Lady Margaret Sackville, 1881 - 1963. Poet

In 1916, the poet and children’s author Lady Margaret Sackville published 'The Pageant of War', a collection of anti-war poems in which she criticised those women who supported the war. Sackville, who was romantically associated with Ramsay MacDonald, joined the anti-war pressure group he co-founded called the Union of Democratic Control. The UDC believed that the war had resulted from secret negotiations and intrigues that were not subject to democratic review. The group opposed conscription, wartime censorship and restrictions on civil liberties. By 1917 there were more than a hundred local branches across Britain with over 10,000 members. The historian AJP Taylor called the UDC ‘the most formidable radical body ever to influence British foreign policy’.

Credit: Presented by Professor E.F.Koerner 2005