Victoria Alexandrina Drummond MBE

MBE

MBE can stand for:* Mail Boxes Etc.* Management by exception* Master of Bioethics* Master of Bioscience Enterprise* Master of Business Engineering* Master of Business Economics* Mean Biased Error...

 (14 October 1894 – 1978), was the first woman marine engineer in Britain and first woman member of Institute of Marine Engineers

Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology

The Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology is the international membership body and learned society for all marine professionals, operating in the spheres of marine engineering, science, or technology. It has registered charity status in the U.K...

. She was born at Errol

Errol, Perth and Kinross

Errol is a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland about halfway between Dundee and Perth. It is one of the principal settlements of the Carse of Gowrie....

, the daughter of Capt. Malcolm Drummond, JP

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

 and Geraldine Margaret Tyssen-Amherst, and a goddaughter of Queen Victoria

Victoria of the United Kingdom

Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....

. She went to sea in the 1920s, initiating a career then thought unsuitable for a lady.

Qualifying as an engineer

After completing her apprenticeship at the Caledon Shipyard, she joined the Blue Funnel Line

Blue Funnel Line

Alfred Holt and Company, marketed as the Blue Funnel Line, was founded by Alfred Holt on 16 January 1866.The main operating subsidiary was the Ocean Steam Ship Company, which owned and operated the majority of the company's vessels....

's SS Anchises in 1922 as Tenth Engineer. After completing four voyages to Australia and one to China, she began study for her second engineer's qualification. However, after having received the qualification, she was only able to work as Fifth Engineer for the British India Company in 1927. During the 1930s, her attempt to gain a British chief engineer's certificate met with failure, but she was able to qualify as a Panamanian chief engineer. In a career lasting 40 years she sailed on 49 voyages, which took her from her home in Megginch Castle

Megginch Castle

Megginch Castle is a 15th century castle in Perth and Kinross, in central Scotland. It was the family home of the late Cherry Drummond, 16th Baroness Strange...

 in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

, to all around the world. She continued her career through hardship and discrimination, carrying out the physically gruelling work of the engine room as well as supervising a sometimes reluctant and prejudiced work force.

Service during World War II

In March 1940, Drummond was second engineer aboard a Dutch vessel that participated in the rescue of the British Expeditionary Force at Marseilles. Later in 1940, while serving aboard the SS Bonita, the ship was attacked by enemy bombers in the middle of the Atlantic. Drummond took charge of the engine room and kept the engines running in spite of damage from the bombardment. Her courage during the Second World War was recognised when she was awarded the MBE

Order of the British Empire

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 and the Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea

Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea

The Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea is one of the four Lloyd's Medal types bestowed by Lloyd's of London. In 1939, with the coming of World War II, Lloyd's set up a committee to find means of honouring seafarers who performed acts of exceptional courage at sea, and this resulted in the...

 for single-handedly keeping the engines of the SS Bonita going during an attack by a German bomber.

Appointment as Chief Engineer - 1959

After the war, she superintended the building of ships in Scotland and continued to serve aboard ships as second engineer. From 1959 until her retirement in 1962, she served as Chief Engineer, the first British woman to do so. Throughout her distinguished career she maintained her conviction that if you were good at something and could be of useful service, than you should be allowed to do your job. After her death in 1978, she was buried at Megginch.

Her biography, The Remarkable Life Of Victoria Drummond - Marine Engineer, was written by her niece, Cherry Drummond, 16th Baroness Strange

Cherry Drummond, 16th Baroness Strange

Jean Cherry Drummond of Megginch, 16th Baroness Strange was a cross bench hereditary peer in the House of Lords. She also wrote romantic novels and historical works.-Personal life:...

.