Unsung Heroine
Pete London profiles Mabel St Clair Stobart, a pioneering yet largely unheard of British nurse who saved countless lives in the Great War.
Dynamic and resourceful, with astonishing qualities of leadership, resilience and courage, Mabel St Clair Stobart was a formidable woman. Her drive to save lives took her to the war-torn Balkan state of Serbia to help treat the devastated country’s wounded servicemen, regardless of the considerable risk. Working in dreadful conditions, as the military situation collapsed around her, Mabel and her female medical team showed incredible bravery. Yet today, her name is almost forgotten. So who was this valiant lady? Mabel was born in February 1862 in Woolwich, Kent, the daughter of wealthy merchant Sir Samuel Bagster Boulton and his wife Sophia. Well-positioned in society, in 1884 she married St Clair Kelburn Mulholland Stobart of Mount Bagnal, Ireland. Two sons came along, St Clair Eric and Lionel Forester and, by 1891, the family had moved to Falmouth, Cornwall, where St Clair senior worked as a granite trader.
But business declined; during 1903 the Stobarts moved to South Africa to make a new start in farming. The business failed, but the ever-resourc…
