Alice Cullen
Alice Cullen, JP (née McLaughlin; 18 March 1891 – 31 May 1969) was a Scottish Labour Party politician. She was the first female Roman Catholic Member of Parliament.
Alice Cullen | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Cullen from the National Portrait Gallery, London | |
| Member of Parliament for Glasgow Gorbals | |
| In office 30 September 1948 – 31 May 1969 | |
| Preceded by | George Buchanan |
| Succeeded by | Frank McElhone |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Alice McLaughlin 18 March 1891 |
| Died | 31 May 1969 (aged 78) |
| Political party | Labour |
Early life
Educated at Lochwinnoch Elementary School, Cullen was a housewife, twice widowed, and married three times. She was a member of Glasgow Corporation from 1935 until 1945, and became a justice of the peace in 1941.
Political career
She was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Glasgow Gorbals, which was safe for Labour, at a by-election in 1948.[1] She competed with three men to secure the position, which was vacated due to the resignation of the previous MP, George Buchanan, who assumed the position of Chairman of the National Assistance Board.[2]
She held the seat at subsequent general elections, until her death in 1969 at the age of 78. She was MP for Glasgow Gorbals at the time of "The Gorbals Vampire" incident in September 1954 when hundreds of schoolchildren went searching the Southern Necropolis cemetery armed with stakes to find a vampire with iron teeth.[3] She led the city council in blaming horror comics and films for the incident.[3] This resulted to a call for the ban of American horror comics to minors which she supported, along with all the other Glasgow MPs.[3]
A play loosely based on this incident, The Gorbals Vampire, was performed at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow in October 2016.
External links
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by George Buchanan |
Member of Parliament for Glasgow Gorbals 1948–1969 |
Succeeded by Frank McElhone |
References
- "TheGlasgowStory: 1914 to 1950s: Personalities". www.theglasgowstory.com. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
- ukvote100 (2 October 2015). "Alice Cullen's Election Victory of 1948". UK Vote 100: Looking forward to the centenary of Equal Franchise in 2028 in the UK Parliament. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
- Barker, Martin (1992). A Haunt of Fears: The Strange History of the British Horror Comics Campaign. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 34. ISBN 0878055932.