Edith Edgar MacQueen (1900–1977) was a Scottish parliamentary historian and a historian of Scottish emigration to North America. She was the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

from the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

Early life

MacQueen was the daughter of George MacQueen of Mongus,

Angus Angus may refer to: *Angus, Scotland, a council area of Scotland, and formerly a province, sheriffdom, county and district of Scotland * Angus, Canada, a community in Essa, Ontario Animals * Angus cattle, various breeds of beef cattle Media * ...

, Scotland.

Academic career

MacQueen matriculated at St Andrews in 1918, graduating with first class honours in English and history in 1922. In 1922 MacQueen was awarded the Berry Scholarship in History, submitting a monograph on the ''Life of the Duke of Albany'' for which she was awarded the Hume Brown Essay Prize in Scottish History in June 1923. In October 1923 MacQueen started studying for her Ph.D. She was the first woman to do so at St Andrews and the fourth Ph.D. student in history following the university's decision to grant them in 1920. She was awarded a Carnegie Scholarship in 1923 to assist her with her research; it was renewed in 1924/25. In 1926 she submitted her thesis entitled ‘The General Assembly of the Kirk as the rival of the Scottish parliament, 1560-1618’, which was supervised by J. D. Mackie. MacQueen continued her work on parliamentary history as well as working on Scottish emigration to North America in her later life. She also wrote historical programs for

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

's school programs in the late 1930s. In around 1930, she spent some time at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

as a Commonwealth Fund visiting fellow.

Personal life

In 1944 MacQueen married Leslie Haden-Guest, the Labour MP for

Islington North Islington North is a United Kingdom constituencies, constituency in Greater London established for 1885 United Kingdom general election, the 1885 general election. It has been represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of C ...

. In 1950 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Haden-Guest, of Saling in the County of Essex. She was then styled as Baroness Haden-Guest. She died in 1977. Her papers are held by the University of St Andrews.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacQueen, Edith Alumni of the University of St Andrews 1900 births 1977 deaths People from Angus, Scotland 20th-century Scottish historians British women historians