Lady Rachel Workman MacRobert, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Lady Rachel Workman MacRobert

geologist, feminist

Date of Birth: 23-Mar-1884

Place of Birth: Worcester, Massachusetts, United States

Date of Death: 01-Sep-1954

Profession: geologist

Zodiac Sign: Aries

Rachel Workman MacRobert, Lady MacRobert (23 March 1884 – 1 September 1954), commonly known as Lady Rachel Workman MacRobert, 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 Rachel'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. To commemorate her sons, Rachel paid for a Short Stirling bomber named 'MacRobert's Reply', and four Hawker Hurricanes.
In 1943 she created the MacRobert Trust, a charity that continues to support the RAF among other institutions.
It created the MacRobert Award for engineering, today awarded by the Royal Academy of Engineering.