ASTONISHING CAREER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22350, 22 February 1936, Page 28 (Supplement)

ASTONISHING CAREER

ENGLISHWOMAN'S EXPLOITS SERVICE DURING WAR PERIOD "LADY OF THE BLACK HORSE" A woman whoso life has been one long story of thrills recently told to the Sunday Chronicle, London, the details of her astonishing career. She is Mrs. St. Clair Stobari, known to thousands during the war as "Tho Lady of the Black Horse" for her exploits in the Serbian retreat. In a lifetime packed with action and contrasts Mrs. Stobart has been arrested as a spy by the Germans; organised and commanded the first hospital run entirely by women; commanded a flying field hospital column with the rank of major; written eight books, a play and 150 hymns with music; sold trinkets to the Kaffirs of the Transvaal, and been cow-puncher and British propaganda expert in America. "I have never sought adventure; it has always come my way," Mrs. St. Clair Stobart said. "The most exciting of my adventures occurred during the Great War. For some time I had feared tho outbreak of a war with Germany; and 1 organised the first company of women to be of practical use in the defence of bheir country. Taken Prisoner "By August 18, 1914, I was already in Belgium in charge of Brussels Uni- j versity, which I was to organise and establish as a hospital. But tho very next day the German army, sweeping across Belgium, took Brussels. Then my one idea was to stop my unit, which was following some days after me, from leaving Britain. "But my efforts to establish contact with them must have aroused suspicion among the Germans. I was arrested by a German officer and • informed that if 1 attempted to move I should be shot immediately." With two companions, Mrs. Stobart was ordered to Cologne to be tried for high treason. At stations along the route their guards were nearly overwhelmed by mobs of soldiers who wished to lynch "tho English spies." At the last moment, after they had been bullied by soldiers, insulted by officers, and been in prison without sleep for Bix days, the sentence on them was suddenly quashed, and they were set free. Yet within a few weeks of this ordeal Mrs. Stcfbart was back again' in Belgium with a Red Cross unit.

Siege o! a City She went through a siege of a city, and was the last woman to leave before the Germans entered. "Then I was at a hospital in Cherbourg," said Mrs. Stobart, "when I read that typhuß was sweeping the Serbian army. "I felt I was needed there more than anywhere. I established and organised a hospital on a racecourse near the headquarters of the Serbian army. "The Serbian staff asked me to organise and take command o'f a flying field hospital column, and go to the front with the rank of major. I led that column in person through three bitterly-fought rearguard actions. "Three armies threatened to converge upon us, one Bulgarian and two German. We were also in peril from the attacks of Albanian brigands, who made murderous raids upon the convoys in search of loot." The retreat lasted six weeks. In its course Mrs. Stobart travelled on horseback through mud and snow, then three weeks on foot across an 8000 ft range of mountains to Montenegro, the sea, and safety. For one period she went 81 hours without sleep or rest of any kind. Now she works 18 hours a day on a variety of interests. She is part-founder of the S.O.S. Socioty, inaugurated five years ago to look after the unemployed. She helps to manage seven hostels, three night shelters and an occupational centre.