Isobel Lois Harding was the second child and eldest daughter of George Harding and Elizabeth Annie Allen who married towards the end of 1894 at Letterkenny, Ireland. George and Elizabeth’s firstborn was a son, Robert who was born on Christmas Day 1895. Isobel was born at Courtown, Co. Kildare on  26 May 1897 and her birth was registered as Isabella Louis Harding.

When the census was taken in 1901 the family was living at Courtown, Kilcock, County Kildare. Isabel’s father was working as a gardener and as well as older brother Richard, 3 year old Isabel had a baby sister, Kathleen. By the time the next census return was made, the family had grown with the addition of another four daughters. Isabel wasn’t with the rest of her immediate family in Kilcock, but with her maternal grandmother at Glenmaquin Lower, Kincraigy.

Isobel’s brother Richard enlisted in the army, probably in the spring of 1915, serving in the Royal Irish Rifles and sadly died of wounds received in battle on 3 July 1916.

Perhaps this loss played a part in Isabel’s decision to volunteer her services to the war effort. She was engaged by the Red Cross on 27 November 1918 and served as a nurse at 1st Southern General Hospital, Birmingham. The hospital was housed in the buildings of the University of Birmingham in Edgbaston and initially had capacity for 520 beds, increasing to 800 by the end if 1914. One report suggests that by the time Isabel arrived the hospital there were over 8000 beds - many of them designed to be used for outdoor treatment.

Just a few weeks after Isabel began her service she became ill and developed pneumonia, to which she succumbed on 15 February 1919. Isabel was 21 years old. She was buried in Birmingham’s Lodge Hill Cemetery on 19 February.

The cemetery has almost 500 war graves and Isabel is remembered on the screen wall near the WW1 war graves, which names those buried in the plot or in graves which could not be individually marked.