Margaret Cole

During World War I, her brother Raymond Postgate sought exemption from military service as a socialist conscientious objector, but was denied recognition and jailed for refusing military orders. Her support for her brother led her to a belief in pacifism. During her subsequent campaign against conscription, she met G. D. H. Cole, whom she married in a registry office in August 1918.[1] The couple worked together for the Fabian Society before moving to Oxford in 1924, where they both taught and wrote.

In the early 1930s, Margaret abandoned her pacifism in reaction to the suppression of socialist movements by governments in Germany and Austria and to events in the Spanish Civil War.

In 1941, Margaret Cole was co-opted onto the Education Committee of the London County Council, nominated by Herbert Morrison, and became a champion of comprehensive education. She was an alderman on London County Council from 1952 until the Council's abolition in 1965.[2] She was a member of the Inner London Education Authority from its creation in 1965 until her retirement from public life in 1967.

Harold Wilson had given her an OBE in 1965 and she became a Dame when she was awarded a DBE in 1970 for services to Local Government and Education.[1] Dame Margaret Cole died on 7 May 1980, the day after her 87th birthday. Her estate was valued at £137,957.[3]

Cole wrote several books, including a biography of her husband.[4] Her brother Raymond was a labour historian, journalist and novelist.[5] She and her husband jointly authored many mystery novels.[6]

Margaret and her husband created a partnership, but not a full marriage: her husband took little interest in sex and regarded women as a distraction for men. Nevertheless, they had a son and two daughters. Margaret Cole comprehensively documented their life together in a biography she wrote of her husband after his death.[7]