Dates
Biography
Marjorie Rackstraw was born 24 June 1888. She studied at the University of Birmingham and was a Postgraduate Scholar at Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania, USA. In 1913 she became Bursar at University House, Birmingham, and from 1915 until 1917 did relief and reconstruction work in France. From 1917 until 1921, Rackstraw was warden of the Students Hall of Residence, Moray House, Edinburgh, and then in 1921 did relief work in the Soviet Union until 1923. In 1924 she worked at the Headquarters of the League of Nations, and from 1924 until 1937 was Warden of Masson Hall, Edinburgh University. During this time too she was Adviser of Women Students, Edinburgh University. From 1937, Rackstraw was in London doing social work and in 1939 was involved in the evacuation of day nurseries and nursery schools for London City Council (LCC). In 1940 she did relief work for refugees in France until the fall of France in June 1940. She then did emergency war work, and in 1944 joined the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in Germany. There she worked with refugees, community feeding, and the welfare of old people, including the setting up of hostels. In 1945, Rackstraw was elected Labour Councillor for Hampstead and from 1945 until her death she set up and worked with the Hampstead Old peoples' Housing Trust. Rackstraw was Chair of the Hampstead Committee of the Lord Mayor's National Air Raid Distress Fund, Chair of the Standing Committee on Communal Feeding, Governor of St. Olave's and St. Saviour's School, and Honorary President of Niddrie School Association. She was awarded the OBE in the New Years Honours List, 1960. Marjorie Rackstraw OBE died on 28 April 1981.
Found in 10 Collections and/or Records:
File
Identifier: Coll-705/5/2/7
Scope and Contents
This file of letters covers the last three months Marjorie Rackstraw was in Russia. Letters are sent from Buzuluk, and Alexievka, and are sparse during this time because courriers could not deliver mail to flooding from the thaw. She describes the Easter festivities, the still constant threat of thieves, and she cites that looking through the data she has taken, that 1 in 4 people have died in Buzuluk since she arrived. The food trains are arriving on schedule, and some signs of autumn sown...
Dates:
22 April 1922-10 June 1922
File
Identifier: Coll-705/3/1
Scope and Contents
This file of letters comes during Marjorie Rackstraw's last few months in Russia, doing relief work. Letters are sent from Alexievka, and she includes a report typewritten from the 4th December 1922 detailing the great efforts to get clothes to villages, and the number of rations distributed in the Alexievka district. She reports a large influx of people coming back from Sibereia, Ukraine, and Turkestan, which makes their distributions more difficult. Most people are living on their ration...
Dates:
15 February 1922- 20 January 1923
File
Identifier: Coll-705/5/2/3
Scope and Contents
This file contains letters from Buzuluk, Pavlovka, and Kornievka. Marjorie Rackstraw describes the conditions the people of these villages are living in, and the drastic measures they are driven to for want of supplies needed to live. She describes the vast numbers of deceased in great detail. Note: she mentions versts, this is a Russian form of measurement, about 1.1 km
4 December 1921
...
Dates:
4 December 1921-29 December 1921
File
Identifier: Coll-705/5/2/5
Scope and Contents
This file contains letters sent from Danelovka, and Alexievka. In these letters Rackstraw writes that she has a new translator, who becomes ill during their travels. They also visit a priest, whose home has been a welcome place to them many a time, and whose wife and children have been a source of happiness, to find that his wife has died of illness 8 days previously, and a child is ill. She also writes about other visits that they make, and the observations she has of children's centers,...
Dates:
2 February 1922-27 February 1922
File
Identifier: 705/5/2/4
Scope and Contents
In this file are letters from Tarkolka, Alexievka, and Loevka. She describes how and where they travel by sleigh, in anticipation for a conference in Buzuluk that will decide the policy strategy for the next few months. She finally makes it, and writes that that in 2 of the villages (volosts) she will be able to feed all the children who are not already fed by the Soviet authorities, as well as a fair number of adults.
...
Dates:
5 January 1922-31 January 1922
File
Identifier: Coll-705/5/2/6
Scope and Contents
This file contains letters sent from Buzuluk, and Alexievka. This month she describes a blockage of supplies due to trains being held up by rivers flooding key track lines. There is a great fear that they won't get food until the thaw, which is saved towards the end of the month by a great cold snap! Previously they experienced a great drop in the death rate, and people have been hopeful, perhaps a turn for the best. This month contains only three letters, which MR explains is due to the...
Dates:
10 March 1922-26 March 1922
File
Identifier: Coll-705/5/2/2
Scope and Contents
This file contains letters Marjorie Rackstraw sent during November of 1922. Letters are from Moscow, (also written Mokba, the Russian pronunciation for Moscow), and she describes the activities of her days: going to the ballet at the Opera House by night, and distributing milk to nurseries by day. She writes of distributing cocoa, tinned condensed milk, and soap. Those of a higher pay grade like chauffeurs and interpretors on her team receive a weekly ration of fat, sugar, beans or rice,...
Dates:
4 November 1921-28 November 1921
File
Identifier: Coll-705/5/2/1
Scope and Contents
This pack of letters describes Marjorie Rackstraw's first month in Russia, several from the Norwegian Steamship named the Cygnus, then from Reval, Estonia,and the last two from Moscow. She describes the trip, how her passport was checked by police in Estonia, and the other travelers she meets on the ship and on subsequent trains. In her final letter, she describes in detail the food shortages in Moscow. "Bread is weighed out with the very greatest care and every little broken pieces i picked...
Dates:
12 October 1921-31 October 1921
File
Identifier: Coll-705/5/3
Scope and Contents
This file contains personal correspondence from contacts of Marjorie Rackstraw. Letters relate to Masson Hall, Moray House, Birmingham University, Edinburgh University, her relief work time in France, Russia, and her involvement with the Hampstead Housing Old People's Trust. There are updates from students, and friends, many in response to Christmas cards that she sent, and including photos of their family.
Dates:
1908-1978
File
Identifier: Coll-705/6/3
Scope and Contents
This file contains photos related to Majorie Rackstraw's relief work in Russia during 1920-1922, and her work in Germany with Displaced Persons during 1944-1945. The top photo is a group photo of 7 people in uniform, Marjorie Rackstraw is in the top row on the far left. The next photo is a group of women surrounding a woman in white in a wheelchair. The back of this photo reads "Polish bride with no legs. (As written by Meg!) UNRRA Germany, probably at Greven DP Camp where MR was welfare...
Dates:
1920-1945
