Fourteenth Generation

4616. Mabel Jesson "Jessie" Chatfield was born on 12 June 1875 in Quagganfontein, Bloemfontein, Orange Freestate, South Africa. She lived in 27 Vicarage St., Pretoria, South Africa in 1918. She died in October 1926 at the age of 51. Served during S. African Campaign as Nursing Sister 1899-1902, was through siege of Kimberley.

Sister Mabel Jesson Chatfield
Born 12 June 1875 in Bloemfontein
Died October 1926
Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Service (Reserve)
Imperial Yeomanry Hospital, Pretoria
Medal Entitlement: Queen’s South Africa Medal

I have been in contact with Lt Col Keiron Spires who runs the boerwarnurses.com website and he says of Mabel:

“I can confirm that Mabel was a Civilian Nurse employed in Kimberley at the time of the siege and that she subsequently left to join the military. Two things are unusual about this. Firstly she was only 24 at the outbreak of war which was a very young age for a nurse at that time. My guess is she had probably only just finished her training. Secondly it was not common for local nurses to join the military staff although many were employed to work in military hospitals.”

Colonel Spires has promised to have a look around and see if he can find anything else about her although this could take some time as her records, if they still exist, will be in South Africa.
-----
Records 61 - 70 - Sister Mabel Jesson CHATFIELD | Boer War Nurses. boerwarnurses.com. When she was 17 Mabel asked Sister Henrietta Stockdale at ...
-----
Sister Mabel Jesson CHATFIELD

This lady is an example of a nurse who trained in South Africa and served as a military nurse during the Boer War. Extracts from her diaries were published in the South Africa Nursing Journal (Nursing RSA Verpleging) in 1991.
-----
Biography from http://britisharmynurses.com

Mabel Jesson Chatfield was born in Quaggerfontein in the Bloemfontein district of South Africa, on June 12, 1875. Her gather had emigrated to South Africa and was a farmer. When she was 17 Mabel asked Sister Henrietta Stockdale at Kimberley Hospital if she could be a nurse. She was told she was too young, so she set up a dance school instead. When Sister Henrietta left Kimberley Hospital to set up a private institution in Bloemfontein, Mabel reapplied to Kimberley Hospital and was accepted. Se then had to wait another eighteen months for a place and started her training in 1895. She was very proud of her pink and white striped uniform with her ‘Sister Dora’ hat. She finished her training shortly before the siege of Kimberley at the start of the Boer War[1].
Nursing Service in the Boer War

She trained as a nurse in Kimberley and was employed there at the start of the war[2] [3]. She wrote about her time as a nurse during the siege:

Throughout the greater part of the siege I was alone on night duty with some 30 patients under my care. The only assistance was provided by a Tswana whose duty it was to empty the bedpans and keep the small coal stove burning for hot water or any of the other various needs which require a stove”[1].

After the siege was lifted she was approached by the military to take charge of a temporary hospital. When she accepted she was taken into the Princess Christian's Army Nursing Service (Reserve). Shortly after taking over the hospital a convoy of 115 sick and wounded soldiers arrived, and she had to get them settled and start nursing care[4]. She wrote of this temporary hospital:
This was nursing under the most difficult circumstances imaginable. All types of cases ranging from severely wounded, to the dangerously ill with typhoid, had perforce to be attended to in the grossly overcrowded rooms. It was more often than not necessary to step over a number of patients in order to reach one requiring urgent treatment. We tried our utmost to keep the infectious cases apart but this was only possible to a limited extent[4]
.

Eventually beds arrived and along with other items donated to the hospital she was able to make her patients more comfortable. After six weeks she handed over this temporary hospital to six nurses from Canada. Sister Chatfield was then instructed to report to No. 1 General Hospital at Wynberg where Mrs Garriock was the Matron. At Wynberg Sister Chatfield looked after a variety of patients including sick and wounded Boer prisoners. It was here that she was able to go to a local tailor and get a military nurses uniform made for her. She worked at Wynberg for six months before asking to go on duty aboard a troop ship carrying sick and wounded back to Britain. She sailed on the Assaye along with seven other Sisters and fifteen hundred patients. While she was in Britain she was officially attested into the Princess Christian’s Army Nursing Service (Reserve). Shortly after she was sent back to South Africa on the Norman along with other nurses reinforcing the Imperial Yeomanry Hospital at Pretoria. The nurse-patient ratio was greater in the Yeomanry Hospitals as many of the Sisters had salaries paid for from the private funds collected for the hospitals[4] [5].

After a further six months working with the Imperial Yeomanry Hospitals[6] she was able to get a posting to the Hospital Ship Orcana where she met up with another South African nurse, Sister Rennie. She was happier on the Orcana than she had been on the Assaye as it was a fully equipped Hospital Ship and that made nursing care much easier. Sister Chatfield and Sister Rennie met the Duchess of Teck [future Queen Mary] when they arrived in England and were her guests for a short while. Sister Chatfield then resigned from the PCANSR in order to return home to South Africa to get married. Having resigned she discovered that it was very difficult to get a berth back home and she was told it might be six months before a berth became available. She wrote to the Duchess and was shortly booked onto the Walmer Castle. She married Dr Howell-Davies in Kimberley on December 13, 1902. Before they had a chance to return to Wales to visit his family Dr Howell-Davies was placed in charge of the Irene Burgher Camp and so she helped her husband and continued nursing for a while longer. She had four children, and her daughter Kathleen, and Kathleen’s daughter Anne both trained as nurses

Mabel Jesson "Jessie" Chatfield and Dr Howell Smeaton Davies were married on 13 December 1902 in St Cyprians, Kimberley, South Africa. Dr Howell Smeaton Davies lived in 389 St Andries St., Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa in 1903. He died in October 1926.

Mabel Jesson "Jessie" Chatfield and Dr Howell Smeaton Davies had the following children: