14 Facts About Margaret Ballinger

Margaret Ballinger was the first President of the Liberal Party of South Africa and a South African Member of Parliament.

In 1944, Ballinger was referred to as the "Queen of the Blacks" by TIME magazine.

Margaret Ballinger Hodgson was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1894 and moved to Cape Colony with her family when she was a child.

Margaret Ballinger's father arrived just before the Boer War and ended up fighting against the British.

Margaret Ballinger had stood against other male candidates and talking through an interpreter had managed to win the electorate's confidence.

Margaret Ballinger represented the people of the Eastern Cape from 1937 on the Native Representatives Council.

Margaret Ballinger was credited, along with Senator Edgar Brookes, for moving people from talking about controlling the native South African populace to finding out how their lives could be improved.

The future that the article foresaw for Margaret Ballinger was as the "white hope" leading 24,000,000 blacks as part of an expanded British influence in southern Africa.

Margaret Ballinger overshadowed her husband, William, who some see as now out of his depth in the changing political outlook.

Margaret Ballinger was one of the few people to speak against the apartheid views of Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd.

Margaret Ballinger was given a bronze award in 1961 by the British Royal African Society for her services to Africa.

Margaret Ballinger's citation mentioned the links she had established between African and European women and for the home for sick children she established.

Margaret Ballinger left the party before it was wound up by its own membership in 1968.

Margaret Ballinger had started three schools in Soweto without official permission, the first is named in her honour.