This image expands when opened.*** This and the next two images are of Lady Astor.*** Another American imported prince$$. Beginning her Wikipedia article: "Nancy Witcher Astor, Viscountess Astor, CH, (May 19, 1879 – May 2, 1964) was the first woman to serve as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the British House of Commons. (Constance Markiewicz was the first woman elected to serve in the House of Commons after running for the Sinn Féin party in 1918, but in line with Sinn Féin policy she did not take her seat.) She was the wife of Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor.* Early life - Astor was born Nancy Witcher Langhorne in Danville, Virginia, in the United States. Her father was Chiswell Dabney Langhorne and her mother was Nancy Witcher Keene. Her father's earlier business venture had depended at least in part upon slave labor and had been badly damaged by the fallout from the American Civil War, causing the family to live in near-poverty for several years before Nancy was born. After her birth her father began working to regain the family wealth, first with a job as an auctioneer and later with a job that he obtained with the railroad by using old contacts from his work as a contractor. By the time she was thirteen years old, the Langhornes were again a rich family with a sizeable home. Chiswell Langhorne later moved the family to their estate, known as Mirador, in Albemarle County, Virginia.* Nancy Langhorne had four sisters and three brothers. All the sisters were known for their beauty; her sister Irene later married the artist Charles Dana Gibson and became a model for the Gibson girl. Nancy and Irene both went to a finishing school in New York City. In New York, Nancy met and married her first husband, Robert Gould Shaw II, a cousin of the Robert Gould Shaw of Fort Wagner fame, on October 27, 1897, when she was 18.* This first marriage was a disaster. Shaw's friends accused Nancy of becoming puritanical and rigid after she married; Nancy's friends contended that Shaw was an alcoholic adulterer. The couple were married for four years and had one son, Bobbie. Nancy left Shaw numerous times during their brief marriage, the first time during their honeymoon. In 1903, Nancy's mother died and Nancy moved back to Mirador to try to run the household, but she was unsuccessful. She left there and took a tour of England, and fell in love with the country while she was there. Because she was so happy there, her father suggested that Nancy move to England. Nancy was reluctant to go, so he suggested that the move had been her mother’s wish and that it would also be good for Nancy's younger sister, Phyllis, to accompany her. Nancy and Phyllis finally moved to England in 1905.* England - The earlier trip to England had launched Nancy's reputation there as an interesting and witty American. Her tendency to be witty and saucy in conversation, yet religiously devout and almost prudish in behavior, confused many of the English men but pleased some of the older socialites. They liked conversing with the lively and exciting American who at the same time largely conformed to decency and restraint. Nancy also began at this time to show her skill at winning over critics. She was once asked by an English woman, 'Have you come to get our husbands?' Her unexpected response, 'If you knew the trouble I had getting rid of mine...' charmed her listeners and displayed the wit that would later become famous.* Despite her denial, however, she indeed married an Englishman. Her second husband, Waldorf Astor, was born in the United States but his father had moved the family to England when Waldorf was twelve and raised his children as English aristocrats. The pair was well matched from the start. Not only were they both American expatriates with similar temperaments, but they were of the same age, being born on the exact same day. He shared some of Nancy's moral attitudes, and his heart condition may have encouraged him toward a restraint that she found comforting. The marriage's success, therefore, seemed assured.* After the Astors married, Nancy moved into Cliveden, a lavish estate in Buckinghamshire on the River Thames, and began her life as a prominent hostess for the social elite. The Astors also owned a grand London house, No. 4 St. James's Square, which is now the premises of the Naval & Military Club. Through her many social connections, Lady Astor became involved in a kind of political circle called Milner's Kindergarten. Considered liberal in their age, the group advocated unity and equality among English-speaking people and a continuance or expansion of British imperialism. (Continued)