Rachel Parsons: Queen of the Machine

Rachel Parsons (1885–1956) was one of the most trailblazing women of her era, but she has disappeared from the pages of history – until now. The daughter and heir of Charles Parsons, inventor of the steam turbine, she was the first woman to study engineering at Cambridge and went on to become a director of the Parsons firm at Heaton. During the Great War, she taught hundreds of women to make munitions and later founded the Women’s Engineering Society.

The remarkable story of Rachel Parsons and the Parsons family is told by Henrietta Heald, author of William Armstrong, Magician of the North, a highly acclaimed biography of Baron Armstrong of Cragside.