Victoria Alexandrina Drummond, | |
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 Drummond after receiving her MBE, July 1941 | |
| Born | 14 October 1894 |
| Died | 25 December 1978 (aged 84) Burgess Hill, East Sussex, England |
| Resting place | Megginch Castle, Scotland 56°24′27″N 3°13′48″W / 56.4075°N 3.2301°W |
| Occupation | Marine Engineer |
| Known for | First woman marine engineer in the UK |
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Victoria Alexandrina Drummond, MBE (14 October 1894 – 25 December 1978), was the first woman marine engineer in the UK and the first woman member of Institute of Marine Engineers. In the Second World War she served at sea as an engineering officer in the British Merchant Navy, and received awards for bravery under enemy fire. Her career included service at sea with Blue Funnel Line, Manchester Liners, and Cunard-White Star Line, and ashore at Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Company in Dundee.
During her engineering career, Drummond encountered both acceptance and prejudice because she was a woman. In 1926 she qualified as a second engineer, but no-one would sign her on as such, so she took work as a fifth engineer. From 1929 onwards she repeatedly sat the Board of Trade examination for promotion to chief engineer, but the BoT examiners repeatedly failed her, solely because she was a woman.
In the global shipping slump in the years after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Drummond found no work at sea for at least 11 years. Even after the UK entered the Second World War in 1939, no shipping company would employ her until 1940. She finally circumvented Board of Trade prejudice by passing the chief engineer examination of Panama, a flag of convenience. And even after that, in 1942 she again had to accept a position as fifth engineer.
In 1946 and again in 1952, Drummond served as a supervising engineer on behalf of two shipping companies: overseeing the building of new ships. From 1959 onwards she found work only on run-down tramp ships registered under flags of convenience, mostly Hong Kong. She retired in 1962, and died in 1978.