Dorothy Stacey (1893-1918): only Commonwealth War Grave to a woman who died on service in World War One

In the Commonwealth War Grave section of Sherborne Cemetery can be found the only war grave in Sherborne to commemorate a woman who died on service during the First World War. The grave belongs to Dorothy Stacey (1893-1918) (1923-1943), and the inscription on her headstone reads: 2/R/S/519 STAFF NURSE D.L. STACEY Q.A. IMP. MIL. NURSING … Read more

St Emerenciana and Sherborne

Emerenciana was a foster sister of St Agnes and was stoned to death when she was found praying at Agnes’s tomb. She is often represented holding stones and lilies and is the patron saint of stomach problems and colic. The feast day of St Emerenciana (also known as St Emerentiana) is celebrated by the Catholic … Read more

St Antony’s Convent School and the Order of the Religious of the Christian Instruction

On 7 June 1891, Reverend Mother Ignace Pollenus, the Superior of the Religious of the Christian Instruction in Ghent, Belgium, arrived in Sherborne with seven nuns to establish a Roman Catholic community in Westbury in a former Sherborne School boarding house. The Order had many English students in Ghent whose parents wanted them to open a … Read more

Elizabeth Myers (1912-1947): author

During her short life Elizabeth Myers wrote numerous short stories and three novels, A Well Full of Leaves (1943), The Basilisk of St James’s (1945), and Mrs Christopher (1946). Elizabeth Myers was born on 23 December 1912 at 3, Apollo Street, Manchester. Her parents, George William Myers, a Manchester warehouseman [a wholesaler of linen and cloth made in the factories surrounding … Read more