Mary Bennie Cockburn

Other names: 
Maiden name, Mary Anderson
Dates: 
Born 23 July 1875, died 1943

Mary Cockburn was the daughter of William Cockburn, a coal miner, and his wife Mary. She married Harry Cockburn, a coal miner, in 1896 and they had five children and 11 grandchildren. Her husband died in 1917, so she was widowed early, with dependent children to look after. She earned her living as a midwife in the Shieldhill area, near Falkirk, and made her calls on a bicycle. After delivering a baby, she would take the bedding home, wash it in the outside wash house, put some homemade soup in a canister, then go back and check on the mother and her baby before feeding the rest of the family.
As well as her midwife duties, she made appointments for people to see the doctor, and dispensed prescriptions from her front room.
In 1923, when the Redding Pit in Falkirk suffered one of the worst mining disasters in the history of the Scottish coalfields, Mary Cockburn spent 10 days at the pit face helping those miners who survived. She died in 1943, aged 68 years, and is loved and remembered by a great number of people, many of whom she helped to bring into the world.

Sources
1st Braes Senior Section of Girlguiding Scotland, with the help of members of Mary Cockburn's family and friends.