Margaret Brackenbury Crook

Overview

Margaret Brackenbury Crook born Dymock, Gloucestershire, England May 5, 1886 (d. 1972). Radical suffragist and feminist; professor of religion Smith College. First British Unitarian woman minister; counseled World War I conscientious objectors; served in Quaker relief during war, 1916-17; executive secretary American WILPF, 1920.

Quotations

There was no room for her in the car.
There was a mother in it.
And five children
And the driver.
There was no room in the car.
In any case she had lived
Six years beyond her span.
The children must have their mother.
She was nobody's mother,
Since the last war, that is.
She was nobody's wife,
That is since that last war.
She gave them all that she had;
Now she had only herself to give,
At seventy-six, and all alone.
All that was left to her
From the last war
Was a generous spirit.
(The children must have their mother.)
She stepped from the running board;
And the overloaded car
Started for Paris.

("Refugees", from Shoreline Unitarian Univ.; photo Unitarian-Universalist Assn.)