Mrs Baldwin

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 41, 18 February 1937, Page 10

Mrs Baldwin

Practically everyone in the British Isles knows Mrs Baldwin from her photographs (says a writer in a Scottish paper). At least they may think they do, but they do not. She is very much better looking, and has far more charm than her photographs indicate. In fact, Mrs Baldwin is the ideal of what a charming British woman and the mother of a grown-up family should be. She has repose, a rare gift in these days. She has tho charm of experience. She is kind, and her voice is gentle. Understanding and a wide sympatny are hers, and she is candid, and with a delightful candour that holds no malice. She was born to be a wife and a mother, and has all the gifts which the wife of a British Frime Minister should have. Mr Baldwin met his future wife, then Miss Lucy Ridsdale, one Sunday morning outside her father’s house at Rottingdean. He was passing the house with the late Sir Ambrose Poynter, who introduced them to each other on their way to church. Eight months after their first meeting Mr Baldwin and Miss Ridsdale became engaged. Five months later in September, 1892, they were married. The first speech that Mrs Baldwin heard her husband make was a short one, thanking his work-people for their welcome to Stourport, where they lived at first. It was not till 1906 that he put up for Parliament, at Kidderminster, in the Conservative course—and ■was beaten. Mrs Baldwin, even since that time, has taken a keen interest in politics, but she has taken a keener iuterest in the health of her husband. It is to her care that his return to duty has been due. Sho hopes he will be ablo to give some timo yet to the servico of his country.