Nurse Mabel with baby Frank Strachan

Taken at Mrs Davidson's private lodging house in Grove Street, Nelson, this photo shows midwife Nurse Mabel seated on the verandah with her most recent charge, baby Francis Alexander Cochrane Strachan, whom she had helped deliver a few days earlier on 5 June 1985.

However, this midwife was no ordinary woman - she was from one of Nelson’s more socially prominent families, and never led an ordinary life. Her name was Mabel Atkinson, and she carried the infant Frank and his mother off to stay at her grand family home, “Fairfield House” until they had grown strong enough to handle the bumpy four-hour carriage ride back to their own home, a farm called “Manawatane”, at the head of the road in the Orinoco Valley named for their family, Strachan Road.

Alice Mabel Atkinson (always known as Mabel) was born in New Plymouth on 3 November 1864 to lawyer Arthur Atkinson and his wife Jane Maria (nee Richmond), who came to Nelson as refugees during the Taranaki Land Wars and stayed on. They were part of a much larger inter-related family group (known among themselves as “The Mob") who had emigrated to New Zealand, and included Atkinsons, Richmonds, Fells and Hursthouses, a number of them playing significant parts in Nelson affairs (one, Richmond Hursthouse, was elected Motueka’s first mayor when the town became a borough in 1900). Mabel’s parents were unusually liberal for the times in their approach to women’s education and lifestyle choices. Independent Mabel went to England and trained there as a midwife, gaining experience helping families in English slums.

She had returned to New Zealand not long before Frank Strachan’s birth and was living at “Fairfield House” when WWI broke out in August 1914. Although almost 50 years old by then, she almost immediately took ship for England, where she registered as a nurse with the VAD and spent several years nursing in France, driving a field ambulance as part of her duties. Mabel Atkinson, who never married, returned to Nelson in 1921 and remained there until her death in 1935, being much involved with the Plunket Society and the Girl Guides. She was buried at the family plot at Wakapuaka Cemetery. 

A more comprehensive account of her life can be found at the Nelson City Council website, written in association with the Notable Women Walks series.

See: Alice Mabel Atkinson (1864-1935)

And baby Frank Strachan? He grew up on the family farm at Orinoco surrounded by friends and relatives, much loved by all, the only son and pride and joy of his parents, Alexander Cochrane Strachan and Mary Rebecca (nee Bowden). Like his friends at Ngatimoti, he trained with the local Territorials, later enlisting with the 12th (Nelson & Marlborough) Company, Canterbury Infantry Battalion, during the war. Frank left New Zealand on 31 May 1916 with the 13th Reinforcements of the NZ Expeditonary Force on the troopship “SS Willochra”. After training at Sling Camp in England, he was deployed to France and sadly, was killed at the Somme on 12 November 1916, aged 21 years, struck by an unlucky random enemy shell before he had even seen action. His death was a devastating blow for his family.

His mother put together a book dedicated to Frank, with letters, entries from his diary and reminscences of his life. This haunting little piece from her book, written as she struggled to come to terms with her son’s death, must surely have echoed the feelings of bereft mothers all over the country throughout those dark years.

"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Yes, God gave them to us, those beautiful infant forms, fresh from his Hand, to love and care for, to caress, to feed and clothe and guide – for Him. We watched day by day as they grew in strength and beauty till our babes reached manhood and could care for us as we had cared for them. And then they were gone - called to higher service – and for us silence – blank emptiness".

Frank’s story can be read here:

See: Private Francis Alexander Cochrane (Frank) Strachan (1895-1916)

WWI Service no 24117, 12th (Nelson) Infantry Regiment, NZ Expeditionary Force.

Photo taken from the privately published book, “Our Boy” complied by Mary Strachan, courtesy Miss G. Guy.