This Mother's Day, we celebrate the real-life story of how a mother's grief transformed into a passionate war effort and a legacy that still goes on today.
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Rachel Workman was born in March 1884 in Worcester, Massachusetts to an ‘influential family’.
In 1909 she met Sir Alexander MacRobert, a self-made millionaire from Aberdeen. The couple married and had three sons: Alasdair, Roderic and Iain. With her husband spending most of his time working in India, Lady MacRobert raised her three sons predominantly on her own.
Yet she continued to be a ‘trailblazer’ in both society and the scientific community, as a geologist and an active contributor to the suffragette movement.
In 1922, her husband passed, leaving his fortune to the MacRobert heirs: their three sons.
In 1938 Alasdair (the eldest son) lost his live in a civil flying accident, with the second-son also passing just 2 years later in 1941. He had been leading a flight of Hurricanes in a strafing attack against the German-held Iraq when he died.
Six weeks later, Lady MacRobert lost her third son, Iain, after he and his Blenheim aircraft failed to return from a mission. His body was never found – he was only 24 years old.
From left: Roderick, Lady MacRobert, Alasdair, and Iain.
Lady MacRobert had now lost her husband and all her children, with nobody to continue the family legacy. Losing three sons to the sky, many would have understood had she been consumed by grief, or disdain for the war effort.
However, Lady MacRobert chose to do what any mother would…. honour her sons in any way she could.
In a letter to the Secretary of State for Air, she wrote:
“It is my wish to make a mother’s immediate reply, in the way that I know would also be my boys’ reply – the gift of £25,000 – to buy a bomber to carry on their work in the most effective way. This expresses my reaction on receiving the news about my sons.
“I have no more sons to wear the Badge or carry it in the fight. If I had ten sons, I know they would all have followed that line of duty.”
The RAF agreed to her request, with the aircraft - a Stirling of XV Squadron taking to the skies in 1941.
And what name was given to the aircraft? “MacRobert’s Reply”.
The family’s contribution to the war effort continued with Lady MacRobert donating a further £20,000 in 1942, to purchase four Hurricanes. Of these aircraft, three were named after her sons and the fourth… after her.
[Source: IWM]
In 1943 she founded the “MacRobert Trust” – a charity that, still goes on today, supporting the RAF and other institutions.
Since 1941 a succession of RAF aircraft have carried on her legacy. Today, the “MacRobert’s Reply” take to the skies as one of the Typhoons in 6 Squadron. The Lossie-based squadron have also curated a dedicated heritage space for artefacts and letters from the MacRobert’s family, ensuring future personnel will have a direct connection to the mother and sons who started it all.
Between the aircraft itself, 6 Squadron’s heritage collection, and the MacRobert Trust’s continued work, Lady MacRobert’s memory will live on in the Royal Air Force and the wider community – inspiring those who come after us and reminding us of all the sacrifices given by our personnel and their families during times of conflict.
She truly was a testament to the power of a mother's love.
