Rachel Workman MacRobert

Rachel, Lady MacRobert, née Workman was a geologist, cattle breeder and an active feminist. Born in Massachusetts to an influential family, she was educated in England and Scotland. She was elected to Fellowship of the Geological Society of London, one of the first three women admitted. Her scientific studies included petrology and mineralogy in Sweden and her first academic paper was published in 1911. She married Sir Alexander MacRobert, a wealthy self-made Scottish millionaire, and had three sons with him. He was endowed with a knighthood in 1910 and a baronetcy in 1922 but died later that year. Lady MacRobert's sons all pre-deceased her: the eldest in a flying accident in 1938, and the other two died in action during the Second World War serving with the Royal Air Force. On the death of her husband she became a director of the British India Corporation, the conglomerate he had founded.