Edith Bowler

Edith Mary Bowler (Born September 14, 1897, Doubledance as Edith Cray'; Died May 7, 1990) was a Georgeland political figure and the first woman to serve in the Georgeland House of Commons. A mother of five children, Bowler's husband John Bowler was a soldier who was killed during the first world war, leaving Edith to raise their children alone. Bowler was an early activist for women's rights and the sufragette movement in Georgeland, founding, in 1924, the Georgeland Women Voters League. She used this movement to press for equality for women, and in 1926 women were granted the vote at all elections in Georgeland. At the election of 1927, Bowler stood for the seat of Sutcliffe in Mainland but was defeated. She stood again at the 1929 election for the Labour Party and was elected to the Commons for the seat of Dance. She held the seat from 1929 until 1942, when she was defeated. After her defeat, Bowler remained active in Labour politics, though she never again re-entered Parliament. She began working as an academic and continued her crusade for greater womens' rights in Georgeland. In 1954 she was awarded the Order of Georgeland Medal, and was created the Right Honourable in 1965. Bowler died in 1990 at the age of 93. She was the first woman to recieve a state funeral in Georgeland. Bowler's eldest son, John Bowler II, followed his mother into politics. He represented Mainland in the Georgeland Senate from 1965 to 1983. His son, John Bowler III, continued the family tradition, and was a member of the House of Commons representing Huzzah West from 1975 until 1996. The tradition has continued into a fourth generation, as John Bowler's daughter Karen Bowler-Higgins has been a Conservative member of the East Mainland state legislature since 2000.