30th March 2023 – Amazing Medical Women – 1914 -1918 World War One – PART TWO

This talk describes the Scottish Women’s’ Hospitals which were formed by Elsie Ingles and worked on several fronts overseas – After a brief introduction about how difficult it was for women like Elsie to become doctors in the late nineteenth century, I focus on the French Sector of the Western Front (using material from a book written about their hospital in Royaumont Abbey, France); their work in Serbia including the great retreat and their hospitals with the Serb Army on the Rumanian and Russian Eastern Front.  Again where possible I’ve used diary information and materials from letters or memoirs and the Drama Group has recorded these extracts to accompany the slides.  There are about 50 slides and the talk lasts about 60 minutes.  It was much harder to find pictures for the activities of this group of women.  The British Army of course would not countenance women doctors working in the front line.  The area they covered is now part of Ukraine or Moldovia although most of the places now have different name