Mary Brooksbank (née Soutar) was born in Shiprow, Aberdeen, Scotland, on 15 December 1897.
Mary Brooksbank was born on 15 December 1897 in the Shiprow area of Aberdeen, Scotland, into a working-class family. She was born Mary Soutar, and her early years were shaped by the economic hardships common to Scottish industrial and fishing communities of the late nineteenth century.
Her family later relocated to Dundee, a city whose economy was dominated by the jute industry, and it was here that Mary would spend the majority of her life and develop into one of Scotland's most notable working-class poets, songwriters, and political activists. The circumstances of her birth—into poverty, in a port city undergoing industrial transformation—foreshadowed the themes of labor struggle and social injustice that would come to define her creative and political work.
Though she began life far from the mills of Dundee, her family's move there placed her directly within the world of jute manufacturing, an industry infamous for its low wages, dangerous conditions, and heavy reliance on female and child labor. This backdrop of industrial hardship would become the crucible in which Brooksbank's identity as a socialist, trade unionist, and songwriter of the people was forged. Her birth date is consistently documented across biographical sources and reference works dedicated to her life and legacy.