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| Notable Sussex Women |
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CATSFIELD
Annie, Lady Brassey née Allnutt; Baroness Brassey (1839–1887)
Traveller, collector and writer
The daughter of a prosperous wine merchant, she was born in London. At twenty-one she
married the wealthy Thomas Brassey; they had a son and four daughters, one of whom was
Muriel, later Sackville. Her husband became Lord of the Admiralty and MP for Hastings and
built a mansion, Normanhurst Court, Catsfield, in 1870. Their London home was 24 Park
Lane (later the Lady Brassey Museum) and their town house in Claremont is now Hastings
Library. Her husband was knighted in 1881 and given a baronetcy in 1886.
As a member of Hastings’ upper-class society, she performed charity work and was
appointed a Dame Chevalière of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in 1881, but is chiefly
famous for circumnavigating the globe on the family yacht, Sunbeam; for returning with
hundreds of artefacts from different cultures, some of which are in Hastings Museum; and for
her journals that record details of the family’s epic sea voyages, which were published as
books, including: A Voyage on the Sunbeam, Our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months
(1881); In the Trades, the Tropics and the Roaring Forties (1885) and The Last Voyage
(posthumous, 1889). On the first voyage there were forty-three on board, including ‘two
dogs, three birds and a charming Persian kitten ... The kitten soon disappeared, and it was
feared she must have gone overboard down the hawse pipe’.
Baroness Brassey died (of malarial fever) on board the Sunbeam and was buried at sea. Her
husband erected a beautiful memorial to her in Catsfield Church.
Further reading: Micklewright, N. (2003) A Victorian Traveller in the Middle East: The
Photography and Travel Writing of Annie, Lady Brassey.
Annie, Lady Brassey née Allnutt; Baroness Brassey (1839–1887)
Traveller, collector and writer
The daughter of a prosperous wine merchant, she was born in London. At twenty-one she
married the wealthy Thomas Brassey; they had a son and four daughters, one of whom was
Muriel, later Sackville. Her husband became Lord of the Admiralty and MP for Hastings and
built a mansion, Normanhurst Court, Catsfield, in 1870. Their London home was 24 Park
Lane (later the Lady Brassey Museum) and their town house in Claremont is now Hastings
Library. Her husband was knighted in 1881 and given a baronetcy in 1886.
As a member of Hastings’ upper-class society, she performed charity work and was
appointed a Dame Chevalière of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in 1881, but is chiefly
famous for circumnavigating the globe on the family yacht, Sunbeam; for returning with
hundreds of artefacts from different cultures, some of which are in Hastings Museum; and for
her journals that record details of the family’s epic sea voyages, which were published as
books, including: A Voyage on the Sunbeam, Our Home on the Ocean for Eleven Months
(1881); In the Trades, the Tropics and the Roaring Forties (1885) and The Last Voyage
(posthumous, 1889). On the first voyage there were forty-three on board, including ‘two
dogs, three birds and a charming Persian kitten ... The kitten soon disappeared, and it was
feared she must have gone overboard down the hawse pipe’.
Baroness Brassey died (of malarial fever) on board the Sunbeam and was buried at sea. Her
husband erected a beautiful memorial to her in Catsfield Church.
Further reading: Micklewright, N. (2003) A Victorian Traveller in the Middle East: The
Photography and Travel Writing of Annie, Lady Brassey.
DITCHLING
Victoria Drummond MBE (1894–1980)
Marine engineer
A god-daughter of Queen Victoria, she was born into high society at Megginch Castle,
Perthshire, and was destined for a life of upper-class idleness and luxury. However, she was
fascinated by machinery and amused everyone by saying she wanted to be a ship’s
engineer, an absurd ambition for a refined young lady débutante. Her chance came during
the wartime labour shortage: in 1916 she managed to persuade a local garage to take her
on trial mending lorries, and subsequently won an apprenticeship. After studying with an
engineering tutor she landed a job at Dundee’s Caledon Shipworks, the sole woman among
3,000 men.
In 1920 she passed her apprenticeship exams top of her group and after two years of
unsuccessfully applying for jobs was engaged as tenth engineer by the prestigious Blue
Funnel Line. The first woman ever to wear its gilt-buttoned, epauletted uniform, she set off on
the first of her forty-nine voyages below decks in a greasy, noisy, steam-filled engine room.
Prejudice hampered her entire career. Examiners were deeply reluctant to give a woman
responsibility, but by sheer persistence she eventually rose to fifth engineer; however, they
stubbornly failed her for chief engineer thirty-seven times, despite her qualifications and
aptitude, simply because they could not allow a woman in that important role. During the
1930s she could get no work and during WWII was told the sea was ‘too dangerous’ for
women, so she dodged bombs on dry land instead as an ARP warden in London.
Eventually, a foreign ship engaged her. When the SS Bonita was attacked by enemy aircraft,
in the chaos, with debris flying across the engine room, she sent her stokers to safety and,
although injured, coaxed the engine to record speed and saved the ship and its crew from
bombing and machine-gun fire. Her next ship was also attacked, killing one crew member and
injuring two. She was appointed MBE in 1941 and was the first woman awarded the Lloyd’s
War Medal for Bravery at Sea.
She was a member of the Institute of Marine Engineers, who named the Victoria Drummond
Room for her. During the war a restaurant in Lambeth was named for her, as was the Victoria
Drummond Award for outstanding service in the Merchant Marine. When she was sixty-five
the authorities finally relented and passed her as chief engineer, in which capacity she
embarked upon her final trip, to Hong Kong, three years later. In 1974 she moved to St
George’s Retreat, Ditchling Common, where she spent the final six years of her life. Her
unfinished memoirs were turned into a book by her niece, Jean Cherry Drummond (Baroness
Strange).
Further reading: Drummond, C. (1994) The Remarkable Life of Victoria Drummond, Marine
Engineer.
Victoria Drummond MBE (1894–1980)
Marine engineer
A god-daughter of Queen Victoria, she was born into high society at Megginch Castle,
Perthshire, and was destined for a life of upper-class idleness and luxury. However, she was
fascinated by machinery and amused everyone by saying she wanted to be a ship’s
engineer, an absurd ambition for a refined young lady débutante. Her chance came during
the wartime labour shortage: in 1916 she managed to persuade a local garage to take her
on trial mending lorries, and subsequently won an apprenticeship. After studying with an
engineering tutor she landed a job at Dundee’s Caledon Shipworks, the sole woman among
3,000 men.
In 1920 she passed her apprenticeship exams top of her group and after two years of
unsuccessfully applying for jobs was engaged as tenth engineer by the prestigious Blue
Funnel Line. The first woman ever to wear its gilt-buttoned, epauletted uniform, she set off on
the first of her forty-nine voyages below decks in a greasy, noisy, steam-filled engine room.
Prejudice hampered her entire career. Examiners were deeply reluctant to give a woman
responsibility, but by sheer persistence she eventually rose to fifth engineer; however, they
stubbornly failed her for chief engineer thirty-seven times, despite her qualifications and
aptitude, simply because they could not allow a woman in that important role. During the
1930s she could get no work and during WWII was told the sea was ‘too dangerous’ for
women, so she dodged bombs on dry land instead as an ARP warden in London.
Eventually, a foreign ship engaged her. When the SS Bonita was attacked by enemy aircraft,
in the chaos, with debris flying across the engine room, she sent her stokers to safety and,
although injured, coaxed the engine to record speed and saved the ship and its crew from
bombing and machine-gun fire. Her next ship was also attacked, killing one crew member and
injuring two. She was appointed MBE in 1941 and was the first woman awarded the Lloyd’s
War Medal for Bravery at Sea.
She was a member of the Institute of Marine Engineers, who named the Victoria Drummond
Room for her. During the war a restaurant in Lambeth was named for her, as was the Victoria
Drummond Award for outstanding service in the Merchant Marine. When she was sixty-five
the authorities finally relented and passed her as chief engineer, in which capacity she
embarked upon her final trip, to Hong Kong, three years later. In 1974 she moved to St
George’s Retreat, Ditchling Common, where she spent the final six years of her life. Her
unfinished memoirs were turned into a book by her niece, Jean Cherry Drummond (Baroness
Strange).
Further reading: Drummond, C. (1994) The Remarkable Life of Victoria Drummond, Marine
Engineer.
Excerpted from the book Notable Sussex Women (c) Helena Wojtczak 2008 |
| Some of the 209 East Sussex women featured in the book Notable Sussex Women |
| All pages (c) Helena Wojtczak 2009 |
Images on this page are not included in the book Notable Sussex Women