Miss Mabel Ellen March
One of the two daughters of Mrs Mabel March, and born in Stonehouse, she grew up and remained there. She never married, but was – like her mother and sister Phyllis Russell – a community activist, and a highly practical one. She was skilled with tools, and interested in a range of craft activities, being creative as well as competent with her hands. She trained with the St John’s Ambulance Brigade locally, and was hugely active participant in its activities into the 1960s. She trained for clerical work, and passed the examinations with flying colours and on that basis, went to work for HM Dockyard in Plymouth, only retiring in the late 1980s. Mabel Ellen March was also a noted local sports figure. In her younger years, she was a skilled and prize-winning rower and also a noted swimmer. Later, she took to tennis, becoming an active member of the Stonehouse Tennis Club. She also became an enthusiastic gardener, and an even more enthusiastic and skilled photographer, taking photographs of Stonehouse that provide an important record of Stonehouse into the 1990s.