Victoria Drummond Engineering trailblazer
BBC History Magazine|May 2022
A century ago, the barriers facing any woman longing for a career in marine engineering seemed almost insurmountable - but not quite. JO STANLEY introduces a woman who had the talent, bravery and determination to make her mark in the male-dominated maritime world
JO STANLEY
Victoria Drummond Engineering trailblazer

One day in October 1952, an old seafarer watched warily as a uniformed woman approached his ship at Avonmouth docks, on the Somerset coast near Bristol.

"Odd - must be a district nurse," he mused, observing the older woman preparing to board. Or maybe she was collecting alms for a seafarers' charity?

As she drew closer, he recognized the purple-and-gold epaulets - could that middle-aged lady really be their new second engineer? The ship had been waiting for this crucial team member - but a senior marine engineer who was also a woman: how could that be?

The men serving on the obscure little tramp steamer SS Markab were about to encounter a 58-year-old living legend: Victoria Drummond - Queen Victoria's goddaughter, a war hero with an MBE, and one of the most path-breaking women in seafaring and engineering history. The world's first female seagoing ship's engineer had overcome seemingly impossible odds to reach this position. And she did it all calmly, determinedly, and by dint of her ability, not patronage. Throughout her 30-year fight for the chance to work on ships' engines, she'd been confident in her competence. She took it for granted that gender shouldn't determine what people were allowed to do. She felt normal.

Born in 1894 at Megginch Castle, her ancestral home near Perth, by her teens, Drummond had already developed a fancy for an oily career in the bowels of ships. Her determination was buoyed by both history and family, preceded as she was by many formidable and talented female forebears who had followed "outlandish” paths. As her woodworker grandmother contentedly observed: “That child... might even make an engineer.”

Denne historien er fra May 2022-utgaven av BBC History Magazine.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra May 2022-utgaven av BBC History Magazine.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA BBC HISTORY MAGAZINESe alt
The King They Couldn't Kill -Want to know why Henry VII is remembered as an intensely suspicious king, wracked by paranoia? The answer, writes Nathen Amin, lies in his death-defying rise to power
BBC History UK

The King They Couldn't Kill -Want to know why Henry VII is remembered as an intensely suspicious king, wracked by paranoia? The answer, writes Nathen Amin, lies in his death-defying rise to power

Henry’s wary nature is typically attributed to his shaky claim to the throne. The first Tudor monarch was unable to escape the taunt that he was a usurper with no right to call himself king. In fact, his renowned paranoia was the inevitable consequence of a traumatic youth – a trait ingrained long before he harboured ambitions to wear a crown. If we delve deeper into Henry’s background, we can draw a fuller picture of one of our most circumspect of monarchs – one that might elicit sympathy for a long misunderstood king.

time-read
10+ mins  |
September 2024
The Spy Who Hoodwinked Hitler - Dummy tanks at El Alamein. Bogus generals in Algiers. Sham armies on D-Day. All were ruses masterminded by Dudley Clarke. Robert Hutton tells the story of the British soldier who made an art form of duping the Nazis
BBC History UK

The Spy Who Hoodwinked Hitler - Dummy tanks at El Alamein. Bogus generals in Algiers. Sham armies on D-Day. All were ruses masterminded by Dudley Clarke. Robert Hutton tells the story of the British soldier who made an art form of duping the Nazis

Examining the reconnaissance photos, Behrendt was convinced that the Allies weren’t in any hurry. They were constructing some kind of pipeline towards the southern end of their line, probably to carry water, which was barely halfway completed. There were supply dumps appearing in the south as well – always a telltale clue about where an attack would come. True, a large number of trucks were parked at the northern end of the line, about 25 miles back from the front, but they hadn’t moved for weeks.

time-read
10+ mins  |
September 2024
"People have achieved all kinds of crazy things at the age of 18″
BBC History UK

"People have achieved all kinds of crazy things at the age of 18″

ALICE LOXTON talks to Danny Bird about her book on 18 individuals who left an indelible mark on British history before they were out of their teens

time-read
10+ mins  |
September 2024
Parthian chicken
BBC History UK

Parthian chicken

ELEANOR BARNETT recreates an ancient Roman dish that borrowed flavours from a rival neighbouring empire in the Middle East

time-read
2 mins  |
September 2024
"We need a meaningful story for the new generation - our composite union"
BBC History UK

"We need a meaningful story for the new generation - our composite union"

WHAT A SUMMER IT’S BEEN SO FAR, WITH AN astonishing election result.

time-read
3 mins  |
September 2024
A Pole apart
BBC History UK

A Pole apart

ROGER MOORHOUSE is absorbed by a little-known but politically significant Polish princess whose life encompassed the major events of the later 18th and 19th centuries

time-read
4 mins  |
September 2024
Medieval England's p olitical miracle
BBC History UK

Medieval England's p olitical miracle

From Magna Carta to parliament, taxation to the law courts, the 13th and 14th centuries laid the foundations for the modern British state

time-read
9 mins  |
September 2024
EASTERN PROMISES
BBC History UK

EASTERN PROMISES

Lured by rich trading prospects, from the 17th to the 19th centuries Britain attempted to cultivate relations with China sometimes successfully, but often disastrously. Kerry Brown explores the troubled but ultimately vital links between two ambitious realms

time-read
10 mins  |
September 2024
THE GENIUS IN THE SHADOWS
BBC History UK

THE GENIUS IN THE SHADOWS

Æthelstan is one of the greatest of all Anglo-Saxon monarchs. So why, asks Michael Wood, does the first king of the English remain so fiendishly elusive?

time-read
10 mins  |
September 2024
The long road back The election was tough for the Conservatives - but the past holds clues on how parties can return from the brink
BBC History UK

The long road back The election was tough for the Conservatives - but the past holds clues on how parties can return from the brink

It’s election night 1997, and Jeremy Paxman is grilling Tory grandee Cecil Parkinson.

time-read
6 mins  |
September 2024