Isobel studied medicine at Queen’s College, Royal
University of Ireland in Belfast and graduated in 1899 with Bachelor of
Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery and Bachelor of Arts in Obstetrics degrees.
Isobel worked initially in Dublin and continued her studies.
In 1902, she qualified as a Doctor of Medicine from the Royal University of
Ireland. On the 1901 Census, Isobel was living in Beverley in Yorkshire and
working as an assistant to a surgeon.
In 1904, she was awarded the Diploma of Public Health from
the Victoria University, Manchester and was appointed Resident Medical officer
at Burnley Union Infirmary.
By June 1908 Isobel was the Medical Officer for the
Inspection of School Children in Shropshire and in 1914 she was appointed Public
Health Officer at Manchester City Council.
During the First World War, Isabel joined Mabel Stobart’s
Serbian Relief Fund as senior surgeon with the unit, in charge of the X- ray
section. Her Unit sailed for Greece in April 1915, and landed in Salonika on
the 17th April 1915. The unit moved
north to Kragujevac in Serbia, which housed the Serbian arsenal. Isobel contracted typhoid fever soon after she
arrived in Serbia, and was sent to Belgrade Hospital but was sent home just
before the retreat from Serbia.
Isobel died on 28th January 1917 after a short illness - her
death certificate stated that she died at 5 Victoria Junction, Sliema. She was buried on 30th January 1917 with full military honours in
Pieta Military Cemetery in Malta, where the following nurses were also buried:
Staff Nurse Frances E. Brace of the QAUMNS, Staff Nurse Mary Clough, Nurse
Helen Batchelor Taylor, a VAD with the 4th Battalion, Bedfordshire
Regiment, and Staff Nurse Dorothy Watson of the Territorial Force Nursing
Service, attached to St. John’s Military Hospital.
From the “Burnley Express” Newspaper of 13th
February 1917
“Mrs Cunliffe, of Eanam Street, Blackburn, has received
from her husband, Dr Riley Cunliffe (Royal Army Medical Corps), a letter
describing the Military funeral, at Malta of Dr Isobel Tate.
“The funeral was quite an imposing ceremony,” writes Dr
Cunliffe, “About 100 officers walked, with band, firing party, and some troops,
as well as mounted police. The body was covered with the Union Jack, and drawn
on a gun carriage. All the troops marched with reversed arms and dead slow. She
was buried in the cemetery in the same reserved part of the ground where there
are so many officers and men who have died here—Brigadier-General Lee, and
others.”
In all, 82 lady doctors served in war hospitals in Malta
during the First World War.
Sources: http://www.maltaramc.com/ladydoc/t/tateia.html
https://jenjen999.wordpress.com/isobel-addey-tate/
Additional information supplied and written by Andrew
Thornton from “Burnley Express” and “Burnley Gazette” and Jean Siddall.