Biography of Marian McNeill

Florence Marian McNeill (1885-1973) was a graduate of the University who became a journalist and an authority on Scottish folklore and cooking.

Born in Orkney, McNeill studied at the University and travelled in Germany and France before graduating MA in 1912. She became organiser of the Scottish Federation of Women's Suffrage Societies and Secretary of the Association for Moral and Social Hygeine, and worked in social research in London, publishing (with F J Wakefield) An Inquiry in Ten Towns in England and Wales into the Protection of Minor Girls in 1916. She moved to Greece after the First World War but returned to Scotland in 1920 to work as a freelance journalist and writer. She founded the Clan McNeill Association in 1932, and was a Vice President of the Scottish National Party.

McNeill contributed to the Scotsman, Glasgow Herald and other newspapers, and in 1929 worked on the staff of the Scottish National Dictionary Association. That year, she published The Scots Kitchen, the first of several books on Scots cookery, food and drink. In 1957 she published the first volume of The Silver Bough: a Four Volume Study of the National and Local Festivals of Scotland. She was made an MBE in 1962.

Summary

Marian McNeill
Folklorist and Journalist
Born 1885, Holm, Scotland.
Died 22 February 1973.
GU Degree: MA, 1912;
University Link: Alumnus
Occupation categories: historians; journalists
NNAF Reference: GB/NNAF/P158919
View Major Archive Collection Record
Record last updated: 5th Mar 2013

Country Associations

Scotland
Place of Birth

Greece, No Region

University Connections

University Roles

• Alumnus