First woman presidential hopeful honoured by dictionary

THE first woman to run for US President, who spent her later life living near Tewkesbury, has been included in a prestigious dictionary.

Victoria Woodhull Martin, who lived in Bredon's Norton early in the 20th Century, is among 125 people added to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in its online update.

The dictionary lists those who shaped British life from the 12th to the 21st centuries and has authoritative biographies on 56,000 people.

Mrs Woodhull Martin, who died in 1927 at the age of 89, was the first woman to run for the US presidency in 1872.

Born in Ohio in 1838, she married a prominent English banker and settled in Norton Park, Bredon's Norton. A memorial to her lies in Tewkesbury Abbey.

Her radical platform included not only votes for women, but employment rights, free love and the legalisation of prostitution.

She founded the first firm of female Wall Street stockbrokers and earned the nickname "Mrs Satan".

On election day, when she stood for the Equal Rights party and polled no votes, she was in jail for sending obscene mail through the post.

While on a lecture tour of Britain, promoting women's rights, she met and soon afterwards married John Biddulph Martin, Tewkesbury MP and member of a rich banking family.

Many years her senior, he died 14 years later.

She had roads around the village repaired, improved tenants' cottages, started a flower show, turned the tithe barn into the village hall and entertained such visitors as the Prime Minister Arthur Balfour and the Prince of Wales.

Before meeting Mr Biddulph Martin, she had befriended multi-millionaire Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.

When he died, he left a fortune of $100 million and a good chunk of it went to her.

For one so wealthy, she lived a surprisingly simple existence. Her one extravagance was a motorbike and sidecar in which she was often seen zooming round the highways and byways of Tewkesbury with a dashing chauffeur at the controls.

On her death, her daughter, Zula Woodhull, arranged for the plaque to be placed in St Faith's chapel in the Abbey.

A spokesman for the Abbey said: "The vicar is delighted people are recognising the achievements of Victoria. Please come and see her plaque."