Mary Dunlop

Mary Dunlop (25 November 1912 – 20 December 2003) was an Irish campaigner for the welfare of the blind and co‐founder of the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. Early life and family Mary Dunlop was born Mary Edith Hobart on 25 November 1912 at 33 South Mall, Cork. She was the only daughter of three surviving children of general medical practitioner Nathaniel Henry "Ted" Hobart (born 1867) and Edith Guest Hobart (née Lane) (1881–1912). Her mother died of pneumonia three days after Dunlop's birth. The family later lived on Blackrock Road, Cork, and then in Currabinny, County Cork. The family were Church of Ireland. Dunlop attended school in England, returning to Ireland to look after her father's home. She married Robert Andrew Egerton Dunlop (1902–1967) on 25 November 1933 on her 21 birthday. Her husband was from County Dublin and was a lieutenant in the Royal Army Service Corps in Edinburgh, having served previously at Camden Fort Meagher. They lived in Scotland until World War II broke out. They had one surviving daughter, Jill, born in 1935. They also had twins who died a few weeks after their birth. Her husband served in the British expeditionary force which was evacuated from Dunkirk in 1940. Dunlop travelled with him to his wartime postings in Egypt, Palestine, Libya, and Ghana. She served as an ambulance driver in north Africa. After her husband's retirement from the army at the rank of lieutenant‐colonel, he worked as the transport manager with a Cork brewery with the family living in Currabinny. Dunlop was widowed when he died in a commercial passenger airplane crash on 3 June 1967 over the Pyrenees. Charity work Dunlop had an interest in the welfare of blind people, having learnt the restrictions experienced by a blind uncle-in-law. With her husband, she became active with The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association (GDBA), and went on to raise funds in Ireland for the association. Dunlop was voluntary organiser in Ireland for the GDBA by the early 1970s, serving on the executive of the Cork county branch of the National Council for the Blind of Ireland. She adopted a German shepherd dog, Jan, who had been bred by the association. She trained Jan and appeared at agricultural shows, horse shows, and dog shows across Ireland. Jan was popular with audiences, and her shows were effective fund-raising events, demonstrating how highly trained dogs could be. They became well known in Ireland, with Jan and Dunlop on The Late Late Show in 1969.