Betty Morgan (politician)

Betty Morgan

Dr Elizabeth Trebelle Morgan (July 1904 – 1981), also called Betty Morgan and later Betty Morgan Popescu, was a Welsh author, translator, scholar and Liberal Party politician. She was notably the youngest woman candidate in the 1929 General Election.

Early life and education

She was born in Cardiff, a twin daughter of Mr and Mrs Oswald Morgan of Barry, Glamorgan. She was educated at the University of Wales where she received a Bachelor of Arts in 1925. In 1928, she was granted the degree of Doctor of Letters of the University of Paris-Sorbonne and awarded the gold medal of the Alliance française of Paris in the examination for the Diplôme Supérieur.^[1]

Writing and translating career

Alfred Dreyfus

She wrote Histoire du Journal des Sçavans depuis 1665 jusqu'en 1701, published in 1928. She used her French language skills as a translator of books such as Souvenirs Et Correspondance, a collection of letters during the Dreyfus affair by Alfred Dreyfus, published in 1937. The letters were contributed by Dreyfus' son Pierre after Alfred's death. In 1952, Morgan had English People Speak like This: Idiomatic English published.

Political career

Both her parents were active members of the Liberal party in South Wales, so she and her sister had an early experience of political activity. In April 1929 she was selected as the second Liberal candidate for the Sunderland Division at the 1929 General Election. At the age of 24, this made her the youngest woman candidate in the election.^[2] This election was the first election in which women under the age of 30 were allowed to vote. She was not successful, but the fact that she was a 24-year-old woman did not appear to count against her as she managed to out-poll her older male running mate, who had the additional credibility of having been a former Member of Parliament.

General Election 1929: Sunderland[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Marion Phillips	31,794	19.5
	Labour	Alfred Smith	31,085	19.0
	Conservative	Sir Walter Raine	29,180	17.9
	Conservative	Luke Thompson	28,937	17.7
	Liberal	Dr. Elizabeth Trebelle Morgan	21,300	13.0
	Liberal	Sir John William Pratt	21,142	12.9
Majority			1,905	1.1
Turnout
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Two years later, she received an unexpected second chance at contesting Sunderland when one of the sitting Labour MPs died, causing the Sunderland by-election, 1931. Given the close nature of the contest last time between Conservative and Labour, the Liberals expected to see their vote squeezed, which is what happened;

Sunderland by-election, 1931[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Luke Thompson	30,497	40.3
	Labour	James Thomas Brownlie	30,074	69.8
	Liberal	Dr. Elizabeth Trebelle Morgan	15,020	19.9
Majority			423	0.5
Turnout				73.1
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

However, Morgan's performance as a by-election candidate did impress Liberals in stronger constituencies who were looking for a new candidate. Shortly after she was selected as Liberal candidate for the Shrewsbury Division for the 1931 General Election. This was a seat the Liberals last won in 1923, and they had finished a strong second at the last general election. However, the creation of a National Government meant that her main opponent, the incumbent Conservative, could not easily be attacked by a Liberal whose party was a partner in that National Government. Despite this difficulty, she highlighted her support for free trade as being the most important issue that distinguished her from her tariff-supporting Conservative opponent. She even went to the extend of advising Liberals in her home constituency of Llandaff & Barry, who were without a Liberal candidate, to vote Labour because of free trade.^[5] She did still poll a respectable second place vote;

General Election 1931: Shrewsbury[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	George Arthur Victor Duckworth	18,505	60.8
	Liberal	Dr Elizabeth Trebelle Morgan	9,358	30.8
	Labour	Edward Porter	2,567	8.4
Majority			9,147	30.1
Turnout			30,430	82.7
	Conservative hold		Swing

Morgan did not stand for parliament again but remained active in the Liberal party, being a guest speaker at the 1938 conference of the Home Counties Liberal Federation.^[7] In the late 1930s she was particularly concerned with the effects of the Spanish Civil War. She became Organising Secretary of the Basque Children's Committee working alongside the Duchess of Atholl and Eleanor Rathbone MP.^[8] She was also actively involved with the Czech Refugee Trust.^[9]

Later life

She married Eugene Popescu and emigrated to Connecticut, USA. She died in Sussex, New Jersey in 1981.

References

1. The Times House of Commons, 1929
2. The Illustrated London News, 4 May 1929.
3. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
4. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
5. OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. "Unionist Attack In Wales." Times [London, England] 16 October 1931: 8. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
6. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.
7. The Liberal Magazine, 1938
8. Jackson, Angela (2002). British Women and the Spanish Civil War. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0415277973.
9. Jackson, Angela (2012). 'For Us It Was Heaven': The Passion, Grief and Fortitude of Patience Darton. Sussex Academic Press. ISBN 9781845195144.