Astor, Lady

Nancy Witcher Langhorne Astor, Viscountess Astor, was an American-born British politician and the first female Member of Parliament (MP) to take her seat on 1 December 1919.
Astor was an American citizen who moved to England at age 26 and married Waldorf Astor. He succeeded to the peerage and entered the House of Lords; she then entered politics and won his former seat in Plymouth in 1919, becoming the first woman to sit as an MP in the House of Commons. Her first husband was American Robert Gould Shaw II, and they divorced. She served in Parliament as a member of the Conservative Party for Plymouth Sutton until 1945, when she was persuaded to step down.