Mary Brooksbank was an active member of the Communist Party of Great Britain between 1920 and 1933, and spent three periods in prison as a result of her agitation.
10 Facts About Mary Brooksbank
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2.
Mary Brooksbank attended John Maclean's last meetings at the Scottish Labour College.
3.
Mary Brooksbank is remembered today as a prominent figure in Dundee's labour movement.
4.
Mary Brooksbank founded the Working Women Guild to fight for better health and social services in Dundee, securing a membership of over 300, and was heavily involved in October 1934 with the National Unemployed Workers Movement county march to Forfar, to lobby the County Council; contingents were raised from Dundee, Blairgowrie, Montrose, Ferryden and Arbroath.
5.
Mary Brooksbank was born in an Aberdeen slum, the oldest of either five or ten children, and came to Dundee when she was eight or nine years old.
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Mary Brooksbank's mother, Rose Ann Soutar, nee Gillan, was a fisher lassie and domestic servant.
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At 21, Mary Brooksbank rejected Roman Catholicism, became an atheist and was inspired by John McLean to join the Communist Party to fight for women's rights, equality, and the demise of capitalism.
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John McLean 8.
Mary Brooksbank was expelled from the Communist Party in 1933 as she was critical of Stalin, and became more sympathetic to Scottish nationalism.
9.
Mary Brooksbank continued to be politically active to the end of her life, in campaigning for better housing and for pensioners' rights.
10.
Mary Brooksbank died at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee on 16 March 1978.