Mary Drummond Corsar Explained

Honorific-Prefix:The Honorable
Dame Mary Drummond Corsar
Office:Chairwoman of the Women's Royal Voluntary Service
Term Start:1988
Term End:1993
Birthname:Mary Drummond Buchanan-Smith
Birth Date:8 July 1927
Birth Place:Midlothian, Scotland
Death Date:[1]
Citizenship:United Kingdom
Nationality:Scottish
Alma Mater:Edinburgh University

Dame Mary Drummond Corsar, (Buchanan-Smith; 8 July 1927 – 12 August 2020),[2] was a Scottish activist and philanthropist. She was chairperson of the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service from 1988 to 1993 and noted for modernising the organisation. She is also noted for the role she played in coordinating the emergency response to the Lockerbie bombing. Corsar was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1993.[3]

She was born 8 July 1927, as Mary Drummond Buchanan-Smith, daughter of the Life-Peer Lord Balerno,[4] soldier and geneticist, who was Deputy Chairman of the Unionist Party in Scotland 1960-63. Her mother was the former Mary Kathleen Smith. She died in 1947. The Scottish Conservative politician, Alick Buchanan-Smith, was her brother.

She married 25 April 1953, Colonel Charles Herbert Kenneth Corsar,,, TD (1926-2012), Vice Lord-Lieutenant of the District of Midlothian 1993-97, by whom she had issue, two sons and three daughters. She lived at Ulva Ferrynear Torloisk House, Isle of Mull.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 29 August 2020 . Dame Mary Corsar obituary . 8 September 2020. The Times . en.
  2. Web site: Corsar, Hon. Dame Mary (Drummond) . 8 September 2020. WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO . en . 10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U11955. 978-0-19-954088-4 .
  3. Web site: Person Page. 11 September 2020. thepeerage.com.
  4. Web site: Person Page. 11 September 2020. thepeerage.com.