Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service


The Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Services was founded in 1914. They were led by Dr. Elsie Inglis and provided nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, cooks and orderlies. By the end of World War I 14 medical units had been outfitted and sent to serve in Corsica, France, Malta, Romania, Russia, Salonika and Serbia.

Beginnings

At the outset of the war, Dr Elsie Inglis was secretary for the Scottish Federation of Women Suffrage Societies, affiliated with the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies headed by Millicent Garrett Fawcett. The SWH was spearheaded Dr Inglis, as part of a wider suffrage effort from Scottish Federation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and funded by private donations, fundraising of local societies and the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and the American Red Cross.
Fawcett wished to include "Women's Suffrage" in the name, but Inglis opposed this on the grounds that "suffrage" had controversial political connotations based on the example of those who advocated civil disobedience such as Emmeline Pankhurst. While not all volunteers supported the suffrage movement, the letters "NUWSS" appeared on SWH letterhead and many of their vehicles and the French press often referred to their facilities as "Hospital of the Scottish Suffragists" and NUWSS provided financial support.
Initial fundraising was highly successfully after Fawcett invited Inglis to speak in London, and by the end of August 1914 they had raised more than £5,000. Established shortly after the outbreak of World War I as voluntary all-women units, the Scottish Women's Hospitals offered opportunities for medical women who were prohibited from entry in to the Royal Army Medical Corps.. Painting by Norah Neilson Gray.
The headquarters were in Edinburgh throughout the war, and there were also committees in Glasgow and London, working closely with the London office of the Croix Rouge Francaise.
Dr. Alice Hutchison was the first doctor of SWH sent to France to establish the first hospital. She initially placed in Boulogne. While searching for a building for a hospital, a typhoid epidemic broke out amongst Belgian refugees in Calais. She, along with another doctor and ten nurses treated the patients. She was noted for having the lowest rate of deaths of typhoid in her hospital.
In December 1914, a hospital was established as a 200-bed at Royaumont Abbey. The initial staff included Inglis, Alice Hutchison, Ishobel Ross, Cicely Hamilton, Marian & Hope Gamwell and their mother. The Scottish Women's Hospitals serviced 14 medical units across Corsica, France, Malta, Romania, Russia, Salonika and Serbia. In April 1915, Dr Inglis was head of a unit based in Serbia and within seven months of mobilising, the SWH were servicing 1,000 beds with 250 staff which included 19 female doctors.

France

The first Scottish Women's Hospital was, in November 1914 staffed, equipped and established at Calais to support the Belgian army. Vicomtess de la Panouse, wife of the French military attaché to the French embassy in London helped the group identify another location at the ancient Royaumont Abbey. The abbey was property of, a rich industrialist and philanthropist whose poor health rendered him unable to fight. By December a second hospital was based in there. It remained operational throughout the war and treated wounded from the French army under the direction of the French Red Cross. A further hospital was opened at Troyes and Villers-Cotterets along with the popular and supportive canteens at Creil, Soissons and Crepy-en-Valois.

Serbia

Also in December, a hospital led by Dr Eleanor Soltau was dispatched to Serbia. Other units quickly followed and Serbia soon had four primary hospitals working night and day. The conditions in Serbia were dire. The Serbian army had a mere 300 doctors to serve more than half a million men and as well as battle casualties the hospital had to deal with a typhus epidemic which ravaged the military and civilian populations. Serbia had fought a surprisingly successful military campaign against the invading Austrians but the fight had exhausted the nation. Both soldiers and civilians were half starved and worn out and in those conditions diseases thrived and hundreds of thousands perished. Four SWH staff, Louisa Jordan, Madge Fraser, Augusta Minshull and Bessie Sutherland died during the epidemic. By the winter of 1915 Serbia could hold out no more. The Austrians had been joined by German and Bulgarian forces and again invaded and the Serbs were forced to retreat into Albania.
The SWH staff had a choice to make, stay and go into captivity or go with the retreating army into Albania. In the end some stayed and some went. Elsie Inglis, Evelina Haverfield, Alice Hutchison, Helen MacDougal and others were taken prisoner and were eventually repatriated to Britain. The others joined the Serbian army and government in its retreat and suffered the indescribable horrors of that retreat and shared the hardships endured by the Serbian army.

The March

The army retreated over the mountains of Albania and Montenegro in the depths of winter with no food, shelter or help and thousands upon thousands of soldiers, civilians, and prisoners of war died during the retreat. One SWH nurse, Caroline Toughill, was killed when her vehicle ran off the road near Pristina in Kosovo. Those who made it to the safety of the Adriatic sea continued to give what help they could to soldiers, civilians and in particular to the many boys who had joined the retreat. As a direct consequence of this the SWH set up a convalescent hospital in Corsica in December 1915 to help displaced Serb women and children.

Salonika

During this period the hospital at Troyes in France was ordered to pack. Designed as a mobile rather than a fixed hospital and was equipped with tents and vehicles. It was attached to a division of the French army and was dispatched to Salonika in Greece when their French division was transferred there as part of a belated move by the allies to provide practical help to the beleaguered Serbs. The hospital was set up in a disused silkworm factory in the border town of Gevgelia though it soon had to be relocated to the city of Salonika when the rapid Bulgarian advance threatened. Much of the work at Salonika was spent fighting malaria, a huge killer made worse by the lack of suitable clothing supplied by the allied armies.
It was joined in August 1916 there by the Ostrovo Unit or the American Unit. This hospital was funded chiefly by American donors and was so named as a thank you to them. The unit was moved early September 90 miles north – west of Salonika to Lake Ostrovo, and supported the Serbian Army's push back into its homeland. Also sent to Ostrovo was a Transport Column.

Russia

Following her repatriation to the UK in February 1916 Elsie Maud Inglis set about equipping and staffing a hospital to serve in Russia. Other veterans of the first Serbian hospital including Dr Lilian Chesney and Evelina Haverfield joined her and a hospital and attendant transport column of ambulances and support vehicles was sent to Russia. It served in southern Russia and in Romania and provided medical care chiefly to the Serbian Division of the Russian army. This division was made up of ethnic Serbs and other Yugoslavs who had been serving in the Austro-Hungarian army and had been taken prisoner by the Russians and who, after their capture had volunteered to fight for the allies. The Serb division had no medical facilities so these were provided by SWH to some 11.000 men with only seven doctors, and the leader was Elsie Inglis who had a strong affinity to the Serbian army and people and was recognised in their highest award. The SWH staff once again endured the strain and terrible hardship of the war when they had to take part in a chaotic and painful retreat after the Romanian army was routed in 1917. Russia was then plunged into revolution and, when it became clear that the Russian army was unlikely to resume operations, the hospital was withdrawn and Inglis and Serb injured and a division of Serb soldiers and officers sailed from Archangel through submarine infested waters to the UK. Tragically, the day after they arrived back in Britain, Elsie Inglis, who had been very sick with bowel cancer for some time, died. Soon after the Elsie Inglis Unit was established in her memory and sent out to join the Girton & Newnham and the American unit providing medical support to the Serb army in Macedonia. Together they provided much needed help during the campaigns of 1918 which saw the Serbs and their British, French, Russian, Greek and Italian allies drive the Germans, Austro-Hungarians and Bulgarians out of Macedonia and Serbia.

Closing years

Towards the end of the war saw SWH in Serbia itself providing medical help to soldiers, civilians and prisoners of war. A new fixed hospital was established in Vranje for 300 patients but by early 1919 this had been handed over to the Serbian authorities more or less bringing to an end the SWH. While most SWH members went home and resumed their pre war lives many SWH staff and ‘veterans’ chose to stay on to provide much needed medical care in Serbia. Dr Kathleen McPhail opened a hospital for sick children in Belgrade ; Evelina Haverfield ran a hospital for orphans until her tragic death in March 1920; and some did what they could to help, often using their own money, to single-handedly help destitute soldiers, refugees or the many orphans and widows who were all in desperate need of help. Others did relief work elsewhere. Isabel Emslie Hutton, for example, went to work with refugees from the Russian civil war in Crimea.

Impact

Over 1,000 women from many different backgrounds and many different countries served with the SWH. Only the medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians and x-ray operators received a salary and expenses while non-medical staff such as orderlies, administrators, drivers, cooks and others received no pay at all. In keeping with the aims of the SWH it was a deliberate policy that, as far as possible, all members of SWH units should be women so allowing opportunities for unqualified women who could nonetheless get the chance to both serve the war effort in some capacity and the cause of women's rights. Some women joined because it was one of the few opportunities open to women to help the war effort; others saw it as a rare chance for adventure in a world that up till then offered women very few chances; and all shared, with varying degrees, the desire to improve the lot of women. Over £500,000 was raised by every manner possible to fund the organisation and during the war years it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of patients lives were saved, nursed and helped by the SWH.

Notable women volunteers

Elsie Inglis' archives are held at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow
Scottish Women's Hospital Archives are also held at The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics, ref 2SWH The Women's Library also holds a Scrapbook on Scottish Women's Hospital from the time, ref 10/22. Papers of individuals who were part of SWH now held at The Women's Library include the Papers of Elsie Bowerman ref 7ELB the Papers of Vera "Jack" Holme ref 7VJH, as well as individual books, postcards and photographs related to the Scottish Women's Hospital and of several of the women who served.
The Women's Work Collection at the Imperial War Museum holds many photographs of the SWH.
Additional SWH members' materials are held in various archive offices: memoirs of Katherine North née Hodges are in the Leeds Russian Archive; the journals of Mary Lee Milne are held by the National Library of Scotland, papers of Lilas Grant and Ethel Moir are in the Central Library, Edinburgh; the Lothian Health archives hold the letters of Yvonne Fitzroy; a Photograph album relating to the Scottish Women's Hospital in Salonika, 1907–1918 is held at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, whilst the Schlesinger Library, Harvard University holds the papers of Ruth Holden. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland also holds papers of the Scottish Women's Hospitals in Serbia papers ref D1982. The National Library of Scotland holds film footage of a Scottish Women's Hospitals unit in action, 1917, ref 0035.

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