Mary McGeachy

Mary Agnes (Craig) Schüller-McGeachy (born November 7, 1901 in Sarnia ; died November 2, 1991 in Keene , New York ) was a Canadian diplomat and suffragette .

Life

The preacher's daughter Mary McGeachy studied history, philosophy and English at the University of Toronto . During her time as a student and beyond, she tried to disguise her gender by using the first name Craig. She met Lester Pearson as a lecturer, with whom she remained lifelong friends. In 1924 she completed her studies in Toronto. In Hamilton she worked as a teacher for two years. New study visits to the Sorbonne and the University of Geneva followed . In Geneva she worked as an editor of a student magazine on behalf of the Christian Student Unionuntil she found a job in a research department of the League of Nations in 1928 and later in its secretariat. As a Canadian-British enthusiast, she endeavored to increase Canada's influence in the League of Nations and its importance as a negotiating platform.

In doing so, she also established contacts with the British and international women's movement: in Geneva, the International Women's Council (ICW), the International Women's Alliance (IAW) and the International Women's League for Peace and Freedom (IFFF) were lobby organizations in the League of Nations. She made friends here with Mary Agnes Hamilton (Deputy Envoy of Great Britain), Hugh Dalton , Philip Noel-Baker and Charlotte Whitton .

During the Second World War she worked in the British Ministry of Economic Warfare and in October 1942 was granted diplomatic status as the first woman in British history . From January 1944 she was within the newly founded United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration as Director of Welfare responsible for the care of needy refugees and for the reconstruction of the social systems in the war zones. She has been criticized for her leadership style mainly from the American side, for example because of her long absence from Washington and a private move to London . There she married Erwin Schüller in December 1944, a wealthy German emigrant from Vienna who had been released from an internment camp in 1941. In May 1946 the UNRRA was restructured and the Welfare department was downgraded. McGeachy's new role was that of a liaison officer. She left UNRRA on August 23, 1946.

After the war she moved several times and lived in South Africa , Toronto , New York and, from 1973, in Princeton . She was active in women's organizations, in particular the International Women's Council ICW, where she held management positions from 1957. From 1963 to 1973 McGeachy served three terms as ICW President.

Strongly religiously motivated in old age, she joined the American Episcopal Church . She was inducted into the Order of Saint John as a lady in 1986 .

literature

• Mary Kinnear: Woman of the World: Mary McGeachy and International Cooperation . Toronto 2004, ISBN 9780-80208-988-5 .