Biographical Database of Militant Woman Suffragists, 1913-1920
Biography of Margaret Lambie, 1885-1982
By Linda D. Wilson, Independent Historian
Suffragist Margaret Lambie, the daughter of Jasper Eadie and Henrietta Eliza (Bryan) Lambie, was born on November 23, 1885, in Northampton, Massachusetts. Margaret Lambie graduated from Vassar College in 1907 and attended the law school of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. In December 1928, she was admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court. Lambie was a member of the New York and the District of Columbia bars. Additionally, she was the first woman to open a law office for the practice of international law in D.C. Lambie was one of two women who attended the first International Air Law Institute Conference held in Chicago in August 1930.
Lambie and her mother were founding members of the Congressional Union, later the National Woman's Party (NWP). As founding members, they contributed one hundred dollars or more to the CU. After ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, Margaret Lambie remained active in the NWP. In April 1921 she was among the group of NWP women who met with Republican President Warren G. Harding, asking him "to remove discrimination against women in the federal laws, and that he will lend his support in obtaining the enactment of a law which will bring about the equality sought."
During World War I, Margaret Lambie headed a group of Vassar graduates who formed a Red Cross unit sent to Verdun, France. The young women helped refugees return home to their war-torn district. Before reaching Verdun, they worked at Savenay, France, by organizing recreational activities, libraries, and canteens as well as assisting in locating missing persons. Lambie was the guest of honor at the annual dinner of the Washington, D.C., branch of the Vassar Alumnae Association on January 24, 1920. As National Red Cross Director of Volunteer Services, she presided over the Red Cross reunion in February 1921. At that time the organization began activities for returning soldiers. When a chapter known as the Women's Overseas Service League of Washington, D.C., was formed, Margaret Lambie served as its chairperson. The organization accomplished welfare work among the former soldiers in the Washington, D.C. area. The group also helped ex-service women and nurses who served in the Army, Navy, and Marines get needed hospitalization. She was a member of the College Women's Club. In October 1929, Lambie was appointed as representative of the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Clubs on the Women's Joint Congressional Committee.
In 1940 Margaret Lambie, who never married, continued to live and practice law in Washington, D.C. She enjoyed traveling to Europe after World War I. On July 16, 1982, she died in Boston, Massachusetts.
SOURCES:
Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, NY), June 10, 1918 and June 7, 1919. Daily News (New York, NY), December 7 and 30, 1928. Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), March 13, 1919. Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), January 19, 1920; February 27 and April 7, 1921; February 5 and 9, April 14 and 16, and December 17, 1922; April 15 and December 16, 1923; October 10, 1929; and August 15, 1930. Massachusetts, Birth Records, 1840-1925, accessed on Ancestry.com on March 25, 2020. Massachusetts, Death Index, 1970-2003, accessed on Ancestry.com on March 25, 2020. New-York Tribune (New York, NY), March 20, 1922. U.S. Census, 1900 and 1910, Northampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts. U.S. Census, 1930 and 1940, Washington, D.C. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995, Washington, D.C., for the year 1927, accessed on Ancestry.com on March 25, 2020. U.S. Passport Applications, August 1918 and April 1921, accessed on Ancestry.com on March 25, 2010. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014, accessed on Ancestry.com on March 25, 2020. Washington Herald (Washington, D.C.), January 5 and February 5, 1922. Washington Times (Washington, D.C.), February 27, 1921.