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Dr Margaret (‘Maggie’) Millen Jeffs Sutherland (1881-1972), pictured below on the right, was one of the few female academic scientists employed at Strathclyde’s antecedent institution, the Royal Technical College (RTC) in the early decades of the twentieth century. As a lecturer in the Chemistry Department from 1914-1947, she had extensive teaching responsibilities and was instrumental in keeping the Department’s classes running during the First and Second World Wars, when most of her colleagues left to join the Forces. In addition to this, she conducted research and published papers in her specialist area of inorganic chemistry, and actively supported social and cultural activities for students and staff. This post traces Maggie Sutherland’s academic career and highlights her many achievements at the RTC.

Photograph of Mr J.G. Galletly and Miss M. M. J. Sutherland, chemistry research students in the laboratory, Royal Technical College, c.1910 (reference: OP/4/114/3).

Undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Chemistry

Maggie was the eldest of three children born to Andrew Sutherland, a manufacturer of woollen shawls and mufflers, and his wife Frances, née Jeffs. At the time of the 1891 Census, the family, including Maggie’s younger siblings, William (born in 1885) and Frances (born in 1888) lived at Cedar Villa in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire. The Sutherlands were still residing in Kirkintilloch in 1904, when Maggie enrolled for undergraduate studies in science at the University of Glasgow.

In the early twentieth century, students pursuing degrees in science or engineering at the University were permitted to take some of their classes at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College (GWSTC). The GWSTC could not award degrees, but its daytime courses in Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, Mathematics and Engineering were recognised as qualifying classes for the Bachelor of Science degree awarded by the University. Accordingly, Maggie Sutherland attended the GWSTC’s Organic Chemistry courses I and II (session 1904-1905), Physical Chemistry course (session 1905-1906), Physical Laboratory course (session 1907-1908), Technical Chemistry Laboratory course (session 1907-1908), and Chemical Laboratory course (sessions 1904-1905 to 1907-1908 inclusive).

The Chemical Laboratory course, which extended over four academic sessions, comprised a series of experiments illustrative of chemical theory. It was designed to prepare students for a professional career, with the more advanced students being trained in research methods in inorganic and organic chemistry.^[1] At the close of session 1907-1908, George G. Henderson, Professor of Chemistry at the GWSTC, awarded Maggie the Nobel Company Prize as the best Chemical Laboratory student. Supplied by the Directors of Nobel’s Explosives Company Ltd., Glasgow, the prize money of £30 would support her in carrying out research work at the GWSTC under the direction of Professor Henderson during session 1908-1909.^[2]

Having completed the necessary qualifying courses in Chemistry, Botany and Geology, Maggie graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1908 with the degree of Bachelor of Science, awarded with special distinction in Botany. She then enrolled as a postgraduate research student and continued to attend Chemical Laboratory classes at the GWSTC during sessions 1908-1909, 1909-1910 and 1910-1911. In session 1911-1912, she was awarded the GWSTC’s Muirhead Scholarship for Women Students. The scholarship carried the sum of £35 per year and was tenable for up to four years,^[3] which enabled Maggie to support herself financially whilst completing her postgraduate research. Having successfully submitted her doctoral thesis on the topic of ‘Camphenanic acid, its isomers and derivatives,’ she graduated from the University of Glasgow with the degree of Doctor of Science in 1914. Six years later, she gained the Fellowship of the Institute of Chemistry.^[4]

Lecturing and academic research at the Royal Technical College

In 1912, the GWSTC was renamed as the Royal Technical College (RTC). At that time, the teaching staff within the Department of Chemistry included Professor Henderson, four male lecturers - designated as the Senior, Second, Third and Fourth Lecturer respectively - and two male assistants. When the Senior Lecturer, Dr George B. Neave, died in 1913, Professor Henderson recommended to the RTC’s Committee on Chemistry and Metallurgy that the remaining three lecturers should each be advanced one place in the hierarchy (the Second Lecturer thus becoming the Senior Lecturer, and so on). He also proposed that two new members of staff, Miss Maggie Sutherland and Mr D.E. Sharp, be appointed to share the position of Fourth Lecturer, ‘the former to take the greater part of the day work and to be paid at the rate of £70 per annum, and the latter to take the evening work and a small part of the day work, and to be paid at the rate of £50 per annum.’ On 14 January 1914, this was approved by the Committee.^[5] The group photograph below, taken in 1914, shows Maggie with her departmental colleagues.

Group photograph of Department of Chemistry staff in the laboratory, Royal Technical College, 1914 (reference: OP/4/114/7)

Within a matter of months, Maggie’s teaching responsibilities at the RTC would increase significantly. The onset of the Great War (1914-1918) saw the Senior, Second and Third Lecturers in Chemistry all enlist and depart on active service by October 1914. With the depleted Department still hoping to deliver a full programme of classes for session 1914-1915, it was agreed that the two remaining lecturers, Maggie Sutherland and Mr Sharp, should each receive an honorarium of £50 ‘in consideration of the extra and more responsible work they will [now] undertake.’^[6] To help ease the burden, an Assistant for the evening classes, a Temporary Assistant and a Junior Lecture Assistant were also brought in.

The following year saw Maggie gain further advancement at the RTC, again owing to wartime circumstances. When the Third Lecturer in Chemistry, Lieutenant James W. Agnew, died on active service in 1915, she was promoted to his post.

By August 1919, Maggie had achieved the status of Second Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and her annual salary had increased almost sevenfold to £250 per annum for session 1919-1920.^[7] The end of the war did not lighten her workload, but brought additional challenges, as she and her colleagues now had to cope with a greatly increased number of students. In March 1920, the RTC’s Committee on Chemistry and Metallurgy augmented the lecturers’ and demonstrators’ pay to take account of the extra work thus required. Maggie’s salary consequently rose to £450 per annum.^[8]

In 1935, the RTC’s Chair of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry became vacant on the death of Professor R.M. Caven. This led to a further elevation of Maggie’s status within the Department. Instead of filling the vacant Chair, the Committee on Chemistry and Metallurgy decided to reorganise the Chemistry staff. The Chair of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry was amalgamated with the Chair of Organic Chemistry, held by Professor Wilson, and the status of three lecturers, including Maggie, was advanced, giving her the new title of Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry.^[9] In 1942, she attained the status of Senior Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry.^[10]

During the Second World War (1939-1945), Maggie again assumed extra teaching responsibilities, helping to ensure that the Department could still offer a programme of classes. Acknowledging her efforts, the Committee on Chemistry and Metallurgy awarded her an honorarium of £25 for session 1943-1944, and another honorarium of £35 for session 1944-1945.^[11] In session 1945-1946, her salary, which was then £700 per annum, was boosted by a further wartime bonus of £48.

Alongside her teaching commitments, Maggie also pursued her own research on terpenes, semicarbazones and acridines, and published academic papers, some of which she co-authored with Professor Henderson and Professor Wilson. In addition, she wrote The Metal Ammines: volume 10 of an 11-volume Text-Book of Inorganic Chemistry edited by J. Newton Friend (1928).^[12]

Support for staff and student clubs and societies

Despite her consistently heavy workload, Maggie always made time to encourage social and recreational activities at the GWSTC and RTC and was an active member of several clubs and societies. As a postgraduate student, for example, she became the first woman to take an executive position in the Andersonian Chemical Society at the GWSTC, serving on its committee during sessions 1908-1909 and 1909-1910.[13] She was also a founder member of the RTC Dramatic and Musical Club, formed in session 1925-1926 to foster the interests of music and drama amongst students and staff. In each academic year, the club presented one dramatic performance and one or two orchestral concerts. Though she never graced the stage herself, Maggie served on the club’s committee in sessions 1926-1927, 1932-1933 and 1933-1934, and was elected as its Honorary President in sessions 1934-1935 and 1935-1936.^[14]

She was also involved in the Students’ Union, to whose committee she was elected as a staff representative in November 1913.^[15] However, she was most closely associated with the separate Women Students’ Union, formed in 1923 and popularly known as ‘The Muirhead’ in reference to the Muirhead Room, which was the women students’ common room. Maggie served as Honorary President of the Women Students’ Union during sessions 1924-1925, 1933-1936 and 1938-1939.^[16]

Retirement from the Royal Technical College

Under the government’s superannuation rules, Dr Maggie Sutherland was due to retire from the RTC on 18 October 1946. However, the Professor of Technical Chemistry recommended that her services be retained for an additional five months to help the Department deal with the anticipated post-war surge in student enrolments for session 1946-1947.^[17] She finally left the RTC on 31 March 1947, and retired to Comrie, Perthshire, where she and her younger sister, Frances, lived at Lenzie Cottage. After Frances’ death in 1967, Maggie stayed on at the cottage. She died at Perth Royal Infirmary on 19 March 1972, aged 91.

Dr Maggie Sutherland was a significant figure at the RTC, notable for having achieved steady career progression as a female academic within a male-dominated field, but equally remarkable for her longevity of service. Her association with the GWSTC and the RTC, firstly as a student and then as a member of staff, spanned 43 years. A reliable and dedicated colleague, she was also esteemed by her many students, who affectionately referred to her as ‘Dr Maggie’ and commented that ‘her bark is worse than her bite – for which reason she is popular with all students – particularly the men.’^[18]

^[1] OE/10/1/18: Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College Calendar 1904-1905, p.77.

^[2] OE/10/1/23: GWSTC Calendar 1909-1910, p.265.

^[3] OJD/1/1/5: Royal Technical College Magazine, vol.V, no.3, December 1912, p.68.

^[4] OS/80/2/25: University of Strathclyde Gazette, vol.VII (IV), June 1972, pp.20-21.

^[5] OE/1/1/15: Royal Technical College Board of Governors and Committee minutes, 1913-1914, p.16.

^[6] Ibid., p.171.

^[7] OE/1/1/17: RTC Board of Governors and Committee Minutes, 1917-1919, pp.74, 172.

^[8] OE/1/1/18: RTC Board of Governors and Committee Minutes, 1920-1921, p.35.

^[9] OE/1/1/25: RTC Board of Governors and Committee Minutes, 1934-1935, p.106; OJD/1/2/59: The Mask, vol.XX, no.1, October 1935, p.7.

^[10] OS/80/2/25: University of Strathclyde Gazette, vol.VII (IV), June 1972, pp.20-21.

^[11] OE/1/1/30: RTC Board of Governors and Committee Minutes, 1944-1945, pp.20, 98.

^[12] OS/80/2/25: University of Strathclyde Gazette, vol.VII (IV), June 1972, p.20.

^[13] OJD/1/1/2: Glasgow Technical College Magazine, vol.1, no.2, November 1908, p.43; OJD/1/2/61: The Mask, vol.XX, no.3, December 1935, p.93.

^[14] OJD/1/2/21: The Mask, vol.XI, no.2, November 1926, p.49; OK/33/3: Royal Technical College Dramatic and Musical Club minute book, 1929-1939.

^[15] OJD/1/1/6: RTC Magazine, vol.VI no.2, November 1913, p.48.

^[16] OJD/1/1/9: The Mask, vol.IX,no.3, December 1924, p.48; OJD/1/1/23: The Mask, vol.XXIII, no.1, October 1933, p.25; OJD/1/1/19: The Mask, vol.XIX, no.1, October 1934, p.22; OJD/1/2/16: The Mask, vol.XX, no.2, November 1935, p.63; OJD/1/2/76: The Mask, vol.XXIII, no.3, December 1938, p.80.

^[17] OE/1/1/31: RTC Board of Governors and Committee Minutes, 1946-1947, pp.47-48.

^[18] OJD/1/1/9: The Mask, vol.IX,no.3, December 1924, p.48.

Recent Posts

Celebrating friendship: student autograph albums

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A blank album would frequently be given as a gift, and the recipient would then ask their friends and classmates to fill its pages with verses, sketches, and other mementoes, transforming it into a unique and enduring record of friendship.The owners and their albumsThe owners of the three albums considered here were all female students taking the General Certificate course to qualify as primary school teachers. The earliest volume belonged to Sarah McLellan (1884-1956), who studied at the Glasgow Church of Scotland Training College (also known as Dundas Vale) from 1903-1905 (reference: CSTC/7/13). The first page of Sarah’s album is inscribed by her mother, Annie McLellan, and dated 18 January 1905. This was the date of Sarah’s 21st birthday, which suggests that her album was a birthday gift. 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In the volumes belonging to Sarah McLellan and Mary McDonald, a handful of those who are named on the section page also added their full home address on a separate page. Presumably, these were the girls with whom Mary and Sarah were particularly friendly, and with whom they most wanted to stay in touch.Artistic and literary contributionsThe other pages are covered with personal inscriptions by individual students, generally in the form of verses or drawings. When invited to sign a classmate’s album, a student would select a page for herself, write or draw her contribution and put her signature or initials at the bottom of the page, usually with the date. More rarely, she might contribute two or more pages to the same volume, like Mary McDonald’s classmate, Jenny Bonar, who penned at least three sets of sketches for Mary’s album. While the most thoughtful and detailed inscriptions probably came from the owner’s closest friends, only 14 of the 80 students within Mary McDonald’s college section provided an illustration or a literary contribution for her album. Mary may only have invited contributions from these select few, owing to the logistical difficulties of circulating the album to every member of such a large section.The dates appended to each contribution suggest that Sarah McLellan, Mary McDonald and the third, unidentified owner each began the process of collecting inscriptions from their classmates well in advance of finishing their studies. This was essential, as every person invited to contribute would need time for inspiration to strike, and to perfect their inscription or illustration before then returning the book, to be handed on to the next contributor. Sarah McLellan received her blank album in January 1905 and was due to complete her training course in July of that year; we know that her classmates were contributing to the album by March 1905, if not a little earlier. Mary McDonald received her album in July 1918 and was due to finish her training course in July 1919. Her classmates were signing the album’s pages by August 1918. The unidentified owner of the remaining album started her training in 1906 and completed it in July 1908. Although we do not know exactly when she acquired the album, her classmates were filling up its pages by September 1907.Many of the students’ contributions are small watercolours, or sketches in pencil and ink. Delicate flower studies, landscapes and seascapes feature prominently, as well as portraits and some illustrations of animals and birds. Several examples of these are shown below.References: CSTC/7/13, FCTC/8/9The quality of the illustrations reflects the fact that the training course for primary teachers included both drawing and nature study. Many of the students were accomplished artists who gained endorsements to teach drawing in addition to their general teaching qualification.Themes of sentiment and symbolismSeveral sketches in the albums depict boats sailing into the sunset, signifying the end of girlhood, of training, and of the students’ concentrated time together. Other contributions reflect topics covered in the teacher training course or make more overt reference to the student experience. One of Sarah McLellan’s classmates, for instance, reproduced the words and melody of ‘The Normal Call,’ which was the Church of Scotland Training College song, while this drawing by Mary McDonald’s classmate, Victoria Gaul, pokes fun at the psychology classes that were part of the students’ curriculum:Reference: JCE/22/2/26In keeping with the sentimental purpose of the albums, some contributors copied out carefully chosen verses by Burns and other authors. These either praised the personal qualities of the volume’s owner, or entreated her to think of, and remember, the contributor. Other students expressed hopes for the owner’s future happiness and good fortune, especially in the pursuit of love and marriage. A highlight of this type is the beautifully executed ‘map of matrimony’ drawn by Annie S. MacKenzie in 1907. Plotting the course of courtship, the map guides Annie’s classmate from the starting point of ‘spinster isles’ and ‘bachelor cove’ down through the ‘strait of flirtation’ and the ‘gulf of matrimony’, with the journey culminating at the ‘region of rejoicing’.Reference: FCTC/8/9Not all female students aspired to matrimony, however. Another contributor to the same album, Marion Burleigh, urged its owner to ‘gather gear by every wile … for the glorious privilege / Of being independent.’ Humour also characterised many students’ contributions. This tongue-in-cheek illustration by Sarah McLellan’s classmate, Jane G. Martin, depicts a future suitor striving to win Sarah’s hand:Reference: CSTC/7/13Perhaps the most charming and creative contribution is the ‘Casket of Gems’ (pictured below), drawn by another of Sarah McLellan’s classmates, Janie P. Young. Topped with a bow displaying the initials ‘DVTC’, for Dundas Vale Training College, and the dates ‘1903-1905’, signifying Sarah’s period of study, the casket contains everything deemed necessary for a young Edwardian woman to succeed in life: the cure for worry (‘laughter’), the cure for love (‘marriage’), and the cure for heartache (‘sympathy’); the best rouge (‘early rising’), the elixir of life (‘love’), and the balm of all ills (‘essence of tu-lips’); as well as the cure for laziness (‘work’), the balm of life (‘contentment’) and a stimulating tonic (‘courtship’). Each gem is revealed by lifting the small, square flaps of the casket.Reference: CSTC/7/13Beyond college: friendships that lastedUpon qualification, most of the students who signed the autograph albums were posted to schools in and around Glasgow. Living and working within reasonable travelling distance of each other must have helped them to maintain contact with their college friends. Two of the girls from Mary McDonald’s training section inscribed her album in December 1919 and February 1920, approximately six months after they had completed their course (July 1919). This suggests that the friendships forged at college continued, and that Mary saw her two classmates again after concluding her studies. In fact, Mary’s section went on to hold annual reunions for the next 60 years, and it is tempting to speculate that she took her autograph book along on these occasions, to reminisce with those who had become lifelong friends.Mary McDonald (pictured in the second row, second from left) and fellow students, 1919 (reference: JCE/22/2/26).Preserving friendship in the ArchivesSarah McLellan, Mary McDonald and the third, unidentified student all continued to collect inscriptions and illustrations in their albums after completing their studies. 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Information Services Andersonian Library Guides

Dr Maggie Sutherland

Undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Chemistry

Lecturing and academic research at the Royal Technical College

Support for staff and student clubs and societies

Retirement from the Royal Technical College

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