F. Marian McNeill

Florence Marian McNeill, (26 March 1885 – 22 February 1973) was a Scottish folklorist, author, editor, suffragist and political activist. She is best known for writing The Silver Bough (not to be confused with The Golden Bough), a four-volume study of Scottish folklore; also The Scots Kitchen and Scots Cellar: Its Traditions and Lore with Old-time Recipes.

Biography McNeill was born in Holm, Orkney on 26 March 1885 to Jessie Janet Dewar and the Reverend Daniel McNeill, a minister of the Free Kirk in Orkney. Dewar was originally from Fochabers, and Rev. McNeill was from Argyll, and was minister of Holm for nearly fifty years. Marian was the eighth of twelve children, and was nicknamed "Floss" by her family and friends. Her sister Mary Lauchline McNeill became a doctor and a suffragist and served in the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service during the First World War.

She was educated at Kirkwall Burgh School, where she was friends with poet Edwin Muir. For the next year, she taught English in France and Germany.

She returned to the UK in 1913 and worked initially as an organiser for the Scottish Federation of Women's Suffrage Societies, and later as secretary for the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene in London where she remained until 1917.

She joined the Scottish National Party, along with her brother Duncan McNeill, and later became its vice president.

In the 1962 New Year Honours McNeill, "Writer on Scottish cooking", was appointed MBE. She died in Edinburgh on 22 February 1973.