Mabel St Clair Stobart

Born to a wealthy family, in 1862 in England, her parents were Sir Samuel Bagster Boulton and Sophia Louisa (née Cooper). She was the third daughter in a family of five daughters and two sons. She was an avid golfer and tennis player and wrote a book on golf, plus several articles on fishing. She rebelled against the typical trappings of her upbringing, at one point refusing to be presented at the Royal Court. She married St Clair Kelburn Mulholland Stobart (1861–1908), an Irish-born granite merchant on 16 July 1884. She returned to Britain in 1907 settling in Studland Bay, in Dorset, whilst her husband remained in Transvaal to settle the business affairs. In the event, St Clair was not to return, as he died at sea on 9 April 1908 on his return journey to Britain. ==Women's Sick and Wounded Convoy Corps==

Stobart firmly felt that a major war was coming and women could contribute to this war effort by providing medical care along with other support activities. During her life, Stobart never had any official medical training. She initially joined the newly created First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) but left after a short time. She had issues with the funding of the organisation and the perceived view that it was not doing enough to promote women within the military. She soon founded the Women's Sick and Wounded Convoy Corps (WSWCC) in 1910. The Balkan Wars broke out in October 1912 between the Ottoman Empire and former territories of Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, and Serbia. The British Red Cross Society (BRCS) had sent a team to the conflict, but explicitly did not send any women, as the society thought that the conditions would be "quite unsuitable for women." Stobart disagreed and sought a way for her Corps to be sent. She enlisted the help of Noel Buxton, an MP and Chairman of the Balkan War Relief Committee. Stobart approached Buxton at a club and he suggested she travel with him in a few days to make her case directly to the Bulgarian government. Stobart quickly arranged her unit in two days. They would stay in England and await word from her if they received permission. After travelling on the Orient Express, Stobart, her husband, Noel Buxton and his brother, Charles Buxton, MP, all arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria. Stobart received a positive response from the head of the Bulgarian Red Cross, but permission of the head of the military medical division was still needed. Rather than waiting for him, Stobart set off to the front to see him. After giving an impassioned speech about British women, Stobart was granted permission for her unit to come and be "...near the front as possible". The unit spent five weeks in the country, treating the wounded and sick until the armistice was signed. When she arrived back in England, she published a book about the WSWCC and women in war. The book, War and women, from experience in the Balkans and elsewhere, was dedicated to the Tsaritsa (Queen) of Bulgaria, Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz. The Tsaritsa had been a nurse during the war and had made a personal donation of bedding and supplies for the WSWCC unit. Stobart went on a visit to Canada for three months. During her time away, the members of the WSWCC decided that the unit should be incorporated with the British Red Cross Society. Stobart strongly protested and left the organisation she founded. ==First World War==

In Belgium Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914. Stobart travelled to Brussels on 18 August 1914, arriving on the evening of the 19th, and sent a cable instructing the unit to come out immediately. They immediately started converting university buildings that had been allocated for use as a hospital by her unit on the 20th. At 2pm, she followed a crowd to the Boulevard des Jardins Botaniquese, and witnessed the German Army making a triumphant entry to and taking possession of the capital of Belgium, foolishly taking photos. Realising the situation, Stobart tried to find means to communicate with her unit. After persistent effort, Stobart was able to gain a passport from the German General, to Venlo in Holland, leaving at 6 p.m. on 24 August, reading Louvain (Leuven) at 8pm, and travelling on the next morning at 5 a.m. (Louvain was destroyed the following day) to Hasselt at 8 a.m. After taking breakfast the motorcade would not restart, and upon repeated inspection of their passports, they were arrested as spies, surrounded by soldiers who were ordered to cock rifles, fix bayonets, and shoot if they moved or talked to each other. After an hour they were marched to a hotel, their luggage was searched and they themselves were strip searched, before being marched to the railway station at 5 p.m. along with eighteen members of the Garde Civique and six criminals, and loaded onto a dirty coal truck, which traveled until around 7 p.m., arriving in Tongres. There, an anti-English commanding officer whom Stobart labelled the 'devil-major' stated that a map and camera were enough for them to be condemned as spies, for whom the fate was to be shot within twenty-four hours. While trying to explain their case, Stobart was shocked by the comment, "You are English, and whether you are right or wrong, this is a war of annihilation." They spent the night, after arguing to not be separated as women were not allowed to sleep with men (the party consisting of her husband, the chaplain and a poor Belgian chauffeur who had been caught up in the affair). A sympathetic officer, who was married to an English woman, entered the room, and promised to do everything in his power to help, in return for conveying to his wife that all was well for him. He was interrupted and sternly removed by the 'devil major'. The following morning, the devil major, frustrated by intervention in his planned dawn entertainment of an execution, irately made arrangements to transfer the four prisoners to Cologne to be tried for high treason. During the journey, the news of their transfer proceeded them, and at Liège they were removed from the train, and the officers who did so had in mind to try the English 'spies' themselves. As the train was to leave, Stobart was able to compel one of their guards to show the officer the orders for them to be transferred to Cologne. On production of the papers, the officer resisted, and allowed them to re-board the train, but crucially, without their papers which were the proof of their story. Their journey ended in Aachen (Aix-la-Chappelle) at 8 p.m., and they were marched to a barracks prison and presented to a judge separately. The only evidence that remained was a cutting from the Morning Post which stated "Mrs St. Clair Stobart had that day left for Brussels at the invitation of the Belgian Red Cross, to establish a hospital for French and Belgian soldiers." Before being once again removed to the prison for the night. The following evening, she was brought before the judge in the prison, who offered her to board in a hotel, if she gave her word not to attempt to escape, while he investigated her statements. Stobart answered that she would, only if her companions were extended the same courtesy, to which she was told that they already had done so, and was courteously taken to the hotel, and allocated an officer to supervise their parole. After some confusing telegrams, their innocence was decided, and upon asking of their desired destination, the judge allowed them to return to London, via Flushing. On return to London, Stobart then took her unit to the siege of Antwerp, in response to a request received via Lord and Lady Esher. Following the exploits in Antwerp, Stobart established a hospital at the Château Tourlaville near Cherbourg, which operated during 1914–1915, but, bored of the tedious work away from the front, left the hospital she had established and sought a new challenge. In Serbia First Serbian-English Field Hospital As a result of the war and its effects, epidemic typhus broke out in Serbia, causing the death of around 150,000 people including about half of the doctors in the country. The unit was to be called the First Serbian-English Field Hospital (front). Later travels After America entered the war in April 1917, Stobart travelled to North America - the United States and Canada - for a lecture tour arranged through the British Ministry of Information, followed by a lecture tour in Ireland in late 1918. ==Spiritualism and later life==

In 1918, Stobart was awarded custody of her two granddaughters whose parents had died in the influenza epidemic and in 1928 her elder son and her husband died. Stobart served as the chair of the Spiritualist Community Countil from 1924 to 1941 and also joined the council of the World Congress of Faiths. ==Written works==

• War and women, From Experience in the Balkans and Elsewhere 1913. London, G. Bell & Sons, Ltd. • The Flaming Sword in Serbia and Elsewhere 1916. London; New York: Hodder and Stoughton. • Ancient Lights (or, The Bible, The church and psychic science). 1923. London: Kegan Paul. • Torchbearers of Spiritualism. 1925. • The either or of spiritualism. 1928. London: Rider & Co. • The Apocrypha Reviewed by a Spiritualist. 1930. London: Kegan Paul. • Psychic Bible Stories for young & old. 1933?. London: Wright & Brown. • Miracles and Adventures. An Autobiography. 1935. London: Rider & Co. ==See also==