Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor

Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor (May 19, 1879 – May 2, 1964) was a socialite politician and a member of the prominent Astor family.

The House doesn't miss anybody

The decline seems to have not been obvious to her though as her party and husband forced her retirement. The Tories felt she had become a liability so wanted her out. So near the end of the war her husband told her to retire and that if she ran again the family would not support her. She gave in to this demand, but with irritation and anger by all accounts.

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Her retirement years proved difficult, especially for her marriage. She made no secret her husband forced her to retire. On a speech commemorating her 25 years in office she even stated she retired because her husband forced her and that that should please the men of Britain. They began traveling separately and living apart. For his part he began moving politically to the Left in his last years. Although they reconciled before his death.

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These years proved difficult for her image as well. Her racial views began to become increasingly out of touch with the times. Her growing paranoia continued as she stated the President had become too dependent on New York City, and stated outright that it being ?Jewish and foreign? had been why that concerned her. During her US tour she also told a black school that their aspirations should essentially be to be like the black servants she remembered in her youth. On a later trip she told members of a Black Church they should be grateful to be brought as slaves because it introduced them to Christianity. In Rhodesia she proudly told the white minority government that she had been the daughter of a slave owner. These views on blacks had always been there, but now showed she had become out of touch. Where once they would have been tolerated, or ignored; now they were awkward and troubling.

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After 1956 she became increasingly isolated and alone. Her sisters had all died, Red Ellen committed suicide in 1947, George Bernard Shaw died in 1950, and she did not take well to being a widow. The living also proved a difficulty. Her son Bobbie became increasingly combative and after her death committed suicide, her son Jakie had married a prominent Catholic which hurt their relationship, and her other children had largely become estranged from her as well. Ironically these events in some ways mellowed her and she even began to accept Catholic as friends toward the end of her life. However as a whole she expressed clearly that these days had become lonely ones for her.

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Nancy Astor died in 1964 at her daughter's home at Grimsthorpe in Lincolnshire.

Related Topics:
Grimsthorpe - Lincolnshire

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Note: "The House doesn't miss anybody" is a statement in her farewell to Parliament.

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