Ishbel MacDonald

Who was Ishbel MacDonald?

Ishbel Allan MacDonald was the daughter of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Ramsay MacDonald and his wife Margaret MacDonald née Gladstone. Margaret's death in 1911 - a year after their son David had died - left Ramsay a single father to his remaining five children. When, in 1924 he came to power as Prime Minister of the country's first Labour Government, it was Ishbel, as the eldest daughter, who her father decided should be his hostess at 10 Downing Street. At just 20 she became the youngest person ever to take on the role.

Ishbel had been studying social sciences. With his meagre earnings and poor background Ramsay MacDonald knew he would be unable to repeat the Downing Street lifestyle that previous premiers had been wealthy enough to enjoy. His first term of office lasted only ten months but during that time she did everything possible to save her father money, cutting back on the cost of heating, food, transport and servants which at the time were expected to be paid out of a Prime Minister's own pocket.

Ishbel imagined that her role would be purely temporary and that when her father's minority government fell she would return to the simple life she had known. In fact she never left her father's side, acting as his official hostess through his three terms of office and his years in opposition until he died in 1937. She became one of the most popular women in Britain,and was constantly in the public eye.