‘We were at David Austin Roses yesterday and this caught my eye… it is cheering and beautiful! It lifts up our hearts!’ Photo: courtesy of Anne Ullathorne
Eye - 21 June 2024
From Married in a Meeting house to A rose by any other name…
Married in a Meeting house
Mention of a Quaker Meeting house caught the attention of Gill Sewell, the editor of the Friends Quarterly, during an episode of Great Lives on BBC Radio 4 on 13 May.
Rachel MacRobert née Workman was born in the United States of America in 1884 and moved to the UK to study geology. She became one of the first female fellows of the Geological Society of London in 1919.
The programme explores her life, the loss of her sons, and her legacy – including the MacRobert Award, which inspired doctor Hayaatun Sillem to explore her story.
Her independent nature was evident throughout the episode, seen in her studies, her approach to marriage, and in anecdotes such as refusing to attend her husband’s knighting ceremony, saying ‘I will bow to no man’.
Around twelve minutes into the episode the venue of her wedding comes into the conversation – as she negotiated her husband down from a full church service to a Quaker Meeting house when they wed in 1911. Hear about this ‘charmingly volcanic’ character here: https://bit.ly/RachelMacRobert
