Mabel and Kate King-May

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Stobart's Serbian Relief Fund Unit 3, picturing in the second row Mabel King-May (left), Mabel Stobart (centre), and Kate Atkinson (fourth from left).

Mabel Eliza King-May (1874 – ) and Kate King-May Atkinson (1876 – 1933)[1] were English medical doctors who joined Mabel St Clair Stobart’s all-women medical expedition to Serbia during World War I.  

Education[edit]

The sisters were both educated at Leeds Girls’ Grammar School and the University of Manchester, where Mabel was vice-president of the Medical Students' Representative Council in 1906–7 and gained her MB ChB in March 1911.[2] Kate graduated in 1914.[3]

Pre-war careers[edit]

Along with her university friends Margrieta Beer, Eva Gore-Booth and Esther Roper, Kate campaigned against labour laws which excluded women from their historical trades. She spent a month working as a pit brow woman to prove that the work was not harmful for women, and published 'Statement of an Amateur Pit Brow Worker' about her experiences in 1911.[4][5][6]

In 1912, Kate married Charles Ernest Atkinson in Durban, South Africa.

After their graduation, Mabel was resident medical officer to Rochdale Municipal Maternity and Infants Hospital,[2] while Kate held resident appointments at Oldham Royal Infirmary and St Mary's Hospital, Manchester.[7]  

WWI[edit]

Kate was a drill sergeant from 1909 to 1914.[8]

In April 1915, the sisters went to Serbia as part of Mabel St Clair Stobart’s 3rd Serbian Relief Fund Unit and worked at the camp hospital they established in Kragujevac.[9] Mabel, serving as senior surgeon,[2] returned to England from May to July to raise funds and acquire equipment.[10][11] When Stobart had to leave Kragujevac after six months, Mabel remained in charge of the camp.[12][13][14] Their time in Serbia was recorded in Stobart's memoir and the diary of the hospital's head cook, Monica Stanley. The diary records the doctors working from tents, serving as a dispensary for civilians, and escaping an air-raid in June 1915. Kate attended to Stanley when she suffered from gastritis.[15] When fighting began again in 1916, the women evacuated, making a 300-mile trek across Kosovo and Montenegro in freezing temperatures.[16]

In 1916–7, Mabel was senior medical officer to the Unit for the Relief of Refugees in Russia and medical administrator to the Millicent Fawcett Hospitals there.[16][2] Meanwhile, Kate worked on the Galician Front as senior medical officer to the 52nd Epidemic Hospital.[7]

Post-war[edit]

After the war, Kate was assistant medical officer to the massage and electrical department at Manchester Royal Infirmary and house physician to Greengate Dispensary in Salford.[7] She was medical officer for child welfare in Manchester,[7] and Mabel was assistant medical officer for maternity and child welfare.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Medical Women's Federation". Wellcome Collection. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Mabel Eliza May - Manchester Medical Collection: Biographical Files H-Q - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  3. ^ Leneman, Leah (1994). "Medical women at war, 1914–1918". Medical History. 38 (2): 160–177. doi:10.1017/S0025727300059081. ISSN 2048-8343. PMC 1036842. PMID 8007751.
  4. ^ Singer, Dorothea Waley (1955). Margrieta Beer, 1871-1951: A Memoir. Manchester University Press. p. 27.
  5. ^ "Statement of an Amateur Pit Brow Worker". Wigan Local History & Heritage Society. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  6. ^ Archives, The National (2022-12-21). "The National Archives - Hidden in plain sight: Finding working-class women in The National Archives". The National Archives blog. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  7. ^ a b c d "Kate King May-Atkinson - Manchester Medical Collection: Biographical Files H-Q - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  8. ^ Britain), Victoria University (Great (1933). Calendar. The University Press. p. 887.
  9. ^ Stobart, M. A. (Mabel Annie) (1916). "The Flaming Sword in Serbia and Elsewhere". Project Gutenberg. p. 13. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  10. ^ Stobart (1916), p. 77.
  11. ^ Stanley, Monica M. (1916). "My Diary in Serbia: April 1, 1915-Nov. 1, 1915". Project Gutenberg. p. 8. Retrieved 2024-02-28.
  12. ^ Stobart (1916), p. 116.
  13. ^ Stanley (1916), p. 91.
  14. ^ Neither Stobart nor Stanley uses first names. However, it is likely that Mabel is the sister in question here as Kate is called 'Dr. Atkinson' elsewhere by both writers.
  15. ^ Stanley (1915) pp. 52–3.
  16. ^ a b "Interviews with Representative Women". The Common Cause. 1916. pp. 570–1.
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