Mary McGeachy

Mary McGeachy Schuller (7 November 1901 – 2 November 1991) was of Canadian nationality, a British diplomat and international civil servant.

McGeachy in Maclean's, 1942

Biography

Mary McGeachy was born as Mary Craig McGeachy on 7 November 1901 in Sarnia, Ontario to Scottish-Canadian parents.^[1] Her father was a gospel hall preacher.^[2][3]

She graduated from the University of Toronto in 1924. She completed her studies in law and history with distinction. She briefly taught in a high school at Hamilton, Ontario.^[2] Her work experiences at International Student Service in the University of Toronto helped her to get a job as a senior assistant at Information Section of the League of Nations Secretariat in Geneva in 1928.^[4][1][5] During her service of more than a decade with the League of Nations, she worked as a liaison officer for the British Dominions. After the dissolution of the League of Nations in 1940, she joined, a temporary diplomatic post,^[6] the public relations department of the British Ministry of Economic Warfare.^[7][8]

In 1942, following her appointment as the first secretary of the British embassy in Washington, she became “the first woman to be given British diplomatic rank.” ^[1] She was appointed as a Director to lead the newly created Welfare Division of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration(UNRRA) in 1944.^[9] Since 1946, she was actively engaged in promoting women's welfare and rights. She was associated with International Council of Women (ICW), and served its president from 1963 to 1973.^[2]

She married Viennese-born banker Erwin Schuller.^[10]

She died in New York City on 2 November 1991.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. Macfadyen, David (6 February 2019). Eric Drummond and his Legacies: The League of Nations and the Beginnings of Global Governance. New York City: Springer. p. 173. ISBN 978-3-030-04732-0. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
2. Forestell, Nancy (31 December 2013). Documenting First Wave Feminisms: Volume II Canada - National and Transnational Contexts. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-442-66661-0. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
3. Mandler, Peter (7 May 2013). Return from the Natives: How Margaret Mead Won the Second World War and Lost the Cold War. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. p. 102. ISBN 978-0-300-18785-4. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
4. Gorman, Daniel (20 August 2012). The Emergence of International Society in the 1920s. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-139-53668-4. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
5. Horlick, Louis (2007). J. Wendell Macleod: Saskatchewan's Red Dean. Montreal: McGill-Queen's Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-773-56032-1. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
6. Cassidy, Jennifer A. (6 July 2017). Gender and Diplomacy. Oxfordshire: Taylor & Francis. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-351-98299-3. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
7. Brookfield, Tarah (1 May 2012). Cold War Comforts: Canadian women, Child Safety, and Global Insecurity. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-1-554-58635-6. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
8. Owens, Patricia (7 January 2021). Women's International Thought: A New History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-108-49469-4. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
9. Armstrong-Reid, Susan E. (30 June 2008). Armies of Peace: Canada and the UNRRA Years. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. NA. ISBN 978-1-442-69191-9. Retrieved 9 May 2022.
10. McCarthy, Helen (22 May 2014). Women of the World: The Rise of the Female Diplomat. London: A&C Black. p. NA. ISBN 978-1-408-84004-7. Retrieved 9 May 2022.

Further reading

• Valentine, Elizabeth R. (11 April 1943). "Britain's First Woman Diplomat". The New York Times.