Evening star., 1914-12-13
Special Correspondence of The Star.

SPECIAL correspondence oil 1he star.
LONDON. December ;.
-LORENCE Nightingales spirit,
with, perhaps. some additions.
lives again in another plucky,
resourceful and talented English
woman who probably has seen
more of the war and its grimness than
any other of her sex living, and who re-
emily has been going through experiences
as thrilling as any that hive been chron-
lcled since the present struggle broke out
She is Mrs. ST. Clair Stobart. who. be-
sides being am authoress playwright and
sportswonan. is known far and wide as
possessing a genius for the organization
IF nursing in war time. although, unlike
Florence Nightingale. she isn't nurse
herself. At the present writing she Is
,nIy recently back from Ostend, whence.
With the members of the volunteer nurs-
ng unit of which she is the head, she
He'd from Antwerp after playing the part
II veritable heroine and angel of
mercy during the bomba rdment of the city
on the Scheldt.
Mrs Stobarf went to Antwerp, more
.,ver, in spite Of recent experiences in
Brussels that might well have deferred
1eI from ever again Nenturnc within
.undred miles Of war zone" and yet.
4nperturbed by having been imprisoned.
narrowly escaping being shot as u spy,
md, later, being exposed for hours to a
iteral rain of shells, she is now planning
% leave for the continent again-this
lime at the invitation Of the French Red
--ross-and takes up nursing work there
. Il few days.
This. by the way, is far from being Mrs
S,Jbart's first experience of actual war.
S!,, il was who took a complete hospital
staff composed entirely of women, out to
lie Balkans. set up a hospital near Kirk
Siilisee and did a really wonderful work
here. previous to which time and since
she has been hammering away in the
nope of driving home to the minds Of the
British war Office and British public her
contention that nursing in war is a work
that women can do independently OF men
lnd that Il huge force of properly trained
md disciplined women should be per-
1lanent part of the territorial forces in
.hese islands.
She is "a rather handsome and intensely
'caIab.e" looking woman, the daughter OF
4 Leicestershire baronet, and before her
marriage was one of the best tennis
players in the British isles and one Of the
BEST golfers. Later on, the wife OF a
1eeI sportsman, she fshed in, she de-
-lares. almost every river in Europe,
African veldt. where she seems to have
played the part Of a sort of general
arbitrator and counselor to the natives
or miles about her husbands "kraal."
But this is getting a long way from our
ytory.
Having accepted the urgent invitation
of the Belgian Croix Rouge authorities
10 demonstrate once more, as she says,
that women can be of independent
service in time of war; and having had
The University Of Brussels placed at her
disposal for hospital purposes, Mrs Sto-
part, accompanied by her husband. a
London barrister, and by the vicar of
he famous Hampstead Garden suburb
where she makes her home, went to the
Belgian capital in advance of her unit
u woman doctors, nurses and or6erIies
project frustrated by the occupation of
BRUSSELS by the German army the day
,efore her assistants were due to Join
ser Those assistants, by the way who
numbered some thirty, included Miss s.
Nacnaughter. the novelist, who is Mrs
5tobarts chief orderly.
1t became obvious" said Mrs Sto-
,art. that my unit could not reach me
n Brussels. therefore ! must reach them,
wherever they might De. But this J was
sold, was impossible, .ts lie .ieru.aa GER