Alice Cullen

Alice Cullen
Alice Cullen; JP MP
	Portrait of Cullen from the National Portrait Gallery, London
Member of Parliament; for Glasgow Gorbals
	In office; 30 September 1948 – 31 May 1969
Preceded by	George Buchanan
Succeeded by	Frank McElhone
Personal details
Born	Alice McLaughlin; 18 March 1891
Died	31 May 1969 (aged 78)
Political party	Labour

Alice Cullen, JP (née McLaughlin; 18 March 1891 – 31 May 1969) was a Scottish Labour Party politician. She was the first female Roman Catholic Member of Parliament.

Early life

Educated at Lochwinnoch Elementary School, Cullen was a housewife, twice widowed, and married three times. She was a member of Glasgow Corporation from 1935–45, and became a Justice of the Peace in 1941.

Political career

She was elected to the House of Commons as the Member of Parliament for the safe Labour seat of Glasgow Gorbals at a by-election in 1948[1]. She competed with three men to secure the position, which was vacated due to the resignation of the previous MP, George Buchanan who assumed the position of Chairman of the National Assistance Board.[2]

She held the seat at subsequent general elections, until her death in 1969 at the age of 78. She was MP for Glasgow Gorbals at the time of "The Gorbals Vampire" incident in September 1954 when hundreds of schoolchildren went searching the Southern Necropolis cemetery armed with stakes to find a vampire with iron teeth.[3] She led the city council in blaming horror comics and films for the incident.[3] This resulted to a call for the ban of American horror comics to minors which she supported, along with all the other Glasgow MPs.[3]

A play loosely based on this incident, The Gorbals Vampire, was performed at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow in October 2016.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by George Buchanan	Member of Parliament for Glasgow Gorbals 1948–1969	Succeeded by Frank McElhone

References

"TheGlasgowStory: 1914 to 1950s: Personalities". www.theglasgowstory.com. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
ukvote100 (2 October 2015). "Alice Cullen's Election Victory of 1948". UK Vote 100: Looking forward to the centenary of Equal Franchise in 2028 in the UK Parliament. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
Barker, Martin (1992). A Haunt of Fears: The Strange History of the British Horror Comics Campaign. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 34. ISBN 0878055932.

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[1] "TheGlasgowStory: 1914 to 1950s: Personalities". www.theglasgowstory.com. Retrieved 22 May 2020.

[2] ukvote100 (2 October 2015). "Alice Cullen's Election Victory of 1948". UK Vote 100: Looking forward to the centenary of Equal Franchise in 2028 in the UK Parliament. Retrieved 22 May 2020.

[:0-3] Barker, Martin (1992). A Haunt of Fears: The Strange History of the British Horror Comics Campaign. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. p. 34. ISBN 0878055932.