This week, Bucks county councillor David Martin writes exclusively to Bucks Free Press readers:

December 14 marks the 100th anniversary of women being permitted to stand for election to parliament; and many people believe wrongly that Nancy Astor was the first woman to be elected.

In fact it was Countess Constance Markievicz – revolutionary nationalist, suffragette, artist and philanthropist. Nancy was the second, elected and taking her seat (actually her husband’s vacated seat) a year later.

Born into privilege and wealth, Constance was presented at the court of Queen Victoria but at the age of 40, already an accomplished and successful artist, took up the cause of women’s suffrage and Irish Nationalism.

During a by-election in 1908, she was part of a successful suffragist campaign to defeat Winston Churchill, including driving a carriage and four white horses promoting the suffragist movement. When inevitably a man shouted: “Can you cook a dinner?” Markievicz replied “Certainly!”

Can you drive a coach and four?” In 1911 she was arrested for demonstrating against the King’s visit to Ireland, the first of several arrests.

In April 1916, Markievicz took part in the Easter Rising, a republican insurrection in Dublin against British government in Ireland allegedly killing a policeman and wounding a British army sniper.

Her garrison held out for six days, rifles against machine guns, and ceased fighting only when they had seen the general surrender order.

Though many women had participated in the uprising, Markievicz was the only one to be sentenced to death, commuted to life imprisonment on account of her gender, serving some of her term in Aylesbury prison.

Granted amnesty the following year, Markievicz was soon in jail again for her participation in a plot against the British government.

Constance Markievicz was the first elected female MP, not the most successful but certainly one of the bravest.

Next time you hear a politician bemoaning how tough their life is and how hard they work, perhaps spare a thought for Constance, self-proclaimed unconverted and unconvertable rebel, who sacrificed everything for her beliefs. Politics aside, we could do with more like her today.