[citation needed] She was part of a parliamentary delegation to Italy 1924, meeting Benito Mussolini, who described her as "la bella Russell".

[citation needed] Philipson was born Mabel Russell on 2 January 1886,[note 1] at 1 Copeland Avenue, Peckham.

[2] After leaving school Philipson found work in a Clapham Junction theatre box office before taking on a role in a play.

Instead she was the triumphant leading actress in the 1916 play, London Pride, produced by Frank Curzon and Gerald du Maurier, to positive reviews.

However, in 1925 she returned to acting in a midnight benefit for Middlesex Hospital[5] and again for a run of a musical version The Beloved Vagabond during the parliamentary recess of 1927.

She was quick witted with hecklers and her theatrical training made her an excellent public speaker, so even after her election she would carry on speaking at political rallies.

[2] Philipson was also happy to canvass the more deprived areas of Berwick, bringing up members of the public to join her for press photographs.

[note 2] In the Dundee Courier & Argus, her success put down to "local conditions, sympathy with Captain Philipson, and resentment at his unseating", while she herself attributed it to the support of women and ex-service men.

Philipson was unable to speak after the result, having developed a sore throat during the campaign, she was escorted by six police bodyguards back to the Conservative Committee Rooms, where she appeared at the window and her husband expressed her thanks on her behalf.

[11] Philipson was then escorted through the crowds to her hotel but was accidentally elbowed by a policeman trying to make a passage through, resulting in a black eye.

[1] Although each woman of the time spoke more than the average man in Parliament,[8] Philipson herself disliked parliamentary speaking, instead focussing on her constituency and committee work.

[2][1] Mussolini had previously expressed amusement at the idea of women in Parliament, referring to Philipson as "la bella Russell".

[22] Philipson cited her young family as one of the main reasons for leaving, but also that her husband had decided to move away from politics and focus on his business work due to the effect of coal disputes and residual costs from his unseating.

[27] Hilton Philipson left the Scots Guards as a captain, becoming a director of the North Eastern Railway Company.