the Women's Liberal Federation. She was selected as Liberal candidate for Holderness and came second;

She was Honorary Secretary of the Liberal Summer School. She fought Holderness again in 1935, slightly reducing the Conservative majority;

She was given another opportunity to enter parliament at the Holderness by-election on 15 February 1939. Despite the presence of a Labour candidate, she had some public support from prominent Labour people who supported the notion of a Popular Front. She had offered to withdraw if the Labour candidate withdrew in favour of an Independent Progressive candidate acceptable to both parties.

Deprived by the outbreak of war of another crack at Holderness, she retired from elective politics but continued to be active in the national party as a member of the Liberal Party Council, and for the Women's Liberal Federation, serving as Vice-President. She was a Civil Servant from 1941 to 1947. Her Women's Liberal colleague Frances Josephy described her as "very knowledgeable and a brilliant speaker with a pretty wit".

Portrait at the National Portrait Gallery: http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp50249/aline-mackinnon

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