In the Old European Cemetery on Christmas Island, one headstone immediately attracts attention. It is the oldest grave in the small hillside cemetery, dating from 1907, and its monument is unusually grand for a remote island settlement of the time. It is also the final resting place of the only woman buried there, Sara Maude Robertson.
In Victorian and Edwardian funerary art, an unfinished or truncated column on a headstone symbolised a life cut short before reaching its full potential.The inscription reads:
In Loving
Memory
Of
Sara
The Beloved Wife
Of
W MacDougall
Died 7th June 1907
Aged 30 years
At the foot of the pillar are very touching words from the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám:
The moving finger writes;
and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy piety or wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.
At the base of the monument:
Sara Maude Robertson MB ChB
Also
William MacDougall MA MD
Of Christmas Island and Singapore
Who died at Carr Bridge on 23 June 1916
Aged 43 years
A narrative has long circulated that Sara Maude Robertson arrived on Christmas Island in 1901 and burned down the beriberi hospital, but it is not true. The confusion arises from two doctors sharing the same surname. The Dr Robertson who arrived on Christmas Island in 1901 was Dr T. Murray Robertson (Thomas Murray Robertson), a Singapore born physician and son of a well known Singapore doctor of the time, Dr John Hutchinson Robertson.1
Dr. Murray Robertson leaves this evening by the Sultan for Christmas Island and will probably be away for three weeks.
The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 6 March 1901
Dr. Murray Robertson has got back from Christmas Island, arriving by the Merionethshire last evening. He had been down on a medical mission in connection with a bad epidemic of beri-beri amongst the coolies employed by the Christmas Island Phosphate Co. …
The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 18 April 1901
It was Dr Murray Robertson who supported Lewis Clayton, a Settlements civil service officer, in persuading Captain Vincent, the Island Manager, to burn down the hospital.2 See a photograph of the beriberi hospital in this article.
Sara had no involvement in these events. Further evidence that she was not on Christmas Island in 1901 is found later in this article, where a contemporary newspaper report places her firmly in Blackridge, Scotland, in March of that year, the same time Dr Murray Robertson was on Christmas Island.
Sara Maude Robertson, detail from the Queen Margaret Committee photograph, 1898–99 (full photograph and identified names further below).However, Sara has her own remarkable story that stands entirely on its own merits.
She was born on the 21st May 1876 to John and Lizzie Helen Robertson and, according to the 1891 Scotland Census was one of eight children, being the third eldest, aged 14. Her father was shown as being a Supervisor, excise civil service.
Sara was very nearly not on that census. The year before, in 1890, her life was in great peril after she and two friends broke through ice whilst skating on a dam at Carron, near Falkirk. It was a catastrophe that also claimed the life of a schoolmaster and the student he was trying to save, Eliza Wilkie. Sara and her friend Jeannie Barr were supported in the freezing water for some time before being rescued by Dr Alexander Fraser, his nephew and a passing engine driver, an act of bravery that was later recognised by the Royal Humane Society.3
Despite this tragic life trauma, four years later, in 1894, Sara successfully passed her university entrance examinations. A small notice appeared in the paper under the heading “Success of Falkirk High School Pupils”:
At the university Entrance Examinations just held, Miss Sara Maude Robertson, Comely Park, at present pupil in this school, has been successful in passing in English, Latin, Greek, and mathematics (including arithmetic, algebra, and geometry).
Falkirk Herald newspaper – Saturday 21 April 1894 page 4
Later in that same year on the 22nd October Sara commenced her medical studies at the Queen Margaret College, University of Glasgow.4 A medical school for women that had only opened within the college some four years earlier.
During her time at the Queen Margaret College, Sara’s studies included: Anatomy, Pathology, Surgery and Midwifery. She received certificates in Ophthalmology, Embryology, Materia Medica & Therapeutics and Practical Pharmacy. In Physics, which she took in her first year, she received a first class certificate.5
“Taken winter session 1898-99. Queen Margaret Committee. Glasgow university students Representative Council.”Top row, L to R: Miss J. Reid (1st Arts), Miss E. Lochead (2nd Med.), Miss Christian Smart (4th Arts), Miss Edith Sladden (4th Arts), Miss J.R.B. Nelson (3rd Arts), Miss Ethel Chapman (1st Med.).
Middle: Miss Helen Gordon, convener (4th Med.)
Front row, L to R: Miss Sara Robertson (5th Med.), Miss Helen Armour (3rd Arts), Miss Eliz. Carmont (1st Arts), Miss Jessie Macewen (3rd Med.), Miss Jane Robertson (2nd Arts), Miss Jane Renwick (1st Arts).
Photo courtesy of University of Glasgow Archives & Special Collections, Records of Queen Margaret College collection, DC 233/2/22/2/64.
The British Medical Registers state that Sara qualified from Glasgow University in 1899 as MB & Bac Surg and she was registered on the 7th April 1900.
After her registration Sara practiced under the guidance of Dr Anderson at Blackridge. A report in the West Lothian Courier dated 15 March 1901 paints a warm picture of Sara’s time in Blackridge and confirms her close working relationship with Dr Anderson. Significantly, the report reveals that Sara was still in Blackridge in March 1901, leaving a supportive community due to ill health. This makes it impossible for her to have been on Christmas Island managing a beriberi epidemic at the same time. She was clearly held in great affection by her patients and the wider community.
BLACKRIDGE.
Presentation to Dr Robertson. In addition to the social and presentation to Dr Robertson by the Westrigg Colliery workmen (reported by us last week), a second social, more connected with the village of Blackridge, was held in the Schoolroom on Friday evening. Mr R. M. Brown, headmaster, occupied the chair, and was accompanied on the platform by the Rev Mr Cameron, Rev Mr Bunting, Dr Anderson, Dr Duff, Armadale; Dr Robertson, Dr Hunter, Mrs Brown, Mr Jas. Knox and Mr Dunlop, Blackridge; Miss Robertson, Coatbridge; and Miss Robertson, Glasgow.
After tea, the Chairman, in opening the meeting, expressed the general regret that the state of her health had required Dr Robertson to leave the district, where her services had been very highly appreciated. She had certainly endeared herself to many families not only by her eminent ability in the medical profession, but also by her kind attention and pleasing manners. Later in the evening Mr Jas. Knox, in name of the people of Blackridge and district, and in very appropriate terms, presented Dr Robertson with an elegant gold bracelet set with diamonds and sapphires, along with a purse of sovereigns. Dr Robertson, in reply, thanked the subscribers for the valuable gifts, and in feeling terms spoke of her pleasant stay in Blackridge, and of the great kindness she had received from her patients, as well as from Dr Anderson. On the conclusion of her speech, the company sang (with marked expression), “Will yo no’ come back again.” Further complimentary remarks were made by the Rev Messrs Cameron and Bunting, and Drs Anderson and Duff.
There are mentions of Sara in the 1903 and 1905 Medical Registers showing her address as being at Craig Terrace, Blackridge, Linlithgowshire.
Around this time Sara is also mentioned in her professional capacity in two small newspaper notices. She was breaking boundaries. The first notice appeared in 1903:
Lady Ship’s doctor
If ladies are to be denied the legal profession, they are certainly making the most of the medical. The first lady ship’s doctor – Dr Sara Robertson – has just started on a vessel going from Liverpool to the River Plate.
Bournemouth Daily Echo Thursday 17 December 1903
The second in 1904 as a Ship’s surgeon!
Ladies as ship surgeons
Another sphere of usefulness for lady medicos is suggested by the appointment of Miss Sara M. Robertson M.B., as surgeon on the s.s. Denbighshire on a round trip to Hong Kong and back.
Edinburgh Evening News – Saturday 14 May 1904 page 8
In 1907 Sara was again on a ship leaving London, but this time as a passenger rather than the ship’s doctor.
List of passengers
Departures
P. & O. S. N. Co.s.s. Mooltan, from London Jan 18, and Marseilles Jan 25: for Gibraltar, Marseilles, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, and Australia; connecting at Aden with s.s. Egypt for Bombay, and at Colombo with s.s. Macedonia for the Straits, China and Japan
… Dr. Sara RobertsonThe Homeward Mail. From India China and the East – Jan 19, 1907.
She was on her way to meet Dr William MacDougall in Singapore. This is known because within a month of leaving London she married him.
MACDOUGALL-ROBERTSON. – At the Presbyterian Church Singapore on the 16th February, by the Rev. J.A. Gray, M.A., WILLIAM MACDOUGALL, M.A., M.B, C.L.B., Christmas Island and SARA ROBERTSON M.B., C.L.B., Glasgow.
The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser (Weekly), 21 February 1907, page 113.
How did Sara and William meet? William had been the medical officer on Christmas Island since 1904. Their paths must have crossed before then. A clue is to be found in the occupations of their fathers. Both had worked for the Inland Revenue. A first cousin twice removed to William MacDougall, Sheila Macdougall, confirmed that both fathers held senior positions in the Customs and Excise and that William’s father, Alexander MacDougall, was Provost of Rothes. She said, “My family came from a long line of Excise (Inland Revenue after 1849) men. William’s father, Alexander; grandfather, Archibald; great grandfather, Alexander and great, great grandfather, also William, were all serving officers in Scotland. My family tree has many examples of marriages between excise/revenue men (or their sons) and the daughters of other serving officers. William’s only sister, Margaret married an inland revenue officer, Patrick Laing.”
What should have been their first happily married year together ended very sadly. Less than four months into her marriage, Sara would be dead and laid to rest on Christmas Island. It would have been a most terrible shock not only to her grieving husband but also to her family back in Scotland. Her death notice read:
DEATH
MACDOUGALL – At Christmas Island, Straits Settlements, on June 7, Sara Maude Robertson MacDougall, M.B., CH B., the wife of William MacDougall, M.B., CH.B., Medical Officer, Christmas IslandThe Straits Times, 18th June 1907, page 6
How Sara’s life was cut so tragically short is answered by a small newspaper notice. That such a remarkable and determined woman, who had travelled halfway around the world to marry, should die within months of her arrival on Christmas Island, aged just 30, is a sobering fact:
Many will be sorry to hear of the death of Dr Sara Maude Robertson, the lady doctor who assisted Dr Anderson at Blackridge for some time, and was very popular. She died suddenly of heart failure at Christmas Island, Straits Settlements, on the 7th inst. She was the wife of Dr Wm. MacDougall, and daughter of Mr John Robertson, collector of Inland Revenue, Glasgow.
Friday 21st June 1907, Linlithgowshire Gazette page 5
William must have been heartbroken over the death of Sara. In August 1908, on his return to Singapore, he organised for a large marble monument to be placed on her grave. Unfortunately, he didn’t live to see old age either. He passed away on the 23rd June 1916, aged 43, at Woodside Cottage, Carrbridge (a village in the Scottish Highlands). He had lapsed into a coma the day before. The cause of death was diabetes mellitus. The informant on the death certificate was Sara’s father, John Robertson. It is a small comfort to know that the two men must have had a continuing close relationship despite Sara’s passing. But how unfortunate that a man should outlive both his daughter and son-in-law. Interestingly, Sheila Macdougall also noted that in the 1891 census, Sara’s grandfather, William Robertson was living in Woodside Cottage, Duthill (which is near Carrbridge), the same house where William MacDougall passed away.
It is rather poignant that Sara’s name is engraved on William’s headstone in Scotland, just as his name is engraved on hers on that small island in the Indian Ocean. Two loves laid to rest, taken too early and so very far apart.
1. Former Singapore Doctor’s death – The Straits Times 24th October 1931
2. Suffering through Strength by John Hunt page 28
3. Rewards for bravery in Scotland – Falkirk Herald newspaper – Saturday 22 March 1890
4. UK, Medical and Dental Students Registers, 1882-1937
5. University of Glasgow Story – Sara Maude Robertson
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Would you like to know more about other people who were buried in the Old European Cemetery? There are four further stories:
Benjamin Hobson – Lost in the Old European Cemetery
William Joseph Ryan – The man beneath the grave
Norman Howard – Turning in his grave
Charles Thomas Prideaux – A long way from scandal
Every headstone in the Old European Cemetery now features in the virtual Christmas Island Museum. They can be viewed by selecting the “All Types” filter at the top of the collection page and then “Headstone” from the drop down list.