Rachel Workman Macrobert, Lady Macrobert (A Ballad) Poem by Sheena Blackhall

Rachel Workman MacRobert, Lady MacRobert(1884 -1954)

Lady Rachel MacRobert wis born intae siller
Tae American parents, Workman wis their name
Her man fin a bairnie, swypt fleers up at Steenywid
Mills…his hard wirk and his smeddum brocht fame

Chorus:
Cromar is a honeypot, ancient and fertile
Far fiddlers an fermers an magic combine

Thirty younger than Alex, her husband
They wad in a Quaker Hoose, peaceful an quate
Syne he sailed tae India, she gaed tae Sweden
Whyles bidin in Tarland tae rin the estate

The pair hid three sons, Alasdair, Roddy, Iain
This clippit her wings fur gaun furth an wae-gaun
She feted the suffragettes, kept on researchin
At Dounside her husband deed, left her alane

The laddies wir dweeble fin growin. She foundit
A fine Freisiandairy herd, boostin supply
Tae gie her loons far richer milk that the ordnar
She wis a fine breeder o cattle forbye

Alasdair deed in a civil air accident
Roddy wis killed in a plane ower Iraq
Sax wikks eftir, the third brither, lost ooto Sullam Voe
Three brithers in three years fa niver cam back

Lady MacRobert noo helped buy a bomber
‘MacRobert's Reply' aa tae gie the Hun Hell
Syne helped fund fower Hurricanes, gaen tae the RAF
Three named fur her laddies, an ane fur herself

Lady MacRobert, a breeder o kye,
A geologist, Feminist based in Cromar
Philanthropist, luver o Dounside, her hame
That helped her tae owercam the cruelty o war

The MacRobert Trust keeps her gweed name alive
Grants gien taeservices, sea, youth an trainin
Tae Tarland, the braid bonnie airt o Cromar
Science, fermin, technology an engineerin