The Papers of Jean Russell McFarlane

Personal scrapbooks containing press cuttings, programmes and photographs relating to Jean McFarlane's career as a lacrosse player.

Jean McFarlane attended Birklands School in St. Albans and played lacrosse at club, county and territorial level, representing Liverpool, Lancashire and the North respectively. She was first selected to play lacrosse for England Reserves in 1930 and was elected by the All England Ladies' Lacrosse Association to captain the English Reserves Team to play against England on 15 October 1932. Following this match she was selected to play for the England team in international matches for the 1932/33 season. McFarlane continued playing for England until 1937 and was captain of the team for matches played against Ireland and Scotland in March and April 1937. In 1936 McFarlane was one of eight people invited to visit the USA to coach and play with schools, clubs and colleges in various districts.
McFarlane served as Honorary Secretary for AELLA from 1934 to 1939 and in 1937 was asked to assemble an unofficial team to give a demonstration game as part of an International Women's Week in Budapest, Hungary. She was awarded Honorary Life Membership of the All England Ladies' Lacrosse Association in 1962.
In the closing stages of the Second World War, McFarlane was part of the British Red Cross Civilian Relief Team which travelled from Belgium to Germany in April 1945 where she spent time in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. She remained with the British Red Cross Society in Germany until 1949 and was promoted to Assistant Commissioner (Foreign Relations) in 1948.
Jean McFarlane's recollections of lacrosse in the 1930s were published in the AEWLA 75th Anniversary Souvenir Brochure, a copy of which is held in LBA AEWL/19/3/2.

Jean McFarlane's personal papers relating to her work with the British Red Cross in Germany, particularly in the former concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen, are held at the Imperial War Museum, London.