MISS ISHBEL MACDONALD

Hutt News, Volume 2, Issue 49, 15 May 1930, Page 2

MISS ISHBEL MACDONALD

Miss Is»h>bel MaeDonald is essentially t> "Scotch" girl, whicih means that she is much more reticent in displaying her feelings than the avex-ago English perr son, especially in matters where she is deeply affected, hence Over"mother.and her mother 'p work ure seldom talked of by her (says Jennie Leo, M.P., in "Good Housekeeping")* But colouring all her activities and oveTshiadOTving every otthcr influence in her life is the spirit of •Margaret Ethel MafeDonaW. Even in small things one is aware of that influcr- ct. Writing of the' mother, Mr. MacDoiioid says, < 'If sfcolttyon the affection of so many with whom she came in contact, s3ic used no cheap arts to that end-—no art of address, no art of patronage, no art of joviality, no pant of decoration." How like Ishbel!

When Mis MacDoriald died, her eldest daughter was only erg-hit years old. At that time Mr. MaeDonaE w<is member for Heioestef. The little family was by no rvscans free froan economic worry an! althoughliving very -simply in a smallish flat in Lincoln's Inn Fields Mr. MaeDonald -had to find time for a considerable amount of journalistic work in order, to make batih.' efi'ds meet. In1' sucth. circumstances Ishibel svas nq't ?by;-any means Reared as fa hothor se plant, "but lcaTnedi/f rofib. first-hand emeriencc the meaning of doing without things, of har-d work, and. of seTC•vije to others. But sstrenuous living, especially with, her mothers' example before her, was by no means displeasing to an active person like Isabel MacPonald; so far from seeking to escape from it, we find her whole-iheartedly intoi»t on becoming a welfaxe worker and helping to tfiltf care 6£ poorer chlldre, onc-3 her own schaoldaya were drawing to a close. Tin people of Britain, however, decide <i ot*lierwise, for in 1924 when half through^ her training the first Labour Government was formed and the Premier's eldest daughter was ealied on. to assume .the. duties of official hostess art: 10 Downing Street. How splendidly &he has come through thmt ordeal, bo^ii then and now, all the world knows.