Victoria Alexandrina Drummond, MBE (14 October 1894 – 25 December 1978), was the first woman marine engineer in the UK and the first woman member of Institute of Marine Engineers. In the Second World War she served at sea as an engineering officer in the British Merchant Navy, and received awards for bravery under enemy fire. Her career included service at sea with Blue Funnel Line, Manchester Liners, and Cunard-White Star Line, and ashore at Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Dundee.
During her engineering career, Drummond encountered both acceptance and prejudice because she was a woman. In 1926 she qualified as a second engineer, but no-one would sign her on as such, so she took work as a fifth engineer. From 1929 onwards she repeatedly sat the Board of Trade examination for promotion to chief engineer, but the BoT examiners repeatedly failed her, solely because she was a woman.
In the global shipping slump in the years after the Wall Street crash of 1929, Drummond found no work at sea for at least 11 years. Even after the UK entered the Second World War in 1939, no shipping company would employ her until 1940. She finally circumvented Board of Trade prejudice by passing the chief engineer examination of Panama, a flag of convenience. And even after that, in 1942 she again had to accept a position as fifth engineer.
In 1946 and again in 1952, Drummond served as a supervising engineer on behalf of two shipping companies, overseeing the building of new ships. From 1959 onwards she found work only on run-down tramp ships registered under flags of convenience, mostly Hong Kong. She retired in 1962, and died in 1978.
Victoria Drummond was born on 14 October 1894 at Errol, Perthshire, Scotland. Her father was Captain Malcolm Drummond of Megginch, Groom in Waiting to Queen Victoria and Deputy Lieutenant of Perthshire. Her mother, Geraldine Margaret Tyssen-Amherst was the daughter of William Tyssen-Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst of Hackney.
She had two sisters, Jean and Frances, and a younger brother, John Drummond, 15th Baron Strange. She was named Victoria for Queen Victoria, who was one of her godmothers. Drummond and her siblings were brought up in both the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church. All four worked as children: growing vegetables and flowers to sell and keeping poultry. Drummond's speciality was hand-churning butter. Their privileged upbringing was straitened after her maternal grandparents lost a fortune in investments in 1906.
One of Drummond's grandmothers turned wood and ivory and belonged to the Worshipful Company of Turners. Drummond herself became a prizewinning model maker, making her own toys that were shown in exhibitions and won prizes in competitions.
Drummond used to visit the engineering works of Robert Morton and Sons in Errol, which built steam-powered and petrol-engined lorries and buses. As a young girl she asked Mr Morton how she could learn to be a marine engineer and go to sea. Morton may or may not have taken the young girl seriously, but he told her to serve an apprenticeship, find a shop with a vacancy and start at the beginning, serve her time and then find a ship that would give her a berth as an engineer.
In February 1913, she was presented at court to King George V and Queen Mary as a debutante.
In 1915, Drummond turned 21, and her father encouraged her to choose her own career. She repeated her ambition to be a marine engineer. From 18 October 1916, she was apprenticed at the Northern Garage, South Street, Perth. Her wage as a first year apprentice was three shillings a week, from which sixpence was deducted for National Insurance so her net wage was half a crown. In her second year her wage before National Insurance was six shillings. Her foreman, a Mr Malcolm, who had worked in Clyde shipyards, gone to sea and risen to be a chief engineer at sea, supported her training. On three evenings a week a teacher from Dundee Technical College (now Abertay University) taught her maths and engineering.
Mr Malcolm supported Drummond's training, but in 1918 the garage dismissed him for drunkenness. Drummond took this as the right time to move on and resigned from the garage. Her father arranged her an introduction to the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Dundee, which took her on in its engine and boiler works at Lilybank in Dundee. She started as a pattern maker for metal casting, and in 1919 was promoted to the finishing shop. She joined the Women's Engineering Society and completed her apprenticeship in 1920 after which she was elected a graduate of the Institute of Marine Engineers. She stayed on at Caledon as a journeyman, later transferring to the drawing office. In 1922, Caledon suffered a decline in orders and laid off many workers, including Drummond who left on 7 July.
Early in Drummond's time at Caledon, the founder W.B. Thompson introduced her and her parents to Henry Wortley, a director of Blue Funnel Line. Wortley offered Drummond the promise of a position as an engineer at sea when she completed her apprenticeship. When Caledon gave her notice in 1922, Drummond wrote to Wortley to take up his offer. Unknown to Drummond, Wortley had died in 1919. However, Lawrence Holt honoured Wortley's promise and invited her to Liverpool for an interview.
Blue Funnel employed Drummond initially in its engineering record office in Liverpool on a salary of £12 a month. About a month later, on 25 August, she was instructed to sign on the 10,000 GRT passenger liner Anchises for a trial trip from Liverpool to Glasgow as an Assistant Engineer. On 2 September, she signed on Anchises again as Tenth Engineer. The salary of £10 a month was £2 less than the company had paid her ashore. A Christmas card sent by Drummond to the Women's Engineering Society from the Anchises in 1922 survives in the WES archives. She served on the ship until 1924, making four voyages to Australia and one to China.
On Anchises all the crew, all but one of the officers and most of the passengers accepted having a woman engineer. A few of the women passengers passed demeaning remarks at her. When Anchises' usual Second Engineer was taken ill his position was covered by an extra Second, Mr Howard, who Drummond says "persecuted" her. Drummond was friends with the usual Second Engineer, Malcolm Quayle, who supported her career, was her escort for social events ashore and whom she called her "protector". The pair had prickly tempers, for which Drummond nicknamed Quayle "hedgehog" and he nicknamed her "Kate", after Katherina in William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Quayle was married and had two children, and Drummond was emphatic that there was never any impropriety between them. However, when in 1924 she wanted to take her exams to become a Second Engineer, she unwisely wrote to her manager at Blue Funnel, Mr Freeman, suggesting that Quayle be promoted to Chief Engineer and she could be his Second. This gave Freeman the damaging impression that Quayle and Drummond were having an affair. Drummond left Anchises and Blue Funnel in April 1924.
Drummond began to study for her Second Engineer's qualification and, in October 1926, she obtained her Second Engineer's Certificate becoming Britain's first certificated woman marine engineer. However, after qualifying, she was able to find work only as a Fifth Engineer, signing on the British-India Steam Navigation Company 9,100 GRT steam turbine liner Mulbera on 14 April 1927. She served on the ship until 4 December 1928, completing one voyage to East Africa and four to India and Ceylon.
Aboard Mulbera Drummond was again accepted by nearly all the ship's company. The exception was the Second Engineer, Mr Lamb, who on Drummond's first day aboard told her that he didn't want her there. Drummond said Lamb often shouted at her, occasionally swore at her and thus wore her down. Drummond privately nicknamed Lamb the Tiger Cat or just "The Tiger". On occasion she also encountered passengers who initially did not believe a woman could be a marine engineer. Drummond won them round by competently doing her job.