Lucy Masterman (1884–1977)

Lucy Masterman, née Lyttelton, was born into a prominent and politically well-connected British family.
Her parents were General Sir Neville Lyttelton and his wife Katherine Sarah Stuart-Wortley. Lucy joined the Fabian Society, and 1908, married the Liberal journalist Charles Masterman, with whom she had three children. Her husband was later elected to Parliament and briefly served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. After his death, she stood for Parliament herself several times, but unsuccessfully; however, she remained politically active and in 1936 she was elected to serve on the Liberal Party Council. She took a deep interest in poverty and other social issues and became chairwoman of the Women's Liberal Federation of the Battersea Housing Association, and a tribunal representative of the Cambridge Refugee Committee during World War II. She also was a writer and poet and published A Book of Wild Things (1910), Lyrical Poems (1912), and Poems (1913). In addition, she worked as the literary editor of Outlook. In 1918, together with Elizabeth Lee, she published Wives of the Prime Ministers 1844-1906, and later wrote C.F.G. Masterman: A Biography (1939). In 1930, she edited the papers of Mary Gladstone, published as Mary Gladstone (Mrs. Drew): Her Diaries and Letters. Her final publication was London from the Bus-top: A Guide for the Impecunious Traveller (1951).