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Annette M. B. Meakin (12 August 1867 – 26 July 1959) was an author and traveller. Annette Meakin (known as Mary to her family) was unusual in her day in that she travelled widely in Russia, Central Asia, North Africa, and many other countries and wrote about them. Her best known book is "The Ribbon of Iron" about her journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway when it opened in 1900. Her final work was a scholarly study of the relationship of Goethe and Schiller published in 1932 in three volumes “Goethe and Schiller, 1785-1805, the Story of a Friendship. She lectured widely in Paris, Wurtzburg and England.

Early Life
Annette Mary Budgett Meakin was born in Bristol on 12th August 1867. Her father was a tea planter in Almora, India, the 12th child of a gentleman farmer in Leicestershire, and her mother was Sarah Ann Budgett the daughter of Samuel Budgett, “The Successful Merchant”. Her parents were both devout Methodists and Sarah had sailed out to Calcutta to be married to Edward Ebenezer Meakin in St Paul’s Cathedral in Calcutta on November 29th 1864. Mary had an older brother, James Edward, born in 1866 Ealing at the home of Sarah’s brother, who later became known as an authority on Morocco. Later the family returned to England and established a home in Red Hill where Mary’s younger three siblings were born. Her father worked during those years as an East India merchant. The family moved to Morocco in 1884 because it was thought that the warmer, drier climate would benefit Mary’s father’s health. There he became vitally concerned about the exploitation of poor people by the rich and powerful and the cruelties inflicted on them. He founded the “Times of Morocco” the first English language newspaper in Morocco. Mary lived with the family in Morocco for 2 years before being sent back to Europe for further education. Mary’s parents were very strict as described in the obituary of her brother Harold.

Mary was educated in England and Germany. She studied music at the Royal College of Music in Kensington and at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin. She also studied classics at University College London. She corresponded with A. E. Housman, Professor of Latin and one letter from him, dated 26th March 1900, reads as follows: “Miss A.M.B.Meakin has during the last three years attended many of my Senior and Junior Latin classes in this college. She has displayed not only much intelligence but also an interest in and even an enthusiasm for her work such as I have seldom known. Her progress in general grasp of the subject has been steady and in some respects rapid. I have been particularly struck by the zeal with which she applied herself to Latin composition, not only in prose but in verse. It was at her own wish that she began the study of the latter art, which is not usually practiced by students here; and she soon attained a fair degree of proficiency in more than one of the metres. If Miss Meakin should herself engage in the teaching of Latin, I have no doubt she will be found both a careful and an effective teacher.”

She was an eager and able student and in the course of her life learned many languages including Greek, French, German, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese.

Travels in Russia
Mary’s first book on Russia was "In Russian Turkestan" which was based on 2 journeys she made to the region, one in 1896 with her brother James Edward Budgett Meakin and a second one in 1902 with her mother. She states in the preface of In Russian Turkestan: "This volume is not intended to be a compendium of all the information that has been contributed by previous writers on Turkestan…I have chosen rather to describe a few of those in which Islam in Central Asia differs somewhat from Islam in other countries. Two years spent among Mohammedans in Morocco, added to travels among the Tatars, in Kazan, the Crimea and Northern Siberia, the Arabs in Egypt and the Turks in Constantinople and Palestine, have been my chief preparation for the task."

"Its accomplishment is due to the kindness of his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, who, at the instance of his Excellency Prince Hilkof, Minister of Ways and Communications, graciously granted me special facilities for travelling in his Central Asian dominions. It would be impossible for me to say how much I owe to the kindness of his Excellency M. Ivanoff, the Governor-General at Tashkent, who provided me with an open letter to officials in every part of his territory, and to that of Colonel Horvat, Chief of the Central Asian railways at Askhabad, who placed a luxuriously fitted-up governor's carriage entirely at my disposal for the whole of my stay, which would have covered a much longer period had not circumstances beyond my control compelled me to return to England early in March 1902."

During her first trip she used her German and translators but she learned Russian before the second one. She wrote eloquently of the Sart people and had the advantage as a woman to be admitted to the homes of the women and so study for the first time by a European this very strict Muslim population.

In 1900 she and her mother undertook their historic journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway, immortalized in her book “Ribbon of Iron”. In the first chapter she states: “It was during a visit to Russia in 1896 that my attention was drawn for the first time to the ‘Great Siberian Railway’. It existed then only as far as Omsk and had not yet been thrown open for passenger traffic. People still travelled by tarantass (troika) and no one with the exception of one or two travellers, went to Siberia from choice for travelling there was monotony itself. “We hope to complete the railway in 4 years,” said Prince Hilkof when asked how long it would be before Japan could be reached by rail. “This journey will be an easy one and the buffets will be excellent,” he added. As he spoke I was seized with a desire not only to take the journey but to be the first Englishwoman to travel by that route to Japan.”

When Mary and her mother arrived in Vladivostok it was unsafe to return by the same way because of armed uprisings in China in 1900 so she and her mother returned by way of Japan and the United States of America. As always Mary took a keen interest in the people and their way of life. Her book is extensively referenced by Harmon Tupper in his book "To the Great Ocean" (published in London by Secker and Warburg in 1965). In 1902 Mary became a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Mary wrote a third book, “Russia, Travel and Studies” which was published in 1906. Once again she travelled with her mother and a highlight of her trip was an afternoon spent with Leo Tolstoy in his country home near Tula (described in pages 237-246).

Middle Life
Mary next turned her attention to the role of women in society. She was able to draw from her extensive experience of women in different countries as well as reading widely on the subject although it is not clear in her book “Woman in Transition”(1907) what her opinion is. She has pasted in her scrap book in the Bodleian Library (Volume 1) a review from the Nursing Times,"The authoress has firm faith in what will come out of our so-called 'woman movement'. One by one her disabilities, civil and political are falling before woman as she advances more boldly to take her place beside man, not as his rival but as his friend and trusted comrade in the battle that both have to fight shoulder to shoulder. Until now humanity has advanced with halting gait and uncertain step along the path of civilization and improvement. Woman in her helplessness, born of ignorance, has constantly checked the advance of man, but now that her ignorance is being changed into knowledge and her helplessness into strong courage and the power of self control, the time is near when, of her own free will and with an enlightened understanding, she, too, will move forward, keeping pace with man; and the resources of progress will be doubled,’ Whether we agree with all her conclusions or not, this is a book full of interest and information which no thoughtful woman should omit to read.”

Mary’s book on Galicia published in 1909 is a remarkably readable book which was well received by the local Chamber of Commerce (letter in Bodleian papers) and she lectured on the province of Spain in English and Spanish. Hannah More is a biography which Mary, by her own admission, never intended to write but she was drawn into it as she started reading more of her papers. In the same year, 1911, Mary’s book, “What America is Doing, Letters from the New World” was published. Regarding her book “What America is doing” Annette Meakin received reviews such as this: “Miss Meakin shows everywhere the courage of her opinions, and for the most part they are uncommonly shrewd”. The Times Literary Supplement states:” Miss Meakin wants no introduction as a traveller and a writer….it is full of pith and every chapter gives us the fresh and original observation of a traveller who has a trained eye and a trained intelligence”. (Times Lit. Supp. Feb 10th 1911). In March 1913 Mary was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Enlistment or Conscription: The Times Jan 21st 1915. “A vigorous demand for compulsory service backed by copious quotation from authorities of various kind”. She notes that many who wrote to her to praise the book thought she was a man because she had given her name as A M B Meakin instead of Annette. The Nation Aug 21 1915 “ Mr A.M.B.Meakin has very kindly sent me his interesting book…. In so far as the book induces anybody to realize the challenge which military materialism has thrown down to the chivalry of the world it will do good” signed G K Chesterton. During WW1 Mary worked first in the War office doing translations for eleven months (Bodleian papers letter from War Office) and then trained as a chemist’s assistant and worked for several doctors who wrote good references for her noting her meticulous attention to accuracy. (family papers) Mary stood as a candidate in the Chislehurst Division of Kent and was duly nominated but was compelled to withdraw on financial grounds. There is a brief article in the Times Dec 5th 1916: “Mrs Annette Meakin addressing the electors of Chiselhurst as an “Independent Labour Coalition candidate” suggests that the indemnity we exact from Germany is of even greater importance than the punishment of the Kaiser. It must be large enough to – 1) to enable us to pay off our debt to America, 2) to pay the widows and dependents of our fallen heroes their promised pensions and allowances, 3) decently support until they find the right ‘ole those millions of noble men and women who after devoting themselves wholeheartedly to the nation’s war work for many long months are thrown out of employment by the cessation of the war and 4) to provide adequately for our disabled warriors”. (Meakin Papers volume I Bodleian Library)

In the 1920s Mary turned her attention to translation and did a beautiful poetic translation in hexameter of Nausikaa, the sixth book of the Odyssey which received rave reviews.( Bodleian Papers Volume 2) During this period she also translated Corneille’s play, Polyeuctes from the French and wrote a play, Inez de Castro about a Galician noblewoman who was the lover and post-humously recognized wife of Peter I of Portugal in the 1300s.

Goethe and Schiller: Mary’s last major work was "Goethe and Schiller: 1785-1805 The Story of a Friendship” in three volumes published in 1932. In a pamphlet produced by her publisher on Goethe and Schiller it states, “ Having received part of her education in Germany (Goettingen), Miss Meakin returned to that country a few years later to study music in Berlin, where she remained for more than two years a pupil of Felix Dreyschock. Her knowledge of the German language was consequently thorough when she decided to devote herself, in 1923, to original research in connection with the poets Goethe and Schiller. Three and a half years passed in unwearied and whole-time, original research in the University library of Freiburg (Baden) and other German libraries before she began to write the present work, which contains much that will be new even for German Goethe experts. Miss Meakin has been a member of the Weimar Goethe Society for the past eight years, during which time she has kept in close touch with German students of Goethe and their publications”. (Bodleian Papers Volume 2) Mary received many letters from distinguished people, mostly academics, praising this work.

Later Life and Death
Mary never married and nothing is known of her intimate life. She lived in lodgings all her life and, judging by the many places she mentions and where she was when different prefaces to books and letters were written she moved frequently. Although she was well regarded and successful as a writer, she never made much money. When the family home was sold some time after her father’s death in 1897 she and her mother used the money to finance her journey across the Trans-Siberian Railway and other travels. This led to family dissension because two of her brothers died young leaving widows with young children who also needed money. She and her sister, Ethilda, and her younger brother, Sidney, kept in touch.

In 1931 Mary’s brother, Sidney, returned home to England from Canada. He was suffering from shell shock after being seriously wounded in WW1. She lived on a farm in Sussex with him for some time, possibly until his death in 1941. In later years she lived in lodgings in Hove. By that time she no longer had the zest for life and curiosity which she must once have had, but still had her beloved piano and probably time spent organizing all the press cuttings that she had amassed into large scraps books. In the last two or three years after her sister died in 1956 she went to live with her niece, Dr Sylvia Annette Meakin Hatfield with her husband, Ted and five children. She is remembered by the family as a quiet old lady dressed in black with grey eyes and her long snow white hair pinned up with many hair pins. She died peacefully in her sleep on August 26th 1959 in her room overlooking the beautiful garden of Ongar House in Chipping Ongar. She has been memorialised with the other members of her family in Highgate Cemetery.

Family
Annette Mary Budgett Meakin was the second of five children of Edward Ebenezer Meakin (1838-1897) and Sarah Ann Budgett (1832-1907) who married in St Paul’s Cathedral in Calcutta on November 29th 1864. Her father went to India in his teens and became a successful tea planter. The family moved back to England where her father continued working as an East India merchant. He was presented at court in 1873. In 1882 they moved to Morocco where Edward, a deeply religious man, founded the Times of Morocco to bring attention of the English speaking community to the plight of the natives and the wrongdoing of the wealthy. The family returned to England and lived in Hampstead where Edward died on July 22nd 1897.

Sarah Ann Budgett Meakin was the daughter of Samuel Budgett (‘the successful merchant’ of Bristol). She went out to India accompanied by a family friend to marry Edward Meakin. She loved and cared for her five children, organized the household, managing their resources and supporting her husband. She accompanied her daughter on the inaugural journey of the Trans-Siberian railway in 1900.

James Edward Budgett Meakin (1866-1906) continued his father’s work on the Times of Morocco and travelled throughout Morocco and indeed wherever Muslims lived in many other parts of the world, dressed as an Arab, getting to know and understand the Moroccan people better and write about them for the English-speaking public.

Harold Budgett Meakin (1870-1907) worked as a physician in India and was recognized with medals for organizing a field hospital after the relief of Beijing and for medical work in Waziristan. He became surgeon to the Presidency General Hospital in Calcutta. He married Frances Ball, elder daughter of Robert Stawell Ball the Royal Astronomer of Ireland, and they had one son, Stawell. Harold died of tuberculosis in 1907.

Ethilda Budgett Meakin Herford (1872-1956) worked as a physician in India, and became Physician in Charge of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Calcutta. She married Oscar, a Jewish businessman who loved playing the violin, and they had four children. She studied to become a psychoanalyst. Ethilda valued education and international understanding and guided children and grandchildren to be more spiritual.

Sidney Budgett Meakin (1874-1941) emigrated to Canada and worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway. When war came he joined up in Canada despite the fact that he was 40 years old. He was wounded at Ypres in the First World War and suffered from shell shock. In 1931 he returned to England because he was no longer able to work and died in 1941.

Books by Annette Mary Budgett Meakin

 * A Ribbon Of Iron 1901
 * In Russian Turkestan: A Garden of Asia 1903
 * Russia Travels and Studies 1906
 * Woman In Transition 1907
 * Galicia, The Switzerland Of Spain 1909
 * Hannah More 1911
 * What America Is Doing, Letters From The New World 1911
 * Enlistment Or Conscription? 1914
 * Nausikaa 1926/1938
 * Polyeuctes 1929
 * Inez De Castro 1930
 * Goethe And Schiller, 1785-1805 3v1931-1932
 * Books by Annette M.B.Meakin are available here