Margret Mari Power (1912 or 1913 – 24 June 1936) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

political activist. Born Margret Mari Stevenson, she was a daughter of William Henry Stevenson. She joined the East Islington Labour League of Youth, her grandfather having been a Labour Member of Parliament, and at the age of eighteen, she worked for her uncle's newspaper, in South Wales. She spent time attending the Sorbonne, and then worked for the

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. While there, her suitors included

James Thomas Flexner James Thomas Flexner (January 13, 1908 – February 13, 2003) was an American historian and biographer best known for the four-volume biography of George Washington that earned him a National Book Award in Biography

. Stevenson met Ivan Power, the son of Conservative MP John Power, and the couple married in 1935, soon after he and his first wife were divorced. Both were supporters of the Labour Party, and tossed a coin to decide who would stand in

Hornsey Hornsey () is a district of north London, England, in the London Borough of Haringey. It is an inner-suburban, for the most part residential, area centred north of Charing Cross. It adjoins green spaces Queen's Wood to the west and Alexand ...

at the

1935 United Kingdom general election The 1935 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 14 November 1935. It resulted in a second (though reduced) landslide victory for the three-party National Government, which was led by Stanley Baldwin of the Conservative Party a ...

. Mari won the coin toss, becoming the youngest woman to stand for parliament anywhere in the country, and Ivan Power worked as her deputy agent. Although she lost the election by more than 20,000 votes, it was the strongest Labour performance in the seat to date. Her performance was praised, and she was expected to be re-adopted. In June 1936, Power died, at the age of 23, following a short illness.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Power, Mari 1910s births 1936 deaths Labour Party (UK) parliamentary candidates University of Paris alumni