Mabel Alice (Bourke) Mowll (1902 - 1940)

Born 28 Feb 1902 in Shanghai, China

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 9 May 1940 at age 38 in London, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Mabel was born in 1902 in Shanghai to John Bourke, retired police chief for the British sector of Shanghai, and Daisy Laidler. She married William R. Mowll in 2926 in Shanghai, and gave birth to three boys: Reggie in 1928, Peter in 1932, and Bobby in 1936. She lived a comfortable life, wife of a successful businessman, and participated in the society circles of the British sector, surrounded by servants and a nanny for the boys.

In 1935 when the Japanese invaded and were approaching Shanghai, Mabel took the boys to London, awaiting her husband's exodus from Shanghai later. Peter was a sickly boy, and he died of a childhood disease at the age of six while Bill was still in Shanghai.

Shortly after Bill arrived in London, he died of a stroke, and Mabel remarried to Reginald Lancaster, who was an abusive husband. He also spent all the family's money on alcohol and other frivolous items.

Ultimately, Mabel became distraught and committed suicide. She passed away in 1940. ^[1] Upon her death, the step father, Reginald, immediately abandoned the boys and they were taken in by separate orphanages. The timing of these latter events coincided with the Battle of Britain.

https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/106972493/person/370055761277/facts

Family photographs and correspondence

sources cited

Sources

1. ↑ https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=xYFU6D09c3UtcxbbmRRPmQ&scan=1