Mabel Harrison

Frances Mabel Harrison{{Cite web|url=https://www.hermitagegolf.ie/archives/ladies_of_hermitage_in_early_years|title=The Ladies of Hermitage in the Early Years : Hermitage Golf Club|website=www.hermitagegolf.ie|access-date=2019-05-19}} was born in Dublin, the daughter of Robert Francis Harrison and Agnes Blanche Bagwell. Her parents married at St George's Church, Dublin.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KncOAAAAQAAJ&dq=Robert+Francis+Harrison+and+Agnes+Blanche+Bagwell&pg=PA155|title=Orange blossoms, a marriage chronicle|date=August 21, 1884|pages=155|language=en}} Her father was a prominent barrister in Dublin;{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UtEAQAAMAAJ&dq=Agnes+Blanche+Bagwell+Lisronagh&pg=PA155|title=Dublin and Co. Dublin. Contemporary Biographies|last=Cosgrave|first=Ephraim MacDowel|date=1908|publisher=Pike|pages=155|language=en}} her grandfather Michael Harrison was a judge.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8oFS4vYXnh8C&dq=Agnes+Blanche+Bagwell+Lisronagh&pg=PA471|title=The County Families of the United Kingdom Or Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland|last=Walford|first=Edward|date=1893|pages=470–471|language=en}}

File:MabelHarrison1918.jpg

File:Mary Harrison US golfer c. 1913.jpg

Mabel Harrison is counted alongside May Hezlet and Rhona Adair as a pioneer of Irish women's golf.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XCzEWRDr3ukC&dq=Mabel+Harrison&pg=PA56|title=The Book of Irish Golf|last=Redmond|first=John|date=1997|publisher=Pelican Publishing|isbn=9781565543270|pages=56|language=en}} She began playing golf in competition when she was still a teenager.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31721775/mabel_harrison_1899/|title=Bushfoot Club|date=August 30, 1899|work=Belfast News-Letter|access-date=May 19, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}} She joined the Malahide Island Club as golfer in 1905, and is remembered as one of the club's "most famous members".{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/island-votes-for-equality-1.220766|title=Island votes for equality|last=Gilleece|first=Dermot|date=December 1, 1998|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en|access-date=2019-05-19}} She was also a member of the Hermitage and Royal Portrush clubs. In April 1906, she finished in the final eight of the Irish Ladies' Close Championship in Newcastle. "She is a long driver and a powerful iron player, and with a little practice will easily take her place among the scratch players" noted a commentator in 1907.[https://books.google.com/books?id=D6BFAQAAMAAJ&q=Mabel+Harrison&pg=PA814 "The Sportswoman"] Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News 66(January 5, 1907): 814. She had "an admirable overlapping finger grip", so much that a close-up photo of her hands on the club were included and analysed in articles about women golfers.{{Cite journal|last=Duncan|first=George|date=February 1918|title=Teaching Women to Play Golf|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z-oxAQAAMAAJ&dq=Mabel+Harrison+golf&pg=RA1-PA15|journal=Golfers Magazine|volume=32|pages=15}}{{Cite journal|last=Cresswell|first=Katharine Stuart|date=August 1918|title=Mashie Play|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z-oxAQAAMAAJ&dq=Mabel+Harrison+&pg=PA55|journal=Golfers Magazine|volume=32|pages=12, 14}} She played for Ireland at international matches in Birkdale in 1909, and at Turnberry in 1912.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31723919/mabel_harrison_1909/|title=Ladies International Matches|date=May 14, 1909|work=The Guardian|access-date=May 19, 2019|page=10|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31724039/mabel_harrison_1912/|title=The Ladies' Internationals|date=May 10, 1912|work=The Guardian|access-date=May 19, 2019|page=12|via=Newspapers.com}}

Harrison won the Irish Ladies' Close Championship at the Malahide Island Club in 1911.{{Cite journal|last=Leach|first=Henry|date=July 12, 1911|title=On the Links|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OEoxAQAAMAAJ&dq=Mabel+Harrison+golf&pg=PA26-IA1|journal=The Sketch|volume=75|pages=25}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=48DrsgW-lk4C&dq=Mabel+Harrison+golf&pg=PA64|title=Great Golf Courses of Ireland|last=Redmond|first=John|date=1999|publisher=Gill & Macmillan Ltd|isbn=9780717128754|pages=64|language=en}} She won the Irish Ladies' Close Championship for three years, 1910, 1911, and 1912.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BKkrAQAAMAAJ&dq=Mabel+Harrison+golf&pg=PA46|title=Golf|last=Leitch|first=Cecil|date=1922|publisher=J.B. Lippincott|pages=227|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.theislandgolfclub.ie/history/|title=History – The Island Golf Club|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-05-19}} In October 1913 she travelled to North America, to play in the 1913 United States Women's Amateur Golf Championship in Wilmington, Delaware (she lost to Gladys Ravenscroft).{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D05E4DB133FE633A2575AC1A9669D946296D6CF|title=Miss Hollins Loses National Match by Driving Into Ditch at Last Hole.|date=October 19, 1913|work=New York Times|access-date=2009-12-29|quote=Except for a brief period in the early stages of the match which stood 1 down, Miss Gladys Ravenscroft, of England, former British title holder, always had the upper hand throughout the final round against Miss Marion Hollins, of Westbrook, L.I., in the women's national golf championship on the links of the Wilmington Country Club to-day.}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31721424/mabel_harrison_1913/|title=British Players Do Well|date=October 17, 1913|work=The Guardian|access-date=May 19, 2019|page=3|via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31724137/mabel_harrison_1913/|title=British Players Qualify|date=October 14, 1913|work=The Guardian|access-date=May 19, 2019|page=11|via=Newspapers.com}} She also played{{cite news|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/courant/access/781028662.html?dids=781028662:781028662&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Oct+12,+1913&author=&pub=Hartford+Courant&desc=BRITISH+WOMEN+SEEK+GOLF+TITLE&pqatl=google|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121024120517/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/courant/access/781028662.html?dids=781028662:781028662&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Oct+12,+1913&author=&pub=Hartford+Courant&desc=BRITISH+WOMEN+SEEK+GOLF+TITLE&pqatl=google|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 October 2012|title=British Women Seek Golf Title|date=October 12, 1913|work=Hartford Courant|access-date=2009-12-29|quote=The next big event in the golfing world starts tomorrow when the women's national championship will be staged at the Wilmington Country Club, Wilmington, Del., and finish Saturday, October 18. A prize will be given to the winner making the lowest score in the qualifying round, and ... Miss Mary Harrison. Ex-Champion Golf Player of Ireland. ...}} and the Canadian ladies' open in Montreal in 1913.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/31723523/mabel_harrison_1913/|title=British Players' Successes|date=October 2, 1913|work=The Guardian|access-date=May 19, 2019|page=8|via=Newspapers.com}} She was still competing as a golfer in 1919, as "Mrs. Frank Casement".{{Cite journal|last=Creswell|first=Katharine|date=August 1919|title=British Golf|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4-sxAQAAMAAJ&dq=Mabel+Casement+golf&pg=RA4-PA44|journal=Golfers Magazine|volume=35|pages=44–46}} During World War I she was also active with the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families relief in Dublin.{{Cite journal|date=August 11, 1917|title=The Sportswoman's Page|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7atEAQAAMAAJ&dq=Mabel+Casement+golf&pg=PA664|journal=The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News|volume=87|pages=664}}

Mabel Harrison married in 1916, to an Irish military doctor who served in World War I, Francis Casement.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/printPerson/231|title=Francis Casement|last=Newman|first=Kate|website=Dictionary of Ulster Biography|access-date=2019-05-19}} They had a son, Francis Charles Casement (1920-1976), and a daughter, Alison Sheila Casement (1923-2015). She was widowed when Francis Casement died in 1967; she died in Ballymoney in 1972.

There is an annual Mabel Harrison Scratch Cup event, named in her memory, held by the Royal Portrush Golf Club.{{Cite web|url=https://www.brsgolf.com/opencomps/competition/detail/?id=83854|title=Mabel Harrison Scratch Trophy Entry (AM) Open Competition at Royal Portrush Golf Club|website=www.brsgolf.com|access-date=2019-05-19}}

{{reflist}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Mabel}}

Category:1972 deaths

Category:1886 births

Category:Irish female golfers

Category:Amateur golfers

Category:Golfers from Dublin (city)