The current exhibition at Dorset County Museum – A Dorset Woman at War – recognises a remarkable Dorset woman, Mabel Stobart, who played an important role in Serbia during the First World War. On Wednesday 16th July at 7.30pm, Dr Peter Down will talk about Stobart and what she achieved under impossible circumstances.
In 1915 the world’s worst epidemic of typhus broke out in Serbia, a country already exhausted by war. Around 150,000 people died, including nearly half the country’s doctors and their medical services became overwhelmed. By April 1915 British medical teams, including Stobart’s unit, had gone to their aid.
Peter Down said, “Mabel Stobart took ambulances, X-ray machines and medical supplies and set up a hospital south of Belgrade providing the civilian population with much-needed free treatment.”
When German and Austrian troops invaded the country later that year, Stobart and her women-only team of doctors and nurses were forced to retreat south with the bulk of the Serbian army and then go west over the mountains of Montenegro, to final safety on the Adriatic coast.
On the 800-mile journey over 100,000 soldiers and civilian refugees died of hunger, disease and the cold, but Stobart and her remaining nurses continued to care for them as best they could, with severely diminished resources and equipment. As a result of her efforts, Mabel Stobart is still regarded as a heroine in Serbia today.
Entry to the lecture is FREE but donations are encouraged. Doors are open at 7.00pm; the lecture will commence at 7.30pm.
For further information see www.dorsetcountymuseum.org. A Dorset Woman at War continues until 15th November 2014 – further talks and events based on the exhibition will follow.
- Dorset Magazine – Downton Abbey:The Dorset Reality by Gwen Yarker