Sara Talbot (née Bonnell, also Marriott; 4 June 1888 – 2 September 1993), also known as Sadie Bonnell, was a British ambulance and supply driver in the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. She was awarded the

Military Medal The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the British Armed Forces, armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth countries, below commissioned o ...

for her work in France with the

First Aid Nursing Yeomanry The First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (Princess Royal's Volunteer Corps) (FANY (PRVC)) is a British independent all-female registered charity structured like a military reserve unit. which primarily provides surge relief to civil and military authoriti ...

. She died at the age of 105.

Biography

Sara "Sadie" Bonnell was born in

Kew Kew () is a district in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its population at the 2011 census was 11,436. Kew is the location of the Royal Botanic Gardens ("Kew Gardens"), now a World Heritage Site, which includes Kew Palace. Kew is ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, on 4 June 1888. She was educated at

Bedales Bedales School is a coeducational boarding and day public school, in the village of Steep, near the market town of Petersfield in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1893 by Amy Garrett Badley and John Haden Badley in reaction to the li ...

, a

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

school. After leaving school she lived at home. During the

, she wanted to become an ambulance driver but was not allowed to do so by the authorities since she was a woman. Instead, she drove ambulances in London for the Canadian Army Service Corps. She later joined the

(FANY) in December 1917, and was sent to Unit 8, a joint FANY/VAD ambulance convoy attached to the British 2nd Army, based at St Omer. The FANYs had been founded in 1907 as an all-women mounted volunteer

corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gener ...

. By the outbreak of war in 1914, they had shifted into motorised ambulance work, also working for the Belgian and French Armies. Bonnell showed great courage during the East End Air Raid. She was driving an ambulance in 1916 during some of the first air raids

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

experienced. Bonnell earned the

on the night of 18–19 May 1918 when she was based in a large camp on the road to Arques in France. She collected wounded men near from a dressing station near

Saint-Omer Saint-Omer (; ; Picard: ''Saint-Onmé'') is a commune and sub-prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department in France. It is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Sa ...

whilst under heavy German bombardment for five hours. The enemy's shells had set a nearby ammunition dump on fire. She returned again and again with Evelyn Brown, a volunteer Canadian, succeeding in removing all the wounded. She was decorated by the commander of

British Second Army The British Second Army was a Field Army active during the World War I, First and World War II, Second World Wars. During the First World War the army was active on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front throughout most of the war and later ...

, General Sir

Herbert Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer Field Marshal Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer (13 March 1857 – 16 July 1932) was a senior British Army officer who fought in the First World War, being perhaps most notable for commanding the Second Army of the British Exp ...

. After the war, Bonnell returned to England in 1919 and worked in hospitals as a volunteer. She loved fast cars and between the wars drove a six-cylinder AC with a red fish mascot on the bonnet which echoed the FANY logo.

Personal life and death

Bonnell married Herbert Marriott on 1 September 1919. They had met in France where he was with the 2nd Army, where he was involved in a poison gas attack. She said he proposed to her whilst they were under enemy fire in France. He died in 1921 during the

influenza pandemic An influenza pandemic is an epidemic of an influenza virus that spreads across a large region (either multiple continents or worldwide) and infects a large proportion of the population. There have been five major influenza pandemics in the l ...

. She later married again in 1948, to Charles Leslie Talbot, who died in 1967. She had no children herself and was devoted to her nieces and nephew. She spent the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...

and knew

A. A. Milne Alan Alexander Milne (; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winnie-th ...

and his son,

Christopher Robin Christopher Robin is a character created by A. A. Milne, based on his son Christopher Robin Milne. The character appears in the author's popular books of poetry and ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' stories, and has subsequently appeared in various Disney ...

. In the 1920s, Bonnell designed and built a house called "Thrushling" in Upper Hartfield, Sussex. After she sold it, she revisited it and reviled the owners for covering her beautiful parquet floor with a carpet. She spent her final years at Dorset House,

Droitwich Droitwich Spa (often abbreviated to Droitwich ) is an historic spa town in the Wychavon district in northern Worcestershire, England, on the River Salwarpe. It is located approximately south-west of Birmingham and north-east of Worcester. ...

. At 95, she regretted that she could no longer drive fast cars. She received a

telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

from the Queen on her hundredth birthday on 4 June 1988. She died at the age of 105 on 2 September 1993 and her funeral was attended by members of FANY. Her obituary appeared in the ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' and ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

''.

References

Sources

* Sadie Bonnell personal papers,

(FANY) Archives, London SW1 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonnell, Sadie 1888 births 1993 deaths British women centenarians British women in World War I Canadian military personnel of World War I Military personnel from Surrey Military nursing People educated at Bedales School People from Kew, London People from Surrey (before 1889) Recipients of the Military Medal Royal Canadian Army Service Corps soldiers