Word: macroberts
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Rachel Workman MacRobert was born American-in Worcester, Mass.-but marriage to a Scottish laird made her a loyal Briton by more than simple law. Her husband was Sir Alexander MacRobert, baronet and laird of Douneside and Cromar, Aberdeenshire, one of that band of hardy Scots who went forth to build the Empire, making Scotland proud and England great. When he died in 1922, he left a million-dollar estate; Lady MacRobert herself became a director of the British India Corp. Ltd., which he had founded...
Their eldest son, Sir Alisdair, took over his father's job as head of B.I.C. Two years later he was killed in an air crash. The family title passed to Rachel MacRobert's second son, Roderic. In May 1941 Sir Roderic, a flight lieutenant in the R.A.F., was killed fighting for Britain over Iraq. Less than a year later, his younger brother, R.A.F. Pilot Officer Sir Iain MacRobert, 26, was reported missing in action over the North Atlantic. Stricken Rachel MacRobert made what she called "a mother's immediate reply." Enclosing a check...
...year later, when Sir Iain was reported definitely dead, Lady MacRobert sent another check to buy four Hurricane fighters. "The MacRoberts always fight on," she wrote, and set to work on the project of turning her house and estate into a rest home for airmen...
Alone in her Scottish home last winter, grey-haired Lady MacRobert went on with her hobby of geology, went on watching the course of the war. It disturbed her that all the Allied counterblows were handicapped by shortage of aircraft. Like most Britons, she admired Russia's brave fight, believed that the next few months might decide the future of Europe...
Last week Lady MacRobert took out her pen and checkbook again. She sent Sir Archibald Sinclair ?20,000 to purchase four fighter planes for use "on fronts where they could aid Russia." She asked that three of the planes be named for her sons, that the fourth be called "MacRobert Salute to Russia (Lady)." "Had I been a man, I, too would have flown," said gallant Lady MacRobert...