Rachel Mary Parsons

{{Short description|British engineer (1885–1956)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2015}} {{Use British English|date=March 2015}} {{Infobox scientist | honorific_prefix = | name = Rachel Mary Parsons | honorific_suffix = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | image = Rachel Parsons.jpg | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = Parsons in 1923 | birth_name =  | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1885|1|25}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1956|7|2|1885|1|25}} | death_place = Lansdown House, Newmarket, Suffolk, England | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | other_names = | siglum = | pronounce = | citizenship =  | fields = Engineering, politics, women's rights | workplaces = | patrons = | education = | alma_mater = Newnham College, Cambridge University | thesis_title =  | thesis_url =  | thesis_year =  | doctoral_advisor =  | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | notable_students = | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | awards = | author_abbrev_bot = | author_abbrev_zoo = | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | parents = | father =Charles Algernon Parsons | mother =Katharine Parsons | relatives = | signature =  | signature_alt = | website =  | footnotes = }} '''Rachel Mary Parsons''' (25 January 1885 {{En dash}} 2 July 1956) was an English engineer and advocate for women's employment rights, who was the founding President of the Women's Engineering Society in 1919.<ref name="History - WES" /><ref name="racpar website" />

==Early life== Parsons was born in 1885, to Sir Charles Algernon Parsons and his wife Katharine, the daughter of William Froggatt Bethell of Rise Park, East Riding of Yorkshire.<ref name="ODBN-Charles Parsons">{{cite ODNB|last1=McConnell|first1=Anita|title=Parsons, Sir Charles Algernon|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35396?docPos=12|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/35396 |access-date=30 January 2015}}</ref> Her brother, Algernon George (Tommy) (b.1886), was killed on 28 April 1918 while a Major in the Royal Field Artillery.<ref name="racpar website" /> Her interest and aptitude for engineering and science was fostered from a young age by the engineering tradition in her family including her grandmother Mary Rosse and grandfather William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse. Her father invented the steam turbine and developed successful international engineering businesses. The family lived on Tyneside (Elvaston Hall, Ryton, and Holeyn Hall, Wylam) and later in Northumberland (Ray Demesne, Kirkwhelpington).<ref name="racpar website">{{cite web|last1=Raphael|first1=E. L.|title=Rachel Parsons 1885–1956, woman engineer|url=http://www.rachelparsons.co.uk/?page=life|access-date=30 January 2015|archive-date=19 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619144725/http://www.rachelparsons.co.uk/?page=life|url-status=dead}}</ref>

She was educated at Newcastle High, Wycombe Abbey, Clarence House (May 1899 – April 1900) and finally Roedean from 1900 to 1903.<ref name="blue">{{cite web|title= What was a girl to do? Rachel Parsons (1885–1956): engineer and feminist campaigner|date=23 May 2014 |url=http://blue-stocking.org.uk/2014/05/23/what-was-a-girl-to-do-rachel-parsons-1885-1956-engineer-and-feminist-campaigner/|publisher=blue-stocking|access-date= 30 January 2015}}</ref> In 1910 she entered Newnham College, Cambridge, and was one of the first three women to study Mechanical Sciences there although, like all women until 1948, she could not graduate with a degree or become a full member of the university. Nevertheless, she was able to add theoretical knowledge to the practical skills she had already obtained at her father's factory. She left in 1912 having taken the preliminary examination for Part I of the Tripos and a qualifying examination in Mechanical Sciences in 1911.<ref name="racpar website" />

When the First World War broke out, she replaced her brother as a director at the Heaton Works of C. A. Parsons and Company in Newcastle upon Tyne. In particular, she oversaw the recruitment and training of women to replace the men who had left to join the armed forces. She became a leading member of the National Council of Women, and campaigned for equal access for all to technical schools and colleges, regardless of gender.<ref name=blue />

==Life after the First World War== Following her brother's death, Parsons did not resume her role as a director of the Heaton Works, possibly because of a rift with her father.<ref name="racpar website" /><ref name="Heald 2019">{{Cite book|last=Heald|first=Henrietta|title=Magnificent Women and Their Revolutionary Machines|publisher=Unbound|year=2019|isbn=9781783526604|location=London}}</ref> As evidence of her continued aspirations in engineering she became a member of The Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1918, continuing to be a member until she died.<ref name="racpar website" />

She and her mother, Katharine, Lady Parsons, were among the founders of the Women's Engineering Society alongside Eleanor, Lady Shelley-Rolls; Margaret, Lady Moir; Laura Annie Willson; Margaret Rowbotham and Janetta Mary Ornsby.<ref name="Heald 2019"/> The organisation promoted the retention of women engineers after the First World War by opposing the Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act 1919, as well as supporting engineering as a career for women.<ref>{{cite web|last=Heald|first=H|date=2020-08-04|title=A forgotten feminist pioneer: the story of Rachel Parsons|url=https://electrifyingwomen.org/rachel-parsons/|access-date=2020-08-05|website=Electrifying Women|language=en-GB}}</ref> Rachel Parsons became the first president of the Women's Engineering Society on 23 June 1919, and served until 1921.<ref name="History - WES">{{cite web|title=History – Women's Engineering Society|url=http://www.wes.org.uk/content/history|publisher=Women's Engineering Society|access-date=31 January 2015|archive-date=7 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207121057/https://www.wes.org.uk/content/history|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On 9 April 1919, with Blanche Thornycroft and Eily Keary, she was one of the first three women admitted to the Royal Institution of Naval Architects<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-110232|title=Thornycroft, Blanche Coules (1873–1950), naval architect|website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|year=2019|language=en|doi=10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.110232|access-date= 9 August 2019|last1=Harcourt|first1=Keith|isbn=9780198614128}}</ref> and from 1921 she became a lifelong member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.<ref name="racpar website" /> She also held a Master Mariner's Certificate.

In 1920 Parsons was one of a group of eight women who founded the engineering company Atalanta Ltd, with her mother Katharine Parsons as chairman<ref name="scott archiv">{{cite web|title=Scottish Council of Women Citizens Associations|url=http://www.scottisharchivesforschools.org/suffragettes/scottishCouncilWomenCitizens.asp|website=Scottish Archives for Schools|access-date=31 January 2015}}</ref> and one of the principal shareholders. All the employees were women and the director was Annette Ashberry.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Atalanta_Ltd|title=Atalanta Ltd – Graces Guide|website=www.gracesguide.co.uk|access-date=2019-06-20}}</ref> The company produced surface plates and machine models. It was initially based in Loughborough, where it was intended that the employees could receive further education at the Loughborough College of Technology.<ref>{{cite journal |author= |title=A Seven-Day Journal Women engineers |url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/9/9b/Er19210225.pdf|journal= The Engineer|pages=203 |date=25 February 1921 |access-date= 28 January 2016}}</ref> Atalanta moved to London, with premises initially in Fulham Road in 1922 and then Brixton Road in 1925. It was voluntarily wound up in 1928.<ref name="racpar website" /> [[File:Rachel-parsons-in-a-buick.jpg|thumb|Rachel Parsons driving a Buick in Grosvenor Square, London, 1925]] In 1922 Parsons bought 5 Portman Square, a large house in London, and began to host social events attended by the elite of London society. That year she became one of the few women members of the London County Council, representing Finsbury for the Municipal Reform Party, and sat on the Electricity and Highways Committee.<ref name="Scaife - galaxies">{{cite book|last1=Scaife|first1=Garrett|title=From Galaxies to Turbines: Science, Technology and the Parsons Family|date=1 Jan 1999|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=978-0750305822}}</ref> She stood for Parliament in the 1923 election as the Conservative candidate in the constituency of Ince, Lancashire, but was not elected.<ref name="racpar website" /><ref name="Parsons Family">{{cite web|last1=Heald|first1=Henrietta|title=Rachel Parsons|url=http://parsonstown.info/people/rachel-parsons|access-date=31 January 2015}}</ref> She moved to the larger property of 5 Grosvenor Square in 1926 and continued as a society hostess. She put herself forward for selection as the Conservative candidate for Newcastle in 1940, but was not successful.<ref name="racpar website" />

In 1940 she moved into the countryside at Sunningdale, Berkshire, purchasing Little Court, a Georgian-style house with twenty-five acres of land. However, she also maintained a London residence, living successively in two houses in Belgrave Square. Her interest in horse racing led her to buy the 2600-acre Branches Park estate at Cowlinge near Newmarket, Suffolk, in the 1940s where she built up a large stud farm, as well as in 1954 purchasing the Lansdowne House racing stable in Falmouth Avenue, Newmarket. She had several notable successes from her stables. These included wins in 1953 with Cavalleria, Golden God and Fraise Melba (trained by Geoffrey Brooke) followed by success with Le Dieu D'Or, Golden God and Fraise Melba under trainer Sam Armstrong.<ref name="racpar website" /><ref name="BBC-WmHr">{{cite web|last1=Heald|first1=Henrietta|title=Forgotten Women of History – Rachel Parsons|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04wtwfs|website=Woman's Hour 6 January 2015|publisher=BBC|access-date=1 February 2015}}</ref><ref name="Racing post">{{cite news|last1= Ashforth |first1= David |title= Murder of millionaire racehorse owner that came as no surprise|newspaper= The Racing Post|date= 3 July 2012}}</ref>

==Death== Parsons was found dead on 2 July 1956. Stableman Dennis James Pratt, a former employee, was charged with her murder. Defended by Michael Havers, a future attorney-general, Pratt was convicted of manslaughter on the grounds of provocation.<ref name="racpar website" /><ref name="Ott Cit">{{cite news|title=Grand old lady of racing in Britain beaten to death|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2194&dat=19560703&id=msgxAAAAIBAJ&pg=1926,5779|access-date=30 January 2015|agency=Reuters|newspaper=Ottawa Citizen|date=8 July 1956}}</ref><ref name="NwMkt J">{{cite news|title=LOOKING BACK: The killing of an heiress that scandalised a town|url=http://www.newmarketjournal.co.uk/news/latest-news/looking-back-the-killing-of-an-heiress-that-scandalised-a-town-1-550234 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222011757/http://www.newmarketjournal.co.uk/news/latest-news/looking-back-the-killing-of-an-heiress-that-scandalised-a-town-1-550234 |archive-date=2012-12-22 |access-date=1 February 2015|newspaper=Newmarket Journal|date=23 July 2009}}</ref>

Her cousin, Canon R. E. Parsons, officiated at her funeral which was held on 6 July at St Mary's church, Newmarket, and attended by, among others, her cousin Michael Parsons, 6th Earl of Rosse.

== Commemoration == In 2017, one of six tunnel boring machines for London's Thames Tideway Tunnel 'Super Sewer' project was named after Rachel Parsons and began tunnelling from Fulham in 2018.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.newcivilengineer.com/video-first-of-six-tbms-delivered-to-tideway-site/10025652.article|title=Video {{!}} First of six TBMs delivered to Tideway site|last=Smale|first=Katherine|magazine=New Civil Engineer|date=29 November 2017 |language=en|access-date=2019-06-17}}</ref> The names were chosen from a shortlist by a public vote.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nineelmslondon.com/news/thames-tideway-tbm-named|title=Nine Elms on the South Bank|website=Nine Elms on the South Bank|language=en-US|access-date=2019-06-17}}</ref> A blue plaque was unveiled in her honour in October 2023 at 6 Windsor Terrace, where Parsons lived during the First World War. The building is part of Newcastle University's halls of residence and was proposed by The Common Room organisation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Newcastle woman who was a pioneer in the male dominated world of engineering is honoured with a plaque |date=26 October 2023 |url=https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/rachel-mary-parsons-blue-plaque-27980671}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parsons, Rachel Mary}} Category:Engineers from Tyne and Wear Category:English mechanical engineers Category:1885 births Category:1956 deaths Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Category:20th-century English women engineers Category:Conservative Party (UK) parliamentary candidates Category:Presidents of the Women's Engineering Society Category:Women's Engineering Society Category:People educated at Roedean School, East Sussex