The New Lady of No. 10 Downing Street

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 774, 21 September 1929, Page 22

The New Lady of No. 10 Downing Street

Ishbel MacDonald, at 26, Resumes Her Place as Her bather’s Hostess ... A Personality of Grace and Quiet Charm. KIOR the second time | within five years j Ishbel MacDonald will | reign at 10 Dow-ning j Street as her father’s i hostess. Her social place will be next to that of the Queen, writes Kathleen Woodward in the New York "Times.” Ishbel is now 26: she was hostess to the Prime Minister at 21. Never in the history of Downing Street has a woman so young occupied this highest social-political eminence accessible to women in England. Her predecessor, Mrs. Baldwin, \vas of middle years, a mellowed hostess amply versed in the complexities of entertaining the great. So also was Mrs. Lloyd George, who followed Margot. Lady Oxford and Asquith, whose knowledge of the social amenities was exceeded only by her disregard for them. The new hostess has neither years nor long experience to commend her. The freshness of her youth fs in no way trammeled with that tedious knowingness which seems to burden many of her contemporaries. Her manner is so completely unafi'ected that it could not fail to establish her in any human relationship, social or otherwise. Five years ago it at once woa for her the good opinion of Queen Mary, with whom she has been on the friendliest terms since her father was first Prime Minister. The Girton Air Ishbel (Gaelic for Isabel) has bright eyes that sparkle with a lively and constant interest in people about I her. She has fresh skin and rich, I wavy hair, as yet unshorn. She dis- i penses with cosmetics and I believe, refrains from smoking. Her presence j is more suggestive of Girton than of Bond Street or Mayfair. Also, she knits, a fact whieh may be said to give her distinction. If she has not the ease that comes from long familiarity with birth and quality, she has the advantage of having been brought up with a gentle and smiling tolerance of these accidents, as she would call them, or 1 accessories. Her very youthful appearance, her t apparent shyness and the very dis- •

arming frankness of her manner conceal the fact that she is really an acute observer, that she has a fair inheritance of tile “canniness” associated with the children of her father’s native land. “The very best way to know the Queen is to watch her reflected in her ladies-in-waiting,” she once advised some one. It was the shrewdest possible direction, delivered In her quaint, contained manner. The Eldest Daughter Being motherless at an early age, Ishbel, as the eldest daughter, naturally assumed the care of her father, her two sisters—Sheila and Joan—and her brother, Malcolm; responsibilities which left her little time for play or for the embellishments of education. The most formidable Item iu her equipment seems to be her diploma iu household sciences from King’s College for Women. She has in addition a brief acquaintance with Fleet Street and the advantages

of having grown up within the very small circle of her father's intimate friends—men and women distinguished in public work. Her own direct knowledge of public affairs has increased considerably since she was last in Downing Street, for she was elected as the member from Poplar in the London County Council in March, 1925. But the chief public notice she received

during her tenure grew out of the fact that she once sat and knitted during an all-night session. Her youth and good manners, her amused and lively Interest in the world about her, will undoubtedly be of more service to her in Downing Street than will her diploma in household science, l’or the house Is already furnished, the mechanics of housekeeping are not her cai'e and neither is the selection of the people to be entertained. Her chief responsibility is to receive her father’s guests and to sit at table with them. This is less simple than it sounds. Even the dauntless Margot confessed to sleepless nights in anticipation of certain guests to be seated the following day at the Prime .Minister’s table. Ishbel MacDonald’s reluctance to put on evening dress is characteristic of the Labour-Feminist attitude toward such ephemeral matters as clothes. Excepting Mrs. Philip Snowden, wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer —and except for the very newest Socialist from the ranks of wealth and title, Lady Cynthia Moseley—it would be difficult to accuse any Labour hostess of being fashionably dressed. Generally speaking, there exists among them an absence of interest in clothes which makes for drabness. Where the interest does exist it is sometimes accomplished by a decidedly original taste which results in most amazing styles, colours and combinations. Labour Women and Clothes But notwithstanding certain tyrannies iu the matter of dress for women of the Labour Party, Mrs. Snowden survives with her good-looking clothes and her social flair only faintly tinctured with purpose and knowledge; Mrs. Clynes and Mrs. Frank Hodges are always motherly and kind; Susan Lawrence keeps her monocle and autocratic bearing; while Margaret Bondfield, a charming woman, has flexibility and humanity. In the very centre of all these social and personal changes, at the head of all these diverting and warring elements, Ishbel MacDonald will nominally reign, assisted by her vigorous youth and her sense of the ridiculous. The home life of the MacDonalds has always been a very real thing, notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s long and arduous engagement in political life. He has always set aside time to read aloud to his children in the evenings and to identify himself with their Interests and activities.