Dr Elizabeth Garret Anderson (the first woman to qualify in medicine in Britain), whilst addressing volunteers of the SWH in 1914. Royal Free Hospital Press Cuttings, Book 5, p. 86. ‘My dears, if you are successful over this work, you will have carried women’s profession forward a hundred years:’ The Case of the Scottish Women’s Hospital For Foreign Service GUID: 2343826C Title: ‘My dears, if you are successful over this work, you will have carried women’s profession forward a hundred years:’ The Case of the Scottish Women’s Hospital For Foreign Service Course: MLitt History (with an Emphasis on the History of Medicine) Supervisor: Prof Malcolm Nicolson Word count: 14784 September 2018, University of Glasgow
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‘My dears, if you are successful over this work, you will ...time under canvas- in Troyes, France. Dr Louisa McIlroy was head of the surgical ward, whereas Dr Laura Sandeman was
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Dr Elizabeth Garret Anderson (the first woman to qualify in medicine in Britain), whilst addressing volunteers of the SWH in 1914. Royal Free Hospital Press Cuttings, Book 5, p. 86.
‘My dears, if you are successful over this work, you will have carried women’s profession forward a hundred years:’
The Case of the Scottish Women’s Hospital For Foreign Service
GUID: 2343826C
Title: ‘My dears, if you are successful over this work, you will have
carried women’s profession forward a hundred years:’ The Case
of the Scottish Women’s Hospital For Foreign Service
Course: MLitt History (with an Emphasis on the History of Medicine)
Supervisor: Prof Malcolm Nicolson
Word count: 14784
September 2018, University of Glasgow
i
List of Abbreviations
Ass Assistant AssMO(H) Assistant Medical Officer (of Health) Aus Australia/Australian BA Bachelor of Arts BAO Bachelor of Obstetrics BCh Bachelor of Surgery BDS Bachelor of Dental Surgery BMA British Medical Association BMJ British Medical Journal BS Bachelor of Surgery BSc Bachelor of Science Can Canada/Canadian CBE Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire ChB Bachelor of Surgery ChM Master of Surgery Clin Clinical CMO Chief Medical Officer DBE Dame of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire DLO Diploma in Laryngology & Otology DMRE Diploma in Medical Radiology & Electrology DOMS Diploma of Opthalmic Medicine and Surgery DPH Diploma in Public Health Dr Doctor DSc Doctor of Science DTM(&H) Diploma in Tropical Medicine (& Hygiene) EMS Emergency Medical Service Eng England/English FRACS Fellow of the Royal Austral(as)ian College of Surgeons FRCOG Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists FRCP Lond Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London FRCPI Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland FRCPE Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh FRCSE Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh FRCS Eng Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England FRCSI Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland GMC General Medical Council GP General Practitioner Ho House Hon Honorary i/c In charge Jr Junior L(R)FPS Glas Licentiate of the (Royal) Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow LCC London County Council LDS Licentiate in Dental Surgery LL.D Doctor of Laws LM Licentiate in Midwifery LMCC Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada LMSSA Licentiate in Medicine and Surgery of the Society of Apothecaries LRCP Edin Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh LRCP Lond Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians of London
ii
LRCS Edin Licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh LSA Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries LSMW London School of Medicine for Women (Royal Free Hospital) MA Master of Arts MB BCh BAO Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, Bachelor of Obstetrics (Ireland) MB BS Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery MB ChB Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery MBE Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire MCP&S Ont Member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario MD Doctor of Medicine MO Medical Officer MOH Medical Officer of Health MRCOG Member of the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists MRCPE Member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh MRCP Lond Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London MRCPI Member of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland MRCSE Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh MRCS Eng Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England MRCSI Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland MS Master of Surgery NUWSS National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies Nat Sc Tri Natural Science Tripos (University of Cambridge) NZ New Zealand OBE Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire PhD Doctor of Philosophy Phys Physician Prof Professor QMAAC Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps, formerly Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps QMC Queen Margaret College Glasgow RAMC Royal Army Medical Corps RCPI Royal College of Physicians of Ireland RCS Eng Royal College of Surgeons of England RCSI Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Res Resident ResMO(H) Resident Medical Officer (of Health) Roy Soc Med Royal Society of Medicine School MO School Medical Officer Scot Scotland/Scottish Soc MOH Society of Medical Officers of Health Sr Senior Surg Surgical/surgeon SWH Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service TB Tuberculosis VD Venereal Disease WSPU Women’s Social and Political Union WW1 The First World War WW2 The Second World War
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Lists of Figures and Tables
Figure 1. Medals awarded to Dr Agnes Savill ........................................................................... 25
Table 1. Academic origins of SWH doctors .............................................................................. 16
Table 2. Nationalities of SWH doctors ..................................................................................... 17
Table 3. Marital status of SWH doctors ................................................................................... 18
Table 4. Additional qualifications of SWH doctors .................................................................. 24
Table 5. Medals and distinctions awarded to SWH doctors. ................................................... 27
Table 6. SWH doctors’ careers before and after the War........................................................ 33
Table 7. Number of SWH doctors awarded fellowships .......................................................... 34
iv
Acknowledgements
First of all, I would like to thank Prof Malcolm Nicolson for being the best supervisor I could
ever have wished for. Not only did he bring the existence of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals
under my attention in the first place, he has also guided me throughout this project. He has
done way more for me than he was ever obliged to do, I could not have done this without his
help. Thank you.
Secondly, I must thank Carol Parry who was so kind as to introduce me to the SWH on a more
personal level and to show me around the available sources. Her work on the Girton and
Newnham Unit, together with Elaine Morrison, has been vital for this project. I feel honoured
to share my work with her now that it is done.
Furthermore, I am grateful for the financial help of the Douglas Guthrie Trust (Scottish Society
for the History of Medicine), which allowed me to travel to the University of Aberdeen and
have a source from the University of Sheffield digitised. They have been most generous.
Lastly, I am indebted to the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow where the
staff have been incredibly helpful and I spent many an hour spitting through their collection
of Medical Directories and other sources. I have always felt most welcome and the venue is
truly inspirational.
And before I forget it, I would like to thank my intelligent friends and flatmates for reading and
criticising my work as it was taking shape. Your feedback has helped my academic writing skills
improve enormously, and I will benefit from those for the rest of my life.
Marlène Cornelis
v
Abstract
The Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service (SWH) was a women’s organisation that
equipped fourteen women’s hospital units across Europe during the First World War. About
one hundred female doctors of different backgrounds served with the SWH. The aim of this
study was to investigate how the experiences of women doctors during the First World War
affected their later careers. This cohort study included the 92 women doctors who survived
the War, as well as another 6 volunteers who qualified in medicine shortly after the War. By
studying their publications, (auto)biographies, obituaries, genealogical databases and entries
in the Medical Directory, their lives and careers were reconstructed. This study argues that,
even though war-time service undoubtedly had an enormous impact on these individuals on
a personal level, the beneficial effects on this group of brave and forward-thinking women
Around the turn of the twentieth century, first-wave feminism was peaking. Women had
finally secured entry to a number of British medical schools and the first medical women were
licenced to practice. But the fight for gender equality was far from over, and women’s suffrage
was still a long way to go. The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), headed
by Millicent Fawcett, was founded in 1897 and united several smaller women’s organisations.
In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst left the NUWSS and founded the militant Women’s Social and
Political Union (WSPU). They went their separate ways, but both continued to advocate the
right to vote. The NUWSS believed in a democratic approach, whereas the WSPU radicalised
and caused controversy with its militant actions. Henceforth, the women’s movement was
divided into law-abiding ‘suffragists,’ and extremist ‘suffragettes.’ However, everything
changed when Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914. Both suffragists and
suffragettes decided to temporarily ‘lay down their weapons,’ and focus their energy on the
war effort instead. The outbreak of war was considered an opportunity for women to prove
themselves citizens worthy of the vote.
Among them was famous Scottish gynaecologist and suffragist Dr Elsie Inglis (1864-1917), who
founded the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service (SWH) in 1914. She had been
honorary secretary of the Edinburgh National Society of Women’s Suffrage in the 1890s and
later fulfilled the same role in the Scottish Federation of Women’s Suffrage Societies.1 With
financial support from the NUWSS, she was able to offer the War Office two fully equipped,
all-female hospital units of 100 beds each.2 In response, she received the oft-quoted reply ‘My
good lady, go home and sit still.’ Undaunted, Dr Elsie Inglis subsequently contacted Britain’s
allies. France and Serbia, among others, were only too glad to accept the offer.
Over the course of the First World War, the SWH successfully equipped and sent out fourteen
hospital units, (almost)3 fully staffed by women. They were dispatched to France, Belgium,
Serbia, Greece, Macedonia, Malta, Corsica, Russia and Romania. The first opened briefly in
Calais and was commanded by Dr Alice Hutchison, who had been working in the Balkan Wars
previously. A second unit, under the capable leadership of Dr Frances Ivens, was set up in a
1 Leah Leneman, "Inglis, Elsie Maud," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-34101?rskey=KuKIiy&result=1. 2 M.F. Weiner, "The Scottish Women's Hospital at Royaumont, France 1914-1919," J R Coll Physicians Edinb 44, no. 4 (2014): p. 328. 3 For more on this topic, see Chapter 2. Defining the Cohort and The Scottish Women’s Hospitals?.
2
thirteenth-century abbey in Royaumont, just north of Paris. A third, funded by the two
Cambridge colleges, came to be known as the Girton and Newnham Unit. It was opened -this
time under canvas- in Troyes, France. Dr Louisa McIlroy was head of the surgical ward, whereas
Dr Laura Sandeman was in charge of the medical cases. This unit was so successful that the
French authorities invited it to accompany the French Expeditionary Forces (l’Armée d’Orient)
to the Eastern Mediterranean. The unit then moved to Salonica (contemporary Thessaloniki
in Greece) under the sole charge of Dr McIlroy.4 Dr Elsie Inglis herself took over the first Serbian
field hospital in Kraguievatz, after the original Chief Medical Officer (CMO) had fallen ill. The
heroic deeds of the SWH in Serbia received a lot of attention from the press when Dr Inglis
and a few others refused to leave their Serbian patients behind. They were taken prisoner by
the Germans and were not heard of for four months. In the end, they were released and
repatriated via Switzerland. Dr Inglis later returned to the Eastern Front to lead the so-called
London Unit in Russia and Romania. She died of cancer on 26 November 1917, the day she set
foot on British soil again.5
The aim of this study is to investigate how the experiences of women doctors during the First
World War affected their later careers. Dr Inglis’ career ended in 1917 and is therefore of little
relevance. So, rather than focussing on the much-covered and well-known achievements of
Dr Elsie Inglis,6 this study seeks to give a voice to all female doctors that served with the SWH
during the First World War and lived to tell the tale. The SWH provides an exceptional cohort
of early medical women to follow up over time. By studying publications, (auto)biographies,
obituaries, genealogical databases and entries in the Medical Directory, their lives and careers
are reconstructed.
This retrospective cohort study is very similar to those undertaken by Laura Kelly7 on early
Irish medical women, Wendy Alexander8 on early Glasgow graduates and Rosa McMillan9 on
4 E. Morrison and C. Parry, "The Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service--the Girton and Newnham Unit, 1915-1918," J R Coll Physicians Edinb 44, no. 4 (2014). 5 Leneman, "Inglis, Elsie Maud". 6 See for example Leah Leneman’s work: Elsie Inglis: Founder of Battlefield Hospitals Run Entirely by Women, Scots' Lives (Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland, 1998); In the Service of Life: The Story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women's Hospitals (Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1994). 7 Laura Kelly, Irish Women in Medicine, C.1880s-1920s: Origins, Education and Careers (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012). 8 Wendy Alexander, First Ladies of Medicine: The Origins, Education and Destination of Early Women Medical Graduates of Glasgow University (Glasgow: University of Glasgow Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, 1987). 9 Rosa McMillan, "Women in Pathology at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary: 'The Glasgow Royal Infirmary Has VISION without Which the People Perish.'" (Unpublished dissertation, University of Glasgow, 2018).
3
women in the pathological department of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary during the first half of
the twentieth century. These will therefore be used for comparison and discussion. It must be
noted, however, that there is considerable overlap, for Alexander’s cohort included nine
women who served with the SWH, McMillan’s study included two, and Kelly’s cohort listed
one.
The first chapter outlines the methodology. It elaborates on the study process and how the
results (see Appendix 1) were obtained. The subsequent chapter explains how the cohort was
defined. The third chapter is dedicated to these doctors’ war work. To enable analysis of the
effects of the War on their later careers, it is important to understand what they experienced
during the War in the first place. What was it that they did exactly? How were they
organised?10 Did they really do everything without the help of men? What cases did they tend
to and how did their volunteer hospitals relate to those of the Royal Army Medical Corps
(RAMC)? The fourth chapter will briefly focus on the origins of these women. The first part lists
which universities they had graduated from, and the second explores their nationalities. Were
the Scottish Women’s Hospitals really Scottish? The fifth chapter is dedicated to marriage.
Contemporaries feared that medical women would refrain from matrimony and not have
children, which incited all sorts of eugenic concerns. The results of this study will illustrate that
these fears were not warranted, for the proportion of women doctors who married was
slightly lower than the national average, but not as little as was feared. The second half of this
chapter discusses the marriage bar, which was still very much intact during the first half of the
twentieth century. This segment will illustrate that only a small proportion of the women
doctors ceased practice upon marriage. It also demonstrates how these women challenged
the marriage bar throughout the years. Chapter six lists and discusses the these women’s
academic qualifications; which are subdivided into pre-war, post-war and overall diplomas.
This allows for comparison of pre- and post-war qualifications. This section will show that the
SWH doctors were generally well-qualified and that some of them were exceptional. The
distribution of specialised qualifications, however, confirms that most women worked in
sectors deemed ‘appropriate’ for women: diseases of women, midwifery, paediatrics, public
health and missionary work. The subsequent chapter challenges the assumption that these
women were not decorated or honoured for their war-time services. It shows which medals
they were awarded and by whom. It also lists medals and titles that were awarded for
10 This has been extensively covered elsewhere, see for example the work of Leneman, Crofton, Weiner and Morrison & Parry.
4
achievements unrelated to the War. These are illustrative for the degree of success of their
careers, and correspondingly highlight the nature of their achievements. Chapter eight seeks
an answer to the following question: how feminist was the rank-and-file SWH doctor? The
figureheads of the organisation (e.g. Dr Inglis, Dr Ivens, Dr Aldrich-Blake and Dr Martindale),
were centrepieces of the British women’s movement around the turn of the century. But were
all members of the SWH equally zealous feminists? In the ninth chapter the core of this project
comes to the fore. It describes the main results of the study; what happened to these doctors
after the War? Where did they go and what did they do? By studying their post-war careers,
general trends are explored. It is particularly interesting to examine what they specialised in,
(if they hadn’t already) and to define the extent of success in their later careers. Were there
any women who managed to break free from the few fields of medicine that were considered
‘appropriate’ for women? Did any one of them secure a fellowships from a prestigious college,
obtain a consultancy position or make it to professorship? And what were their roles during
the Second World War? The tenth and last chapter is dedicated especially to a small group of
women who were not yet a qualified doctor at their time of service, either because they served
as medical students or because they took up medical studies after the War. They deserve extra
attention because, on return from active service, they had no pre-existing careers to fall back
on. They can therefore be considered ‘naïve,’ and thus particularly susceptible to the
influences of war-time service. This chapter will highlight a number of these dynamics.
In the conclusion the results of this study will be compared with those of similar studies and
its conclusions will be compared to the available historiography. Did women’s war-time efforts
prove valuable in advancing women’s position in the long run? Anecdotal evidence of how the
War affected these women’s careers on a more personal level is explored throughout the
chapters of this dissertation. It has found examples of long-time friendships, role models
taking on a protégée, and two doctors that brought their experience from the First World War
to good use in the Second. This study will argue that, even though war-time service
undoubtedly had an enormous impact on these individuals on a personal level, the beneficial
effects on this group of brave and forward-thinking women doctors, as a whole, were
negligible.
5
Chapter 1. Method
Many women served with the Scottish Women’s Hospitals during the First World War. Most
of them served as trained nurses, orderlies, chauffeurs and clerks. A minority held a position
as a doctor. To understand how their experiences during the Great War affected these female
doctors’ later careers, it is important to define a group of women and follow them over time.
This was to be achieved by collecting data from Scarlet Finders,11 an online source that has
published original personnel files held by the Imperial War Museum, London. Entries include
full name, position, unit and time of service. It occasionally includes notes on deaths, name
changes due to marriage, promotions and transfers to other units.
The online list of SWH personnel was entered into an editable spreadsheet and sorted
alphabetically. The data was categorised according to position and unit. Separate lists of male
members of staff and doctors were introduced. The final list of medical doctors was to be the
focus of this study.
The cohort of medical women was to be defined as follows: all CMOs, doctors, bacteriologists
and dentists who served with the SWH at any given time were included. Doctors known to
have served with the SWH but who were not listed were included manually. Individuals who
qualified in medicine after their service with the SWH were also incorporated, this includes
volunteering medical students and volunteers who decided to study medicine after the War.
Male practitioners, individuals who did not possess a medical degree and doctors from outside
the British empire were excluded. Moreover, to be able to study the effects of the War on the
cohort’s careers, they had to have survived the War in the first place. Therefore doctors who
died during or shortly after the War were excluded.
Thus the cohort of female doctors was formed. It was entered into a separate spreadsheet
where gathered data were to be collected. As a starting point, these individuals were looked
up in the Medical Register.12 Since The Medical Act of 1858, every British practitioner was
required to be entered on the Medical Register to be licenced to practice. It lists full name,
address, year of entry and basic medical qualifications.
11Sue Light, "Scottish Women’s Hospitals – Index of Names," Scarlet Finders, http://www.scarletfinders.co.uk/138.html. [Accessed 16 April 2018] 12 Published annually since 1859 by The Medical Register, ed. The General Medical Council of Medical Education and Registration of the United Kingdom (London: Constable & Co. Ltd.).
6
Secondly, their careers were reconstructed by looking up their entries in the Medical
Directories13 of the years before and after the War. It was not compulsory to be entered on
the Medical Directory, nevertheless the majority of British doctors paid to be on it. The Medical
Directory is categorised according to location or position (London, the Provinces, Wales,
Scotland, Ireland, dental surgeons, the Services or abroad) and contains information on
current positions, titles, publications and qualifications. It contains more information than the
Medical Register, but it is less user-friendly and not always accurate. Hardcopies of these
publications were accessed at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, and
digitised versions were retrieved via Ancestry.co.uk.14
Additionally, a number of alternative sources was searched for further information. Some of
these women published their memoirs or autobiographies. Others had their biographies
published in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography or its international counterparts.
Obituaries published in medical journals also contain information on their lives and careers.
PubMed was used to find and access SWH doctor’s medical publications. The online (but non-
academic) genealogical source Ancestry.co.uk was searched for information on birth, death
and nationality. Lastly, a simple open search using Google occasionally resulted in newspaper
articles, biographies and blogs containing relevant information. All of these were used to study
the cohort’s post-war careers.
Furthermore, secondary literature was searched for information on these women. In
particular Angels of Mercy,15 In the Service of Life16 and First Ladies of Medicine17 include
information on the lives and careers of the SWH doctors. Additionally, relevant historical
publications were used to gather background knowledge on the Scottish Women’s Hospitals
and their role during the First World War, the women’s movement more generally and
pioneering medical women specifically.
13 Published annually since 1845. The Medical Directory, (London: J & A Churchill). 14 Ancestry.co.uk has digitised the Medical Directories 1845-1942 at 5-year intervals, and it comes with a very useful search function. The website also includes the Medical and Dental Students Register 1882-1937 and the Medical Register 1859-1959. 15 Eileen Crofton, Angels of Mercy: A Women's Hospital on the Western Front 1914-1918 (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2013). 16 Leneman, In the Service of Life. 17 Alexander, First Ladies of Medicine.
7
Chapter 2. Defining the Cohort
The original Scarlet Finders list of personnel contains 1575 entries. It must be noted, however,
that many individuals served at more than one unit and were therefore entered multiple times
on the list. It is estimated that a total of 1381 individuals served in the field with the SWH.18
This number is an estimate, because it is often impossible to judge on the basis of entered
initials whether one is dealing with a double entry or not. Of all these individuals, no less than
31 were male. They worked as chauffeurs (10), mechanics (8), handymen (5), chef (1) and
occupied several assisting positions. There was one male doctor; Dr Charles Hope, whose wife
Dr Laura Hope also served as a doctor with the SWH.
The SWH had a total of 10 administrators, 4 bacteriologists, 127 chauffeurs, 17 clerks, 10
among others. The total ‘doctors’ (CMOs, doctors, dentists and bacteriologists) was thus 103.
Dr Louisa Martindale and Dr Louisa Aldrich-Blake, not listed but known to have served at
Royaumont during their summer holidays, were added manually. Of these 105 practitioners,
Dr Charles Hope was excluded because of his sex and four women (Dr Elsie Inglis †1917, Dr
Sybil Lewis †1918, Dr Marian Wilson †1917 and Dr Mabel Hardie †1916) were excluded
because they died in the War and the effects on their careers could therefore not be studied.
A Romanian and a French bacteriologist were also excluded.19 After correcting for double
entries,20 there are 92 female doctors in the cohort.
Furthermore, four female medical students who volunteered and served with the SWH during
their studies, and three orderlies who went on to study medicine after the War, were included.
There may have been more orderlies who were inspired by their time with the SWH to take
up a medical career in other units, but it is outside the scope of this study to try and identify
them all. Altogether, the cohort consists of 98 medical women.21
18 The list does not include members of staff that served (voluntarily) in Britain and the Commonwealth, e.g. committee members and fundraisers. 19 They do not appear on the Medical Register and it was impossible to find anything on them in English. 20 Some women served as doctors first and were later promoted to CMO of another unit. 21 Because Ellie Rendel returned after qualifying, she is also listed as a doctor. The total is therefore 98 instead of 99.
8
Chapter 3. Active Service
Over the course of the War, the SWH dispatched fourteen units to different European
destinations. All those units, their staff and volunteers, were coordinated from the
organisation’s headquarters. A number of respectable local women, some of them doctors,
ran the organisation from Edinburgh. They volunteered to work -without remuneration- for
the SWH for the duration of the War, though some others within the SWH held paid positions.
The committee was made up of a combination of committee members from pre-existing
suffrage societies and personal relations of Dr Inglis. They also set up several sub-committees
to take care of personnel, uniforms, equipment, motorcars and press & publicity. An executive
committee, made up of wealthy and prominent members of the London Society for Women’s
Suffrage, was established in London.22 Their rivalry with the Edinburgh committee would go
on to cause some friction in later years. Initially, the organisation was completely funded by
private donations. The SWH greatly benefitted from the NUWSS’s experience in fundraising
and they managed to raise impressive amounts of money. During their fundraising tours across
the United States and the Commonwealth, Mrs Elizabeth Habott and Miss Kathleen Burke
managed to collect thousands of pounds for the SWH.23
The SWH kept the public engaged by publishing articles in The Common Cause, the magazine
of the NUWSS.24 Vera Collum, under the pseudonym ‘Skia,’ reported regularly from
Royaumont, where she had started out as a chauffeur and later worked as a skilled
radiographer (at the time they called X-ray photos ‘skiagrams,’ hence her alias).
Calais
Britain had declared war on Germany after its invasion of Belgium on 4 August 1914. During
the early stages of the War, the Belgian wounded were pouring into Calais. The Belgian consul
in Edinburgh had been among the first of Britain’s allies to accept the offer of a hospital unit
staffed by women. Consequently, the very first unit, led by Dr Alice Hutchison, was sent out to
Calais in November 1914. She was assisted by the Welsh Dr Eppynt-Phillips, a male chauffeur
and ten trained nurses. Dr Hutchison was the experienced one, having served with a women’s
unit in Bulgaria during the First Balkan War in 1912-1913.25 The unit’s wards were quickly filled,
for typhoid had broken out among the Belgian refugees. It was claimed that the unit had the
22 Leneman, In the Service of Life, pp. 4-6. 23 Morrison and Parry, "The Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service--the Girton and Newnham Unit, 1915-1918," p. 338. 24 Copies of The Common Cause are held by The Mitchell Library, Glasgow. 25 Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 7.
9
lowest reported mortality of all hospitals in Calais.26 By March 1915, the typhoid epidemic was
virtually over and the unit had become superfluous. The unit was disbanded in April 1915, but
many of its members went on to serve with the SWH in other units.
Royaumont27
Not all SWH units were created equal. The biggest and best-documented unit resided in a
thirteenth century Cistercian abbey in Royaumont, just miles away from the Western Front. It
was entirely unrelated to the British army, instead it operated under the French Croix Rouge
(and thus the French army) and was known as Hôpital Auxiliaire 301 to the French officials.
Once Royaumont had passed all inspections, it was agreed that the French army would pay
two francs per patient per day. It would also supply vehicles, petrol and the beds.28
Royaumont was open consecutively from January 1915 until March 1919, when the last
patients were transferred elsewhere. The work was predominantly surgical because of its
close proximity to the Front, though it also treated local civilians in between the rushes.
Royaumont’s excellent surgical team was led by the renowned Dr Frances Ivens and her
second-in-command Dr Ruth Nicholson. Dr Ivens, an established gynaecological surgeon, had
prepared herself for the War by studying the relevant medical literature.29 In 1939 she recalled
how Sir Robert Jones’ articles on fractures under war conditions were ‘read and reread until
the pages were ragged!’30 Furthermore, her team was made up of Dr Elizabeth Courtauld who
served as anaesthetist, Dr Agnes Savill as radiologist and Dr Estcourt-Oswald and later Dr Elsie
Dalyell as bacteriologists. The hospital treated mainly French soldiers (the ‘Poilu’), but it also
treated French colonial troops and the occasional British, American and Canadian soldier. The
hospital had started out as a 100-bed unit, but its success and increased demands by the
French led them to increase the amount of beds to 600 at its peak. This made them the biggest
British volunteer war hospital in France and it was the second closest to the front line.31 At the
request of the French Military authorities in 1917, the Royaumont Unit opened an ancillary
hospital closer to the Front, in Villers-Cotterêts (Hôpital Auxiliaire d’Armee No 30). There
operations were performed close to the actual fighting (by candlelight if necessary), until the
26 Ibid., p. 8. 27 For an in-depth study of the Royaumont Unit, see Eileen Crofton’s most excellent Angels of Mercy (2013). 28 Crofton, Angles of Mercy, p. 37. 29 M. Weiner, "Frances Ivens (1870-1944): The First Woman Consultant in Liverpool," Bulletin of the Liverpool Medical History Society 26 (2015): p. 65; Crofton, Angles of Mercy, p. 237. 30 Frances Ivens-Knowles, "Treatment of Gas Gangrene," British Medical Journal 2, no. 4118 (1939): p. 1161. 31 Crofton, Angles of Mercy, p. 219.
10
hospital had to be evacuated during the German advance in March 1918.32 At first, both
hospitals functioned as casualty clearing stations, which meant that they played a vital role in
the evacuation, initial treatment and distribution of wounded soldiers who came directly from
the trenches. From mid-1917 this changed, and they were enabled to hold ‘blessés’ (wounded)
for up to one month before transferring them to hospitals further down the line.33
Having a relatively small surgical team, the doctors had to work day and night during the
rushes. In the 24 hours of 7-8 April 1918, a record of 80 operations were performed. Some of
the surgeons had no more than sixteen hours of sleep in eight days, and ‘three hours of
consecutive sleep was an almost unbelievable luxury,’ during the Battle of the Somme in
1916.34 The medical staff was at its biggest in June 1918, when there were sixteen doctors, of
which eleven were surgeons.35 Royaumont and Villers-Cotterêts combined treated a total of
10,681 patients; of which 8,752 were soldiers and the remaining 2,109 were civilians (572 in-
patients and 1,537 out-patients). The death rate among the soldiers was merely 1.82% or 159
deaths in four years! The majority of the military cases were battle-related injuries requiring
surgery, though some more trivial injuries also required surgery and occasionally sick soldiers
were admitted. The civilians were predominantly women and children in need of medical
care.36
The true enemy of any hospital along the Western Front was gas gangrene, an obnoxious
condition caused by trench warfare. Shellfire resulted in pieces of shrapnel boring themselves
into the deeper tissues. Due to the muddy conditions this caused life-threatening infections
with gas-producing anaerobic bacteria such as Clostridium perfringes. In the era before
antibiotics, a manifestation of gas gangrene was often a death sentence. Many a limb was
amputated in an attempt to prevent it from spreading. No effort was spared to find a way to
tackle this disease before it was too late, and the staff of Royaumont was heavily involved in
the search of a cure. Professor Weinberg of the Pasteur Institute in Paris was the leading
expert on gas gangrene at the time. He had been impressed by Royaumont’s laboratory, and
had asked Dr Ivens’ permission to do his trials there.37 Dr Ivens published several articles on
32 Ibid., pp. 159-79. 33 Ibid., p. 219. 34 Ibid., p. 220. 35 Ibid. 36 Ibid., p. 221. 37 Ibid., p. 48.
11
the treatment of gas gangrene,38 just like Dr Dalyell39 and Dr Savill.40 Dr Henry proceeded to
write her MD thesis for the University of Sheffield on the treatment of war wounds.41
Eileen Crofton claimed that Royaumont performed favourably when compared to other
military hospitals and that the French authorities praised them highly for it (after some initial
hesitancy),42 though Weiner disputes that.43 When the hospital was disbanded in 1919, the
members of the unit founded the Royaumont Association, of which Dr Ivens was to be the first
president. Members of the unit had formed long-lasting friendships and they continued to
meet up annually, until the last of them passed away and the association was abolished in
1973.44
The Girton and Newnham Unit45
In May 1915 the SWH opened a second unit in Troyes, France. It came to be known as the
Girton and Newnham Unit, after the two women’s colleges from Cambridge that had raised
the necessary funds. It was France’s first field hospital ‘under canvas,’ and its 200 beds were
divided into a surgical and a medical ward. The former was led by surgeon Dr Louise McIlroy
and the latter by physician Dr Laura Sandeman. There were three assistant surgeons (Dr Keer,
Dr Alexander and Dr Barbara MacGregor), Dr Emslie was the unit’s bacteriologist and the
famous female physicist Miss Edith Stoney served as their radiologist.46 After only a few
months in France, they were asked to join the French Expeditionary Forces (l’Armée d’Orient)
in the Eastern Mediterranean. Subsequently the unit moved to Guevgueli in Serbia where the
cold and the proximity to the Front made it difficult for the unit to settle in. Within a month it
got moved to Salonica, where it would stay for the remainder of the War. There, a large tented
field hospital (Hôpital Auxiliaire Bénévole 30147) was set up at an ill-suited site on the
38 F. Ivens, "A Clinical Study of Anaerobic Wound Infection, with an Analysis of 107 Cases of Gas Gangrene," Proc R Soc Med 10 (1917); "The Preventive and Curative Treatment of Gas Gangrene by Mixed Serums," Br Med J 2, no. 3016 (1918). She was also involved in scientific discussions on the matter in the British Medical Journal. 39 E.J. Dalyell, "A Case of Gas Gangrene Associated with B. Oedematiens," ibid.1, no. 2933 (1917). 40 A. Savill, "X-Ray Appearances in Gas Gangrene," Proc R Soc Med 10 (1917). 41 L.M. Henry, "The Treatment of War Wounds by Serum Therapy" (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Sheffield, 1920). 42 Crofton, Angles of Mercy, pp. 219-32. 43 Weiner, "The Scottish Women's Hospital at Royaumont, France 1914-1919." 44 Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 213. 45 The information in this whole paragraph is adapted from Morrison and Parry, "The Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service--the Girton and Newnham Unit, 1915-1918." 46 Edith Stoney was a physicist and not a doctor, she was therefore excluded from this study. 47 The hospitals in Royaumont and Salonica seem to have had very similar names, perhaps it was purely a coincidence. E. Morrison and C. Parry, "Kate Latarche: Dentist with the Scottish Women's Hospital During the First World War," Dental History Magazine 11, no. 2 (2017): p. 14.
12
overcrowded marshes of Northern Greece, where it treated patients of a whole range of
nationalities. The work was mainly medical, as the unit was quite a distance from the Front
and the area was absolutely plagued by malaria. Statistical accounts from this unit report a
total of 2,733 surgical cases and 3,764 medical cases; of which 1,714 were treated for
malaria.48 Unfortunately, they were lacking an experienced physician since Dr Sandeman had
returned to Britain. The British surgical staff had little experience with malaria and other
infectious diseases that were prevalent in the hot Greek climate (e.g. jaundice, pneumonia,
(para)typhoid, influenza, dengue and sandfly fever). Fortunately the incidence of these
diseases dropped during the cooler months. The location was meant to be only temporary,
though the hospitals was not moved to a better spot nearby until autumn 1917. Dr McIlroy
published an article on her experiences in France, Serbia and Salonica in the Glasgow Medical
Journal in 1917.49 In May 1918 she established an orthopaedic rehabilitation department on
their new hospital site, called the Calcutta Orthopaedic Centre (because the funds were raised
in Calcutta). It was the only one of its kind in the area and 426 patients were treated there
until its closure.50 The Girton and Newnham Unit was also unique in the fact that it employed
its very own (female) dentist, Dr Kate Latarche.51 She served in 1918-1919, and was later
replaced by the young Dr Mary Jane Ripley.
Serbia & Russia
Several other units were erected in Serbia, namely in Kraguievatz, Ostrovo, Mladanovatz and
Valjevo, where the conditions were dire. When the SWH first entered Serbia, it had suffered
great losses fighting off the Austrians and the medical services were inadequate. A typhus
epidemic was raging through the country consequently. When the Central Forces made
another attempt at gaining ground on ‘proud little Serbia’ in October 1915, the Serbian army
was forced to retreat. What followed was a retreat of epic proportions, dubbed ‘the Great
Retreat,’ over the mountains into Albania. Two SWH units joined in this retreat, whilst two
others chose to remain. Dr Inglis, who had been working in Kraguievatz since April 1915,
refused to leave her Serbian patients behind and she and 27 others subsequently became
48 E.S. McLaren, A History of the Scottish Women's Hospitals (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1919), pp. 384-92. 49 A.L. McIlroy, "The Work of a Unit of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals in France, Serbia and Salonica," Glasgow Medical Journal 88 (1917). 50 McLaren, A History of the Scottish Women's Hospitals, pp. 384-92. 51 Morrison and Parry, "Kate Latarche: Dentist with the Scottish Women's Hospital During the First World War."
13
Austrian prisoners of war. Dr Alice Hutchison and some others of her unit also chose to stay
put and were imprisoned in Hungary.52 They were repatriated via Switzerland in 1916.
Yet Dr Inglis had barely reached Britain before she left again, this time with the London Unit
to Russia and Romania. There had been some tension between the London and Edinburgh
committees, and Dr Inglis consequently resigned as leader of the SWH. It was agreed,
however, that she would lead the new unit under the aegis of the London committee.53 The
unit tended mostly to the Serbian division of the Russian army, but again they were forced to
retreat, this time from Medjidia, Romania. They fled via Archangel (Russia) across the seas
swarmed with submarines back to Britain. Dr Elsie Inglis died of cancer on the day of her
return, 26 November 1917. After her death the London Unit was renamed the ‘Elsie Inglis
Unit,’ and was sent out to join the America Unit and the Girton and Newnham Unit in
Salonica.54
Other units
Apart from those hospitals in close proximity to the fighting, two hospitals were opened for
Serbian refugees in Ajaccio (Corsica) and Sallanches (France), far away from the Front.
In December 1915, a hospital on Corsica was set up to treat Serbian refugees who had found
themselves stateless after ‘the Great Retreat.’ The unit had originally been destined for
Salonica, but the area was already overcrowded and they could not be of much help over
there. So when the French government offered to evacuate Serbian refugees to Corsica, the
unit under Dr Blair was more than happy to accompany them and set up a hospital in Ajaccio.
On Christmas day, Dr Alice Blair landed on Corsica with 300 forlorn refugees, and another 500
would soon follow.55 The hospital was housed in a villa overlooking the sea and had about 100
beds.56 Because mostly civilian cases were treated, it also included some obstetrical work and
by January 1917, 26 babies had been born in the Ajaccio hospital.57 The staff consisted partly
of SWH ‘veterans’ who had served in Serbia. Dr Blair left to work for the British War Office,
and was replaced by Dr Eppynt-Phillips in 1916, temporarily by Dr Courtauld (from
Royaumont), followed by Dr Alexandrina MacPhail in 1917, Dr Edna Guest in 1917-1918 and
52 Leneman, In the Service of Life, pp. 39-45. 53 Ibid., p. 62. 54 Ibid., p. 140. 55 Ibid., pp. 46-47. 56 Ibid., p. 51. 57 Ibid., p. 106.
14
finally Dr Honoria Keer until 1919. The hospital was generally considered a great success,
although there had initially been some issues between the administrator and the CMO.58
This stands in stark contrast to the other civilian hospital in Sallanches, which short life-span
was thwarted by many problems. In the winter of 1917-1918, it was set out to be the ‘Elsie
Inglis Memorial Hospital’ for Serbian boys suffering from tuberculosis. It was housed in the
Sallanches Hôtel at the foot of the Mont Blanc, though there was only space for 60 beds. Dr
Alexandrina MacPhail was to be the CMO. Despite its idyllic location, there were major
problems with the water supply.59 These remained unresolved during the following months
and no more than five patients could be washed per day. Moreover, the young Serbs were
unruly and spitted everywhere, which must have been a major problem in a sanatorium.60 At
the request of the American Red Cross, the hospital was enlarged in the autumn of 1918,61 but
it was closed shortly afterwards. It had a bad reputation and the atmosphere had turned
hostile.62
The SWH also set up a number of canteens in Salonica, Creil, Soissons, Crépy-en-Valois, and
Favresse, where volunteers provided some comfort to worn-out soldiers. The ones at Creil and
Crépy were directly requested by the French Red Cross to the London Committee.63 The
canteen in Favresse never really came off the ground.64 The canteen at Soissons was opened
after a personal request from the local commandant to Dr Ivens. She sent out Royaumont’s
store-keeper and three auxiliary nurses to set up a temporary canteen in an old schoolhouse.
Over the course of seven weeks, they offered the Poilu 1,681 hearty meals free of charge, and
hot drinks, cigarettes, newspapers, writing materials and sometimes even a bath.65
The Scottish Women’s Hospitals?
As previously hinted at, the SWH was not entirely staffed by women, though the committee
and the medical staff took pride in managing without the help of men. In the case of
Royaumont, there had initially been two male chauffeurs (because there had been some
uncertainty whether the French would allow the ‘chauffeuses’ to drive), the occasional
58 Ibid., p. 188. 59 Ibid., pp. 141-42. 60 Ibid., p. 163. 61 Ibid., pp. 181-83. 62 Ibid., pp. 194-95. 63 Crofton, Angles of Mercy, p. 129. 64 Leneman, In the Service of Life, pp. 180-81. 65 Crofton, Angles of Mercy, pp. 129-31.
15
mechanic and of course chef Michelet.66 Supposedly, he had been a famous chef in Paris
before he got called up for the army. He had arrived at Royaumont as a patient in June 1915,
but as he was recovering, he had started to lend a hand in the kitchens where he really proved
his worth. Unfortunately, he had to return to his unit in August 1915. By then he had become
indispensable to Royaumont’s kitchen, so Dr Ivens persuaded the French to allow him return
to Royaumont to work as a chef in November 1916. Henceforth Royaumont came to be known
as the best-fed hospital in France.67 During the second half of the War, Royaumont proceeded
to employ ‘infirmiers’ (unfit soldiers) to help with the carrying of stretchers, cleaning and do
other unskilled work.68 Similarly, many other units employed male prisoners of war as
orderlies. Virtually every unit had a male handyman and Miss Edith Stoney had a male assistant
named George Mallet. Mr E.P. Stebbing, an Edinburgh University professor hoping to be of
use, joined the America Unit as its Transport Officer.69 Moreover, there was Dr Charles Hope,
who served in Serbia with his wife;70 Dr Elizabeth Butler’s husband who had been a lecturer at
the University of Lemberg (Lviv), found temporary work at Royaumont as a chauffeur;71 Mr
William Smith was a clerk in Kraguievatz; and Surgeon-Lieutenant Maitland Scott and four
male orderlies offered to help out during a particular busy time in Galatz.72 When talking about
Serbian soldiers who helped with the heavy lifting in Serbia, Dr Emslie (Lady Hutton) wrote ‘we
kept the males in a thoroughly subordinate position; they were labourers, the odd men of the
hospital, and did as they were told!’73
Aftermath
After the armistice, the hospitals were closed one by one, and the majority of the women
returned to their respective homes. A few dedicated individuals stayed on in Serbia to tend to
the Serbian refugees, others went back to the missionary hospitals they had previously worked
at. The following chapters are dedicated to finding out who these women were and what
happened to them on return from the War.
66 Ibid., p. 219. 67 Ibid., pp. 95-98. 68 Ibid., p. 219. 69 As cited by Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 70. He published on his experiences in Serbia in the Scottish Geographical Magazine. E.P. Stebbing, "The Serbian Front in Macedonia," Scottish Geographical Magazine 33, no. 4 (1917). 70 H. Jones, "Hope, Laura Margaret (1868–1952)," Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hope-laura-margaret-10541. 71 Crofton, Angles of Mercy, pp. 47-48. 72 Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 96. 73 As cited by Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 218: I.E. Hutton, With a Woman’s Unit in Serbia, Salonika and Sebastopol (London: Williams and Norgate, 1928), p. 139.
16
Chapter 4. Origins
Alma Mater
Medical students included, this cohort consists
of 98 women. Who were they and where did
they come from? The nature and date of their
basic qualifications are listed on the Medical
Register. Overall they gained their bachelors in
medicine (MB BS or similar) from fourteen
different universities. The majority graduated
from the London School of Medicine for
Women/Royal Free Hospital (University of
London), followed by the University of
Edinburgh and Queen Margaret College
(University of Glasgow); see Table 1. It must be
noted, however, that the institution one graduated from, is not necessarily where one was
trained. Because of how the British licencing bodies are set up, individuals often studied at
several institutions and could sit an examination with any licencing body. The University of
Durham, for example, did not have a medical school, but as a licencing body it was possible to
sit the Durham examination and become a licenced practitioner. At the time, it was common
practice to take courses and gain clinical experience from multiple (extra-mural) institutions
in Britain or even abroad. The majority of London graduates had studied at the London School
of Medicine for Women, though some later graduates had attended King’s College, St Mary’s
or other London teaching hospitals. In the case of Edinburgh, graduates could have studied at
the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women (until 1898), Minto House or the Edinburgh
Medical College for Women. The medical school of the University of St Andrews was actually
situated at the Dundee Royal Infirmary and female Glasgow graduates studied at Queen
Margaret College.
Originally graduated from No.
University of London 32
University of Edinburgh 24
University of Glasgow 17
University of Durham 5
University of Aberdeen 4
University of St Andrews 4
Queen’s University Belfast 3
Victoria University Manchester 3
Royal University of Ireland 1
University of Adelaide 1
University of Liverpool 1
University of Melbourne 1
University of Sheffield 1
University of Sydney 1 Table 1. Academic origins of SWH doctors.
17
Nationality
How many of these Scottish Women were actually
Scottish? Nationality was defined as country of
birth, unless a source explicitly stated that an
individual was of an alternative descent.74 Thirty-
nine women were from Scotland or from Scottish
descent, and thirty-nine women were English or
from England. Together these make up roughly 80%
of the cohort. The other 20% is divided between
women of Irish, Welsh and colonial origins (see
Table 2). These findings match Leneman’s estimate: ‘[R]oughly equal numbers of English and
Scottish, with a scattering of Welsh and Irish.’75
Considering that half of the ‘Scottish’ Women were actually English, it is not surprising that
there initially was some debate about the name. Dr Inglis and the NUWSS would have liked to
change it to ‘British Women’s Hospitals,’ but they were overruled by the Edinburgh
committee. The latter claimed that since the organisation had originated in Scotland, it still
had a legitimate claim to the name.76
It is remarkable that even though half of the cohort was Scottish, the lion’s share graduated
from the LSMW. However, the number of Edinburgh and Glasgow graduates together exceeds
that of London. Only two Scottish women graduated from London (Dr MacPhail 1887 and Dr
Stein 1925), 90% of Scots graduated from Scotland.77
74 For the individual sources, see the last column in Appendix 1. 75 Leneman, In the Service of Life, pp. 218-19. 76 Ibid., p. 4. 77 Namely 14 in Glasgow, 14 in Edinburgh, 4 in St Andrews and 3 in Aberdeen; together making up 35 of 39 Scotswomen.
Nationality No.
Scottish 39
English 39
Irish 6
Welsh 4
Australian 3
Canadian 2
New Zealand 2
Ceylon-British 1
Unknown 2 Table 2. Nationalities of SWH doctors.
18
Chapter 5. Marriage
Getting Married
During the ‘struggle’ for medical
education for women, one of the
main concerns raised by the
opposition was marriage. It was
feared that woman doctors, or
highly educated women in general, would choose not to marry and subsequently refrain from
having children;78 for if they were running a medical practice, then how were they going to
combine this with their domestic duties? This lead to all sorts of eugenic counterarguments
about the degeneration of the race and reduced fertility.79 It is therefore relevant to examine
whether these fears were grounded.
Married women were listed as ‘Mrs’, hereby making it possible to define the proportion of
married women at time of service (see Table 3). Eight women were married when they served
in the War. Obituaries, biographies and Ancestry.co.uk were used to estimate how many
women got married overall. Someone was considered ‘unmarried’ if a source explicitly said
so, if the Medical Directory continued to list her as ‘Miss’ until the end of her career or if a
marriage was not mentioned in an obituary or biography (based on the assumption that her
husband would have been mentioned if there was one). If there was limited evidence available
her marital status was considered ‘unknown.’ What follows, is that a third got married and
that about two thirds did not.
Of the 32 women known to have married, at least nine married a doctor (28%). Doctors
marrying doctors is a phenomenon still commonly seen today. It could be argued that fellow
doctors understand, accept and adapt better to having a doctor for wife. They often worked
together too; Dr Agnes Savill (née Blackadder) edited her husband’s clinical textbook for 32
years after his death;80 Dr Grace MacRae (née Summerhayes) worked in a maternity hospital
she had set up in Gold Coast (contemporary Ghana), where her husband was a surgeon;81 Dr
Ruth Verney (née Conway) met her husband in the East London Hospital for Children, where
78 Anna Davin, "Imperialism and Motherhood," History Workshop, no. 5 (1978): p. 14. 79 Alexander, First Ladies of Medicine, p. 36. 80 "Obituary: Agnes Forbes Savill," The Lancet 283, no. 7343 (1964): p. 1170. 81 "Summerhayes Dr Grace Maria Linton," Whitty Family Tree, http://www.whittyfamilytree.co.uk/getperson.php?personID=I9&tree=tree1. [accessed 11 July 2018]
Marital status At time of service At time of death
No. % No. %
Married 8 8 32 33%
Unmarried 90 92 64 65%
Unknown 2 2%
Table 3. Marital status of SWH doctors.
19
she had been his superior;82 Dr Jessie Napier Grant (née Robertson) ran a general practice in
Carlisle with her husband Dr George Osmond Grant for the rest of her life;83 Dr Laura Hope
(née Fowler) and her husband Dr Charles Hope both worked as missionaries in India most of
their professional lives and served with the SWH in Serbia together;84 and Dr Gladys Miall-
Smith and her husband Dr John Fry became Welwyn Garden City’s first doctors in 1922.85 The
remaining ten whose husband’s occupation is known, married army officers (2), non-medical
missionaries (2), a farmer, a university lecturer, a clergymen, a clerk, a barrister and a teacher.
This study found a marriage rate of 33%, but it is difficult to compare these results to those of
similar studies. Kelly found that at least 18% of her cohort of early Irish medical women got
married86 and 40% of McMillan’s cohort married.87 Wendy Alexander searched the records
thoroughly and found that 53.2% of her entire sample of Glasgow graduates married. She
determined that this number was only 10-15% lower than the national average, which did not
distinguish between social classes. She then concluded that the marriage rate of female
doctors could not have been far below the average for middle-class women, of which a smaller
proportion married and usually at a later age.88
Considering the husbands’ occupations, Alexander found that 47% married a fellow doctor,
and another 31% married men of the remaining ‘old professions’ (teachers/lecturers,
ministers, missionaries, gentlemen and lawyers), thus showing a remarkable trend of upwards
mobility. She interpreted this as an expression of the desire to marry men whom they regarded
to be of equal social and intellectual standing.89
This study found that a greater proportion of SWH doctors got married, when compared to
Kelly’s Irish women, but less than McMillan’s pathologists and Alexander’s Glasgow graduates.
It is hard to draw a definite conclusion based on these different studies, but the general trend
82 I. de Burgh Daly and L.M. Pickford, "Ernest Basil Verney, 1894-1967," Biogr Mem Fellows R Soc 16 (1970): p. 525. 83 S. Grant, "The Life Story of Dr. Ronald Grant M.A. M.D. F.R.C.G.P.," http://www.simongrant.org/father/lifestory.html. [Accessed 18 June 2018] 84 Jones, "Hope, Laura Margaret (1868–1952)". 85 L. London, "Dr Gladys Miall Smith (1888 - 1991) – British Doctor," Inspirational Women Of World War One, http://inspirationalwomenofww1.blogspot.com/2016/06/dr-gladys-miall-smith-1888-1991-british.html. [Accessed 5 August 2018] 86 Kelly, Irish Women in Medicine, p. 145. 87 McMillan, "Women in Pathology at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary," p. 39. 88 She studied 39 graduates from 1898-1900 and 23 graduates from 1908-1910, of which 9 coincidentally served with the SWH. Alexander, First Ladies of Medicine, pp. 36-39. 89 Ibid., pp. 38-39.
20
seems to be that medical women indeed married less frequent than the national average, but
not as little as was feared by contemporaries. The large proportion of early medical women
marrying fellow doctors (and other members of the old professions) is striking, and this refutes
the fear that educated men would not desire to marry women doctors. Eugenic arguments
against medical women were therefore not grounded.
The Marriage Bar90
Opponents of female doctors also feared that public investment in a lengthy and expensive
medical education would go to waste once a woman doctor got married. It is therefore
relevant to identify the proportion of women that ceased practice upon marriage. When doing
so, it becomes apparent that these fears were unfounded. Of the 32 women known to have
married, only one certainly ceased practice (Dr Laird). Five additional individuals are listed in
the Medical Directories with just an address, they may or may not have ceased practice (Dr
Ferguson, Dr Hancock, Dr Henry, Dr Beatrice McGregor and Dr Sharp). Moreover, Dr Porter
continued to work after her marriage, though she ceased practice after the birth of her son
three years later.91 Another two women resigned upon marriage, but continued to work
elsewhere (Dr Miall-Smith92 and Dr Emslie93).
In 1921, the case of Dr Miall-Smith caused considerable controversy in the press, with
supportive letters written by the Council of the British Medical Association, the Society of
Medical Officers of Health, the Federation of Medical Women, the National Association of
Local Government Officers, the London Society for Women’s Service, and superintendents of
local welfare centres, but to no avail. Eventually the decision to ask Dr Miall-Smith to resign
was upheld.94 Because of her case and many others, the Medical Women’s Federation set up
the Standing Committee for the Defence of Married Medical Women in the following year.
They sent a deputation to the Prime Minister to ask for an amendment of The Sex
90 The names listed in this paragraph are all maiden names. 91 M. Cross, "A Heroine of Serbia: Dr Agnes Porter & Govan," Govan Fair 2015. 92 London, "Dr Gladys Miall Smith (1888 - 1991) – British Doctor". 93 "Obituary: Isabel Emslie Hutton," The Lancet 275, no. 7117 (1960): p. 231. 94 For a good summary of the appeal see: "Public Health Services: The Marriage Bar," The Lancet 198, no. 5118 (1921).
21
Disqualification (Removal) Act,95 which had been released in 1919.96 It had been intended to
open up the professions to women and to remove the marriage bar. Though it succeeded in
changing the law, it failed to change society’s attitude towards married women for it
continued to be common practice for a woman to be dismissed upon marriage.97 Dr Ivens and
Dr Emslie published appeals against the marriage bar in The Lancet and The Times.98
Unfortunately, the situation remained unchanged until well after the Second World War.
To recapitulate, between one and six out of 32 married women ceased practice (3%-19%),
which is only a minority of the married medical women. The fears of opponents of female
medical education were therefore insufficiently warranted. It was society pressing for women
to cease work after marriage, rather than the medical women themselves, that put the
investment of medical education in jeopardy.
95 An Act for the Removal of disqualification on grounds of sex: ‘A person shall not be disqualified by sex or marriage from the exercise of any public function, or from being appointed to or holding any civil or judicial office or post, or from entering or assuming or carrying on any civil profession or vocation, or for admission to any incorporated society (whether incorporated by Royal Charter or otherwise), …’ Accessible at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo5/9-10/71/section/1. [Accessed 21 August 2018] 96 "Supplement 961: Medical Women's Federation," British Medical Journal 2, no. 3226 (1922): p. 165; Weiner, "The Scottish Women's Hospital at Royaumont, France 1914-1919," p. 333. 97 C.J. Coleman, "Perspectives on the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act, 1919," Women in the Law: Inspired and Inspirations, https://womenandthelegalprofession.wordpress.com/2015/08/24/historians-perspectives-the-sex-disqualification-removal-act-1919/. [Accessed 20 August 2018] 98 Violet Kelynack et al., "The Employment of Married Women. To the Editor of the Lancet," The Lancet 209, no. 5416 (1927): pp. 1322-23; Isabel Emslie-Hutton, "Women Medical Students," The Times, 26 March 1928, p. 12.
22
Chapter 6. Additional qualifications
At Time of Service
Table 4 shows all additional99 qualifications in the cohort, divided into three categories: pre-
war, post-war and overall qualifications. At time of service, the MD degree was by far the most
popular. Out of the 98 women doctors in this cohort, 21 had already graduated MD when they
joined the war effort. This was probably because it was also the most accessible postgraduate
degree; most Royal Colleges did not award memberships and fellowships to women until later
in the twentieth century.100 A postgraduate qualification was, and still is, a prerequisite for the
more prestigious hospital positions. Dr A.L. McIlroy was the only one to be awarded the
esteemed DSc from the University of Glasgow in 1910. The equally prestigious MS was taken
by Dr Louisa Aldrich-Blake in 1895 and Dr Frances Ivens in 1903. The ChM was taken by the
Australian Dr Elsie Dalyell, as part of the old-fashioned BM ChM degree (University of Sydney
1909 & 1910). Moreover, ten women had taken the DPH, five the DTM(&H), three the LM and
two the BHy.
Non-medical degrees such as the BSc, Natural Science Tripos and the MA were relatively
common. These were usually taken before embarking on medical studies because it was
initially more acceptable for middle-class girls to study arts than to study medicine. To
illustrate, Queen Margaret College Glasgow (QMC), the first institution for higher education
for women in Scotland, was opened in 1884 and originally only offered arts classes. It did not
open its medical school until 1890.101 Its first medical graduate (Dr Marion Gilchrist 1894) had
been an arts student at the QMC before taking on medical studies.102 The women in this cohort
with non-medical degrees probably had similar experiences.
After the War
Table 4 makes it possible to compare acquired qualifications before and after the War. Overall,
64% of women held a total of nineteen different additional qualifications. In addition to the
21 women who had already graduated MD at time of service, two women wrote their MD
99 ‘Additional’ meaning any formal qualification apart from the MB BS (or similar). 100 E.g. the first female memberships: MRCP Lond 1909, MRCS Eng 1910 and MRCPE 1925. The first female fellowships: FRCSI 1893, FRCS Eng 1911, FRCPI 1924, FRCPE 1929 and FRCP Lond 1934. 101 "Queen Margaret College," University of Glasgow Story, https://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/site/?id=10; "Women in the University," University of Glasgow Story, https://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/women-background/. [Accessed 6 August 2018] 102 Michael S. Moss, "Gilchrist, Marion," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-47538?rskey=YgrPfB&result=1.
23
theses on their war-time experiences. On return from the Western Front, Dr Lydia Henry wrote
hers on the treatment of gas gangrene.103 Similarly, Dr Helen Lillie graduated MD with her
thesis on her experience with malaria in the Balkans during the War.104 In the following years,
another ten women qualified MD. The last one was Dr Helen McDougall (Mrs Hendrie), who
obtained the MD degree in 1937 from the University of Edinburgh, her alma mater. Overall,
33 out of 98 women (34%) gained their MD degrees. The majority continued postgraduate
studies at the university from which they had originally graduated.
Additionally, nineteen women qualified DPH, eight DTM(&H) and six LM. This is illustrative for
what early medical women specialised in; public health, tropical medicine and obstetrics.
Diplomas in other specialisms such as surgery, radiology, ophthalmology and laryngology &
otology were far less common.
The prestigious qualifications DSc, MS/ChM and LL.D are usually honorary and awarded
towards the end of a successful career. This explains their marked increase after the War. Dr
McIlroy graduated DSc (Glasgow) in 1910, but was awarded an honorary DSc in 1931 (Belfast)
and graduated DSc 1934 (London). Lydia Henry received an honorary DSc in 1978 from the
University of Sheffield, where she had been the first female medical graduate in 1916. Dr
Nicholson took the MS degree from the University of Liverpool in 1923, whereas Dr Ivens was
awarded with an honorary ChM by the University of Liverpool in 1926. Dr McIlroy was
presented with the honorary LL.D from the University of Glasgow in 1935 and Dr Fairlie was
honoured with the LL.D from the University of St Andrews in 1957, shortly after her
retirement.
The SWH doctors combined held four MS/ChM degrees (excluding Dalyell’s ChM), four DSc
degrees and two LL.D degrees, which is ten in total. This impressive number of prestigious or
honorary degrees was held by a select group of only six women, of which five were pre-
eminent gynaecologists and four of them became FRCOG (see Fellowships). Of the women
from this cohort who had the most successful post-war careers, almost every single one did
so within the sphere of gynaecology and obstetrics.
103 Henry, "The Treatment of War Wounds by Serum Therapy." 104 H. Lillie, "Malaria: With Special Reference to Cases Treated in Macedonia" (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1920).
24
When these findings are compared to the available evidence, it becomes apparent that the
SWH doctors were generally better qualified. Wendy Alexander found that fourteen out of her
sample of 62 graduated MD (23%).105 In McMillan’s sample two out of twenty (10%) women
took the MD, and overall five out of twenty (25%) held a postgraduate qualification. Kelly did
not specify the frequency of MD degrees in her Irish cohort, though she concluded that ‘At
least 21 per cent of the women graduates went on to obtain postgraduate qualifications such
as diplomas in public health and MD degrees.’106
As previously stated, in this study 64% of women obtained a total of nineteen different
additional qualifications and 34% of the total qualified MD. This is much higher than the
frequency in all three other samples, thus the academic qualifications of the SWH doctors
were superior and they were also more varied. However, most of the more prestigious
qualifications were held by a select group of exceptional doctors. The academic qualifications
of the rank-and-file SWH doctor was only slightly superior to those of the other cohorts.
105 Alexander, First Ladies of Medicine, p. 32. 106 Kelly, Irish Women in Medicine, p. 114.
Additional qualifications At time of service
After the War
Total
Doctor of Medicine (MD) 21 12 33
Diploma of Public Health (DPH) 10 9 19
Master of Arts (MA) 9 2 11
Diploma in Tropical Medicine (and Hygiene) (DTM or DTM&H) 3 5 8
Licentiate in Midwifery (LM) 5 1 6
Bachelor of Science (BSc) 5 0 5
Master of Surgery (MS or ChM; sometimes honorary) 3* 2 5
MRCP London 0 4 4
Doctor of Science (DSc; sometimes honorary) 1 3 4
Natural Science Tripos (Cambridge) 2 0 2
Bachelor in Hygiene (BHy) 2 0 2
Doctor of Laws (LL.D; honorary degree) 0 2 2
MCP&S Ontario 1 0 1
MRCP Ireland 1 0 1
Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada (LMCC) 0 1 1
Diploma of Medical Radiology and Electrology (DMRE) 0 1 1
Diploma of Ophthalmic Medicine and Surgery (DOMS) 0 1 1
Diploma of Laryngology and Otology (DLO) 0 1 1
Diploma in Surgery (University of Vienna) 0 1 1
*Dr Elsie Dalyell took the ChM degree in 1910 (University of Sydney) as part of the old-fashioned MB ChM degree.
Table 4. Additional qualifications of SWH doctors at time of service, after the War and in total.
25
Chapter 7. Honours
In an attempt to spark
academic interest, the Dr Elsie
Inglis- Scottish Women’s
Hospitals Trust awards an
annual essay prize to
undergraduate students. In
this year’s competition, one is
required to discuss how
‘thankfulness was expressed’
to the staff of the SWH, ‘who
received neither British Government recognition nor retrospective honours.’107 It is true that
(voluntary) female medical staff did not have the pay and rank of their male counterparts,108
but it is not true that the SWH women went entirely undecorated. They received medals from
the Belgian, British, French, Russian and Serbian governments (see Table 5). An example of
these can be found in Figure 1, which depicts the four medals that were awarded to Dr Agnes
Savill.109
All individuals who served with the SWH under the French Red Cross received the British
Victory & War Medals in 1921.110 The aforementioned statement about the lack of
acknowledgement by the British government is therefore incorrect (even though there was
definitely room for improvement). Out of this sample of 98 women, 82 (84%) were decorated
by the British government for their war-time services. See the pair of medals on the left, as
shown in Figure 1.
Thirty members of the Royaumont Unit were awarded the French Medaille d’Honneur des
Épidémies for general hospital work and another 23 members received the French Croix de
107 Cited from the Dr Elsie Inglis Trust banner, released 19 October 2018. 108 Leah Leneman, "Medical Women in the First World War--Ranking Nowhere," BMJ 307, no. 6919 (1993). 109 "Doctor Agnes Forbes Blackadder-Savill," A tribute to some women and men who served in armed conflicts, https://camc.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/doctor-agnes-forbes-blackadder-savill/. [Accessed 9 August 2018] 110 "Roll of Individuals Entitled to the Victory Medal and British War Medal Granted under Army Orders: S.W.H.," (London: British Committee French Red Cross, 1921). Accessible online via Ancestry.co.uk.
Figure 1. Medals awarded to Dr Agnes Savill. From left to right: British War & Victory Medals, French Medaille d’Honneur des Épidémies (first class) and the SWH service medal (bronze with tartan ribbon).
26
Guerre.111 Of these, at least six of the former and seven of the latter were granted to the
doctors. Moreover, most doctors who served with one of the Serbian Units were awarded the
Order of St Sava (21), which was subdivided into several classes according to rank and time of
service. A handful of doctors received military medals for their services to Belgium (in Calais)
and Russia (London Unit). The SWH also struck its own medal, which was awarded to all
women who served with the SWH for two years or more (not listed in Table 5). 112
Thirteen women were promoted to the Order of the British Empire, though only three of these
promotions were directly related to their service during the First World War. Dr Dalyell (1919),
Dr Hollway (1919) and Dr McIlroy (1920) were awarded with the OBE shortly after the War.
The three of them served with the RAMC in the last phase of the War. Dr Dalyell113 and Dr
Hollway114 served as civil surgeons attached to the RAMC on Malta and in Salonica. Dr McIlroy
left the Girton and Newnham Unit in September 1919 and worked as a surgeon attached to
the RAMC in Constantinople.115
Furthermore, Dr Aldrich-Blake was awarded with the DBE on the London School of Medicine
for Women’s fiftieth anniversary in 1925.116 Dr McIlroy was promoted to the rank of DBE in
1929 for her contributions to medicine. Three women were awarded the CBE: Dr Ivens
received it in 1929, Dr Martindale in 1931 and Dr Emslie (Lady Hutton) in 1948. Though they
were awarded for achievements not directly related to the War, it is an indication for the
extent of the success of their careers.
Additionally, some SWH doctors received distinctions for outstanding work in other fields.
Three doctors received the Kaisar-i-Hind medal for their excellent missionary work in India. Dr
Estcourt-Oswald was granted the Victorian Medal of Honour in 1960 for her efforts against
animal cruelty.117
111 McLaren, A History of the Scottish Women's Hospitals, p. 56. 112 Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 214. 113 A.M. Mitchell, "Dalyell, Elsie Jean (1881–1948)," Australian Dictionary of Biography, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dalyell-elsie-jean-5875. 114 "Lady Doctors of the Malta Garrison: Hollway Edith Blake," Malta RAMC, https://www.maltaramc.com/ladydoc/h/hollwayeb.html. [Accessed 10 August 2018] 115 She wrote a book about her experiences in Constantinople: A.L. McIlroy, From a Balcony on the Bosphorus (London: Country Life, 1924). 116 M.A. Elston, "Blake, Dame Louisa Brandreth Aldrich-," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com/abstract/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30367?rskey=E0AoII&result=1. 117 "Obituary Notices: Agnes Estcourt-Oswald," British Medical Journal 1, no. 5438 (1965): p. 869.
27
This study has identified nine individuals who were not awarded any kind of decoration.
Interestingly, five of them tended to civilians in Ajaccio or Sallanches, and the other four only
served for a short period of time. Tending to refugees was obviously not considered to be as
heroic as serving near the Front.
In conclusion, the doctors from the Scottish Women’s Hospitals did not leave the War entirely
empty-handed. The majority of the doctors received the British War & Victory Medals and/or
the Order of St Sava, with a scattering of decorations from alternative governments and some
very impressive honours. The Empire promoted three women doctors from this cohort to the
rank of OBE directly after the War, though these were primarily related to their service with
the RAMC. Several women received honours for their contributions to medicine or their
humanitarian work in later life.
Medals and distinctions No.
Military decorations 134
Belgian Order of the Palm Leaf 1
British Victory and War Medals 82
French Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur 2
French Croix de Guerre (avec Palme) 7 (2)
French Medaille d’Honneur des Épidémies (all classes) 6
Russian Medal of St Anna 2
Russian Red Cross Medal 1
Serbian Order of St Sava (all classes) 21
Serbian Order of the White Eagle118 1
Serbian Red Cross Medal 7
Serbian Samaritan Cross 1
Serbian War Medal 1
Serbian War Medical Service Medal 2
Order of the British Empire 13
Officer (OBE) 8
Dame (DBE) 2
Commander (CBE) 3
Other decorations 5
Kaisar-i-Hind Medal (all classes) 3
Order of St John of Jerusalem 1
Victorian Medal of Honour 1 Table 5. Medals and distinctions awarded to SWH doctors.
118 Although not included in this study, Dr Elsie Inglis was the first woman to be decorated with the Serbian Order of the White Eagle (first class) in 1916, the highest honour the Serbian government could bestow. She was also awarded the Serbian Order of St Sava (third class), the British Victory and War medals and the SWH service medal.
28
Chapter 8. Feminists
Millicent Fawcett, the president of the NUWSS, originally wanted to change the name of the
Scottish Women’s Hospitals to something containing the word ‘suffrage,’ but this was vetoed
by Dr Inglis who argued that this would scare off some potential supporters.119 The figureheads
of the SWH (e.g. Dr Inglis, Dr Ivens, Dr Aldrich-Blake and Dr Martindale) were deeply rooted in
the British suffragist movement. Dr Katherine MacPhail initially feared that all of the others
would be ardent suffragists: ‘We knew we were being sent out under the auspices of the
Suffrage Societies, and each was afraid that the other was a strong supporter, but we were
much relieved to find that almost none of us was what might be called strong, and that Serbia
was the common bond, not suffrage.’120 At the time, orderly (later Dr) Grace Summerhayes
was embarrassed to have a suffragette for aunt who chained herself to railings (though later
she thought she should have been proud!).121 Just how much of a feminist was the rank-and-
file ‘Scottish’ doctor?
Many medical women during the first half of the twentieth century were member of feminist
organisations. Female doctors often listed memberships of the Medical Women’s Federation
and its precursor, the Association for Registered Medical Women, in the Medical Directory.
The Medical Women’s Federation was established in 1917 and is the biggest body of female
doctors in the UK today.122 Dr Louisa Aldrich-Blake was its founding treasurer in 1917 and over
the years, two SWH doctors have been its president; Dr Frances Ivens in 1924-1926 and Dr
Louisa Martindale in 1930-1932. Dr Ivens had been chairman of the Liverpool branch of the
Conservative and Unionist Women's Suffrage Society, was first president of the Liverpool
Association of Qualified Medical Women and founded the North of England Medical Women’s
Society. She was at the forefront of the fight for medical women.123
She was not the only SWH doctor who was actively taking part in the women’s movement. Dr
Agnes Bennett was the first president of the Wellington branch of the International Federation
of University Women;124 Dr Benson was the founding president of the Association of Medical
Women in India;125 Dr Cooper was a founding member of the Queensland Medical Women’s
119 Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 4. 120 Ibid., p. 6. 121 Crofton, Angles of Mercy, p. 276. 122 "Medical Women's Federation," http://www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/. [Accessed 6 August 2018] 123 Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 209. 124 "Obituary: Agnes Bennett, O.B.E., M.D., B.Sc," British Medical Journal 1, no. 5218 (1961): p. 59. 125 Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 143.
29
Society in 1929;126 Dr Corbett was a passionate rock climber and was a founder-member of
the Pinnacle Club for female climbers in 1921;127 Dr De Garis was co-founder of the Victorian
Women’s Medical Students’ Society and remained a vocal defender of women’s rights all her
life;128 Dr Gordon had been a supporter of the WSPU before the War and as a prison inspector
sympathised deeply with force-fed suffragettes;129 Dr Edna Guest was president of the
Canadian Medical Women’s Federation in 1940-1941;130 Dr Savill had published on the force-
feeding of suffragettes in the British Medical Journal131 and Dr Rendel became the private
doctor of the famous feminist writer Virginia Woolf,132 to name just a few examples. In other
words, many of the remarkable women of this cohort were opinionated feminists and active
members, founders and presidents of (medical) women’s organisations.
On the whole, 36 out of 98 women were known members of feminist organisations (37%),
most notably the Medical Women’s Federation (24), the Association for Registered Medical
Women (7) and the WSPU (2). The remaining doctors were members of local women’s
organisations. The fact that only two SWH doctors had been a member of the WSPU illustrates
the predominance of suffragism (rather than suffragette-ism) among SWH personnel. It is very
likely that this is an underestimate of the actual proportion of membership of feminist
organisations, for entering membership on the Medical Directory was entirely voluntary.
Moreover, obituaries and biographies of these first and second generation women doctors are
filled with stories of how they were the first female to do or achieve something somewhere;
Dr McIlroy was the first woman to graduate MD from the University of Glasgow,133 Dr Cooper
126 T. Cramond, "Lilian Violet Cooper, M.D., F.R.A.C.S., Foundation Fellow, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons," Aust N Z J Surg 63, no. 2 (1993): p. 138. 127 P.D. Mohr, "Dr Catherine Louisa Corbett M.B. Ch.B D.P.H. (1877-1960), Diary in Serbia. Her Work with the Scottish Women's Hospitals in Serbia and Russia, 1915-1917," J Med Biogr (2018): p. 8. 128 R. Lee, "De Garis, Mary Clementina," The Encyclopedia of Women & Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, http://www.womenaustralia.info/leaders/biogs/WLE0014b.htm. [Accessed 7 August 2018] 129 Deborah Cheney, "Dr Mary Louisa Gordon (1861–1941): A Feminist Approach in Prison," Feminist Legal Studies 18, no. 2 (2010). 130 S. Bhimji and R. Sheinin, "Dr. Edna Mary Guest: She Promoted Women's Issues before It Was Fashionable," CMAJ 141, no. 10 (1989): p. 1094. 131 A. Savill, C. M. Moullin, and V. Horsley, "Preliminary Report on the Forcible Feeding of Suffrage Prisoners," Br Med J 2, no. 2696 (1912). 132 Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 211. 133 "First World War Roll of Honour: Surgeon Anne Louise McIlroy," University of Glasgow, https://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/ww1-biography/?id=4481
30
became the first female consultant in Australia,134 Dr Henry was the first female medical
graduate from the University of Sheffield, Dr Corbett from the University of Manchester and
Dr Eppynt-Phillips from the University of Cardiff, to mention but a few. It is safe to assume that
any pioneering medical woman was a feminist of some sort, even if she was not an active
member of a feminist society or a militant suffragette.
134 "Lilian Cooper (1861-1947)," Queensland Government, https://www.qld.gov.au/about/about-queensland/history/women/assets/lilian-cooper-biography.pdf. [Accessed 7 August 2018]
31
Chapter 9. Post-war Careers
In order to find out how the War has affected these women’s careers, it is vital to compare
the posts they held before and after the War. The following chapter will take a closer look at
the positions these women held, predominantly by looking up their entries in the Medical
Directories of 1900-1950 at regular intervals. The complete results of this undertaking are
attached as Appendix 1. Findings from the Medical Directories will not be individually
referenced in this section; instead they are organised in the last column of Appendix 1. The
first part of this chapter will focus on general career trends, whereas the subsequent parts will
zoom in on particular achievements within the medical profession; i.e. fellowships,
consultancy positions and professorships. The last part is dedicated to the Second World War.
Career Trends
When taking a quick look at the results in Appendix 1, it immediately becomes apparent that
the situation was very complex. Categorising pre- and post-war positions has proven next to
impossible, since most women seemed to do a little bit of everything. It was common for
women doctors in the first half of the twentieth century to hold several simultaneous positions
to make ends meet, especially during the early stages of their careers. A frequently occurring
combination of occupations was ‘something’ with women and children and public health.
Newly qualified doctors accepted short-term, underpaid positions as assistants, residents and
house physician/surgeons to gain experience and make a name for themselves, before
obtaining a more permanent position. Women who failed to find work in the more prestigious
hospitals often ended up in sectors that were unpopular among their male colleagues; e.g. in
asylums, sanatoria, poorhouses and public health. A proportion of women tried their luck
abroad by joining a medical mission or securing a colonial appointment.
The career categories from before and after the War are listed in Table 6. Due to the arbitrary
categorisation of the data, not too much emphasis must be laid on the results shown in this
table. It can only be used to form a general picture of what these women specialised in. So
what is this general picture? First of all, the predominance of missionary work/tropical
medicine (the distinction is hard to make), public health and the catch-all category ‘women &
children’ is striking, both before and after the War, whilst the frequencies of the other typical
specialisms (i.e. radiology, dermatology, psychiatry, laryngology etc.) remain of the same
order of magnitude. The tenfold decline of ‘various hospital positions’ is illustrative for how
recently qualified doctors rotated through the residency system, before settling into a long-
32
term position. Lastly, the proportion of women involved in laboratory research halved. Three
of them switched to public health; an upcoming specialism around the turn of the century
wherein some women found their niche as ‘lady health visitor.’135 In the post-war category,
public health has become the single biggest professional sector (38%), hereby surpassing even
the unspecific women & children’s category. The overlap between these two is significant,
after the War thirteen women combine a position in public health with one in women &
children’s medicine.
Three doctors certainly ceased practice shortly after the War; Dr Berry, due to her
deteriorating mental health,136 Dr Hodson who retired in 1922, and Dr Laird who ceased
practice upon marriage (see Chapter 5).
During this study, another phenomenon came to light: many of these women held the same
appointment for the duration of their careers, without ever getting promoted. Consider for
example Dr Blake, who was Assistant School & Child Welfare MO for about twenty years, or
Dr Brook who was Assistant MO to Lancashire County from 1921 until her retirement. The
most striking example is the lauded Dr Elsie Dalyell, who as a promising young pathologist had
been working for the Lister Institute in Austria. She was unable to find a similarly satisfactory
job in Australia and ended up as Assistant Microbiologist to the Ministry of Public Health from
1924-1946.137 This trend was not limited to the public health sector; Dr Rendel remained
Clinical Assistant to the same London hospitals from 1923 until 1937, and Dr Campbell was
Assistant Physician to the Edinburgh Women’s & Children’s Hospital and The Hospice from the
War until her retirement in the early 1930s. See Appendix 1 for more examples.
When flicking through entries in the Medical Directory, one notices the sense of pride these
women felt for their war-time experiences. Many individuals continued to list their service
with the SWH until after their retirement, even if it was only for a very short period of time or
if she held a very junior position. Dr Logan, who was dismissed by Dr Ivens, even continued to
list her position at Royaumont until the 1940s. By then she was an accomplished Harley Street
gynaecologist!
135 Celia Davies, "The Health Visitor as Mother's Friend: A Woman's Place in Public Health, 1900–14," Social History of Medicine 1, no. 1 (1988). 136 Crofton, Angles of Mercy, pp. 251-54. 137 Ibid., pp. 256-59.
33
War-time service seems to have affected some of these doctors on a very personal level. The
SWH provided young women doctors with role models to look up to.138 Both Dr Rendel and
Dr Nicholson found in the CMO of their respective units a mentor (Dr Ivens and Dr Chesney
respectively). Dr Nicholson followed in Dr Ivens’ footsteps and had a very successful career in
gynaecological surgery in Liverpool.
Furthermore, war-time experience affected some individuals’ later career choices. As
previously mentioned, Dr Nicholson was encouraged by her mentor to pursue a career in
surgery. Dr Martland had originally wanted to pursue a career in surgery too, but after the
strenuous work at Royaumont she deemed herself physically unfit for it, and decided to
specialise in pathology instead. She went on to become a consultant pathologist to the
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital from 1928-1945.139 Gladys Buckley worked as an assistant
radiographer at Royaumont, and subsequently enjoyed a very successful career in radiology.
Before the War (n=71)*
After the War (n=98)
Women & Children (including Paediatrics, Obstetrics & Gynaecology)**
30 42% 31 32%
Public Health 17 24% 37 38%
Missionary/Tropical Medicine 12 17% 21 21.4%
Unknown/General Practice (GP)*** 11 15% 17 17%
Various hospital positions 7 9.9% 1 1.0%
Laboratory research (Pathology, Physiology, Bacteriology) 6 8.4% 4 4.1%
Psychiatry 4 5.6% 6 6.1%
Anaesthesiology 3 4.2% 6 6.1%
Radiology 1 1.4% 2 2.0%
Dermatology 1 1.4% 1 1.0%
Ophthalmology 2 2.8% 1 1.0%
Laryngology/Otology 1 1.4% 2 2.0%
Dentistry 1 1.4% 2 2.0%
Company doctor 0 0.0% 3 3.1%
Prison inspector 1 1.4% 1 1.0%
Ceased practice 4 4.1%
*Excluding the 27 women who graduated in or after 1914. **These categories have been combined because of the inescapable overlap. ***The proportion of GPs is particularly difficult to define, since general practice is not listed in the Medical Directory. NB: Individuals who held concurrent positions in more than one sector appear more than once. Table 6. SWH doctors’ careers before and after the War.
138 Crofton argues this in another posthumously published book. Eileen Crofton and Patricia Raemaekers, A Painful Inch to Gain: Personal Experiences of Early Women Medical Students in Britain (Peterborough: Fast-print Publishing, 2014), pp. 25-44. 139 "Obituary: E. Marjorie Martland, M.B., B.S," British Medical Journal 1, no. 5281 (1962): pp. 885-86; Crofton, Angles of Mercy, p. 263.
34
Fellowships
Table 7 lists the number of women that was awarded fellowship status at any point in life. Out
of these 98 women, no less than six became Fellows of the Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists (FRCOG). Dr Ivens,140 Dr Nicholson,141 Dr Martindale142 and Dr Fairlie143 were
all founding members. Dr McIlroy144 was even a foundation Fellow.145 Dr Joan Kennedy Rose
was not a founding member, but was elected FRCOG in 1941.146
Fifteen women became Fellows of the Royal Society of Medicine and another six were elected
Fellows of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Five women were elected fellows of the
dominant British and Irish Royal Colleges of Physicians and/or Surgeons (3 FRCSE, 1 FRCP Lond,
140 "Pioneers: Frances Ivens (1870-1944) F.R.C.O.G. 1929," Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Heritage Blog, https://rcogheritage.wordpress.com/2017/08/24/pioneers-frances-ivens-1870-1944-frcog-1929/. 141 "Pioneers: Ruth Nicholson, F.R.C.O.G. 1931," Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Heritage Blog, https://rcogheritage.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/pioneers-ruth-nicholson-frcog-1931/. 142 "Pioneers: Louisa Martindale (1873-1966) F.R.C.O.G. 1933," Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Heritage Blog, https://rcogheritage.wordpress.com/2017/06/08/pioneers-louisa-martindale-1873-1966-frcog-1933/ 143 "Pioneers: Margaret Fairlie, F.R.C.O.G. (1891-1963)," Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Heritage Blog, https://rcogheritage.wordpress.com/2017/03/08/pioneers-margaret-fairlie/. 144 "Pioneers: Louise McIlroy, F.R.C.O.G. 1929," Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Heritage Blog, https://rcogheritage.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/pioneers-louise-mcilroy-frcog-1929/. 145 "R.C.O.G. And the Scottish Women's Hospitals, 1914-18," Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, https://www.rcog.org.uk/en/guidelines-research-services/library-services/archives-and-heritage/archives/rcog-and-the-scottish-womens-hospitals-1914-18/. 146 "Obituary Notices: Joan K. Rose," British Medical Journal 3, no. 5974 (1975).
Fellowships No.
Royal Society of Medicine 15
Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FRCOG) 6
Society for Medical Officers of Health 6
Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (FRCSE) 3
Edinburgh Obstetrical Society 2
Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene 1
Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (FRCPI) 1
Royal College of Physicians of London (FRCP Lond) 1
Royal Australian College of Surgeons (FRACS) 1
Royal Institution 1
Zoological Society 1
Royal Anthropological Institution 1
Hunterian Society 1
Glasgow Obstetrical & Gynaecological Society 1
Research fellowships Beit Memorial Research Fellowship Ethel Boyce Research Fellowship Carnegie Research Fellowship
4 2 1 1
Table 7. Number of SWH doctors awarded fellowships.
35
1 FRCPI). Altogether, fellowships in obstetrics & gynaecology, public health and tropical
medicine make up 16 out of a total of 34 (47%) non-research fellowships.
Consultancy Positions
Fifteen women succeeded in securing consultant hospital positions, which are generally
considered to be the most prestigious. However, it is striking that ten of them became
consultant obstetricians & gynaecologists, to which their war-time experience would have
attributed little. Three of them were already consultants at the outbreak of war; Dr Benson in
India, Dr Ivens in Liverpool and Dr Cooper in Australia.147 Most of the others picked up their
careers where they had left off on return from the Front, with the exception of Dr Nicholson.
She had originally envisaged for herself a career in general practice, but was encouraged by Dr
Ivens to embark on a career as gynaecological surgeon. She followed in Dr Ivens’ footsteps,
taking on a consultancy position at the Liverpool Maternity Hospital, becoming a fellow of the
Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists on her recommendation in 1931 and taking
over Ivens’ tasks as clinical lecturer at the University of Liverpool on Ivens’ marriage.148
Only five women made an equally successful career for themselves outside the sphere of
obstetrics & gynaecology; Dr Buckley, Dr Emslie-Hutton (Lady Hutton), Dr Estcourt-Oswald, Dr
Martland and Dr Savill became a consultant radiologist, psychiatrist, ophthalmologist,
pathologist and dermatologist respectively. Dr Estcourt-Oswald, as an ophthalmologist, was
the only non-gynaecological consultant surgeon of the cohort.
Professorships
This cohort contains both the first female professors of England and of Scotland. Dr McIlroy
was appointed Professor in Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the London School of Medicine for
Women (Royal Free Hospital) in 1921.149 This made her the very first female professor in both
England and Great Britain. Dr Fairlie, who had worked as an orderly at Royaumont, was
appointed Professor in Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of St Andrews (Dundee
Royal Infirmary) in 1940, a position she held until 1956. By the time she retired, she was still
147 Dr Elsie Inglis had been a senior consultant at the Bruntsfield Hospital (Edinburgh) before the War, but she was excluded from this study because of her untimely death. 148 "Pioneers: Ruth Nicholson, F.R.C.O.G. 1931". 149 S.J. Pitt, "McIlroy, Dame (Anne) Louise," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com.ezproxy.lib.gla.ac.uk/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-47540?rskey=pxBhnb&result=1.
36
the only female professor in Scotland.150 There was a third woman who was professor, though
at a far less prestigious university, namely Dr Edna Mary Guest from Canada. After her
postgraduate studies in Boston (US), she worked at the Women's Medical College in Ludhiana
(India), where she served as Professor of Anatomy and Assistant Professor of Surgery between
1910-1914.151
Additionally, a few individuals held lecturing positions at universities, without ever making it
to the rank of professor. Dr Ivens was a clinical lecturer at the University of Liverpool until her
marriage in 1930, after which her protégée Dr Nicholson took over her lecturing tasks.152 Dr
Eppynt-Phillips was a lecturer in midwifery at Leeds University,153 Dr Proctor was head of the
Department of Hygiene & Bacteriology at King's College for Household & Social Sciences and
Examiner in Hygiene at the University of London,154 Dr Anderson was lecturer in Diseases of
Children at Ceylon Medical College155 and Dr Verney (née Conway) was a lecturer in Child Care
& Prevention of Disease at Battersea Polytechnic. Again, the predominance of the ‘feminine’
subjects (i.e. obstetrics & gynaecology, paediatrics, public health and missionary work) is
unmistakable.
Lastly, many women were lecturers to non-academic institutions, such as a local infants’
welfare centres, the Red Cross or the St John’s Ambulance Brigade.
World War II156
Many individuals who had served in, and survived, the First World War, lived to experience
the Second too. The SWH doctors played different roles in the Second World War than they
had done in the First. The following section will address these roles.
A total of 80 women in this cohort lived until at least 1940. This study identified eighteen
doctors who participated in some way during the Second World War. Their roles ranged from
knitting socks for soldiers at the Front to working as a Lieutenant with the RAMC in the Middle-
150 "Obituary: Margaret Fairlie," The Lancet 282, no. 7300 (1963): pp. 206-07; "Pioneers: Margaret Fairlie, F.R.C.O.G. (1891-1963)". 151 Bhimji and Sheinin, "Dr. Edna Mary Guest: She Promoted Women's Issues before It Was Fashionable," p. 1093. 152 "Pioneers: Ruth Nicholson, F.R.C.O.G. 1931". 153 "Career History and Testimonials of Dr Mary Eppynt Phillips of Merthyr Cynog," People's Collection Wales, https://www.peoplescollection.wales/items/428222. [Accessed 25 August 2018] 154 “Proctor, Ruth Elizabeth,” Medical Directory 1942, p. 248. 155 V. Bowker, "Catherine Emslie Anderson MB," http://www.tamesidehistoryforum.org.uk/doctoranderson.pdf. [Accessed 23 July 2018] 156 The names in this section are married names.
37
East, hence they are subdivided into medical and civilian contributions to the war effort.
Fifteen out of eighteen women fulfilled medical roles, though only one as a medical officer in
the RAMC. This was Dr Buckley, a consultant radiologist, who served in Palestine for two years
as a Lieutenant (see Chapter 10). She was granted an emergency appointment as Medical
Officer with the relative rank of Lieutenant in 1942,157 meaning that she had the benefits of an
officer of equal standing, but lacked the authority. In practice, this meant that she was inferior
to the men around her, despite her consultant status and extensive experience. This was a
problem that had already caused a lot of discussion during the First World War,158 yet
remained unresolved until after 1945.159
The other fourteen women served with a local branch of the Red Cross (Dr Dalyell, Dr Emslie-
Hutton, Dr Ivens-Knowles); with the New Zealand Women’s War Service Auxiliary (Dr Bennett
and Dr Scott); as an MO in a London tube shelter (Dr Potter); as an ophthalmologist on the
recruiting board (Dr Estcourt-Oswald); as (assistant) anaesthetist in a British hospital (Dr
Hamilton-Barr, Dr Lowe, Dr Stein, Dr Taylor); and as a surgeon in a London hospital (Dr
Martindale). Dr Martland and Dr McIlroy set up specialised departments in war hospitals
(pathology and maternity departments respectively). Dr Henry-Stewart, Dr Hope and Dr Keer
made civilian contributions to the war effort.
This study also found articles in the British Medical Journal of 1939 wherein Dr Ivens and Dr
Estcourt-Oswald shared their experiences from the First World War in relation to the outbreak
of the Second. Dr Ivens participated in a discussion on the treatment of gas gangrene,160 and
wanted to point out the insights of her 1917 publication.161 She also reflected on how her
extensive war-related experience with gas gangrene, had since helped her identify its
characteristic putrid odour in a neglected maternity case.162 Dr Estcourt-Oswald discussed the
risk of using atropine to treat mustard gas injuries to eye among civilians.163
157 See p. 1058: "Supplement to the London Gazette, 6 March, 1942," https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35478/supplement/1058/data.pdf. [Accessed 21 August 2018] 158 Leneman, "Medical Women in the First World War--Ranking Nowhere." 159 The Defence (Women's Forces) Act of 1941 and the Women's Forces (Officers' Commissions) Order of 1941 enabled women to become commissioned RAMC officers, though this did not actually happen until after the Second World War. E.E. Vella, "The Development of Pathology in the R.A.M.C.," Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine 68, no. 5 (1975): pp. 324-25. 160 Ivens-Knowles, "Treatment of Gas Gangrene," p. 1161; "Treatment of Gas Gangrene," p. 1058. 161 Ivens, "A Clinical Study of Anaerobic Wound Infection, with an Analysis of 107 Cases of Gas Gangrene." 162 Ivens-Knowles, "Treatment of Gas Gangrene," p. 1058. 163 Agnes Estcourt-Oswald, "Gas Injuries to the Eye," ibid., no. 4115: p. 1019.
38
Lastly, few people know that there has been an attempt at reviving the SWH during the Second
World War. In 1940, the Royaumont Association set up a canteen in France which,
unfortunately, was forced to disband when the Germans invaded.164 Dr Henry, who was by
then residing in Montreal, was known to have raised funds for it in Canada.165
164 Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 214. 165 Crofton, Angles of Mercy, p. 262.
39
Chapter 10. Medical Students
Judging by previous results, there seems to have been a tendency to continue pre-war careers.
Women who came back from the Front picked up where they had left off. It seems therefore
sensible to take a look at women who served with the SWH, but who had no previous careers
to get back to on demobilisation: pre-qualification doctors. This study identified a handful of
young women who served with the SWH as orderlies and/or assistants. They were either
taking a break from their medical studies to volunteer in the war effort, or did not pick up a
career a medicine until after the War. Because these ‘naïve’ women were especially influenced
by their war-time service, they deserve some special attention.
Crofton identified two medical students who served as orderlies at Royaumont during the
War;166 G.L. Buckley and Charlotte Almond. Leneman described Miss Rendel,167 and this study
identified a fourth: Margaret Fairlie.168
Frances Elinor Rendel (1885-1942) served as an assistant with the London Unit from August
1916 until October 1917 and returned after qualifying MRCS England & LRCP London in 1918.
She worked as a junior doctor under Dr Chesney from August 1918 until March 1919. Dr
Chesney was not popular, but she took Ellie Rendel under her wing.169 On return to Britain,
she graduated MB BS from the University of London (LSMW) in 1920. She became Clinical
Assistant at the Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Hospital for Diseases of the Heart in
London, positions she held from 1923 until 1937. She also opened a prestigious private
practice, becoming the private doctor of many London socialites, including Virginia Woolf and
others of the Bloomsbury Group.170
Gladys Lieba Buckley (1891-1956) obtained the Natural Science Tripos at Girton College,
Cambridge in 1914 and went on to study medicine at the Royal Free Hospital. She briefly
interrupted her medical studies to work at Royaumont, where she was trained by Dr Savill to
work as an Assistant X-ray Operator from August 1918 until January 1918.171 She even
travelled back to London to sit an exam halfway through.172 She qualified MRCS England &
166 Ibid., p. 275. 167 Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 175. 168 "R.C.O.G. And the Scottish Women's Hospitals, 1914-18". 169 Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 176. 170 Ibid., p. 211. 171 Crofton, Angles of Mercy, p. 71. 172 Ibid., p. 77.
40
LRCP London in 1922 and MB BS in 1923. Afterwards she worked as a Resident Surgeon at the
Royal Sea-bathing Hospital and as an Assistant Resident MO at the Ransom Sanatorium,
Mansfield. Her short period of service must have made a great impression on her, for she
decided to specialise in radiology and took the DRME of Cambridge in 1927. She moved to
Bournemouth to succeed the famous Dr Florence Stoney. She was a consultant radiologist to
several hospitals for 21 years and had a large private practice. She served as a radiologist in
the RAMC with the rank of Lieutenant in Palestine during the Second World War (see World
War II).173
Charlotte Almond (1892-1925) volunteered to work as an orderly at Royaumont. After the War
she continued her studies at King’s College, London and qualified MRCS England & LRCP
London in 1922, after which she took up position as a House Physician (1923) and House
Surgeon (1924) at King’s College Hospital. She married Mr H.L. Johnston in 1923 and is listed
in 1925 as Mrs Charlotte Johnston, working as Clinical Assistant in the neurological department
of King’s College Hospital. She died in 1925, shortly after giving birth to a daughter.
The fourth, Margaret Fairlie (1891-1963),174 would go on to become Scotland’s first female
professor. She studied medicine at the University of St Andrews/Dundee Royal Infirmary,
graduating MB ChB in 1915. She had worked as an orderly at Royaumont shortly before
graduating. She held various positions in Scottish hospitals until she opened a consultant
practice in Dundee in 1919. She began her academic career in 1920 at the Dundee Medical
School. She was appointed head of Dundee Royal Infirmary’s obstetrical and gynaecological
department in 1936, which led to her appointment as the first female professor in Scotland in
1940. When she retired in 1956, she was still the only one. Dr Fairlie was a founder-member
of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and was elected FRCOG in 1936,175
following in the footsteps of fellow SWH servicewomen Dr Ivens, Dr Martindale and Dr
McIlroy.
Moreover, Crofton identified three orderlies who went on to study medicine after the War.
These were Lucy Crange, Nettie Stein and Grace Summerhayes.176
173 "In Memoriam: G. Lieba Buckley, M.A., M.B., B.S., D.M.R.E," Journal of the Faculty of Radiologists 8, no. 2 (1956); "Obituary: Dr G. Lieba Buckley," British Medical Journal 2, no. 4986 (1956); "Supplement to the London Gazette, 6 March, 1942", p. 1058. 174 "Obituary: Margaret Fairlie." 175 "Pioneers: Margaret Fairlie, F.R.C.O.G. (1891-1963)". 176 Crofton, Angles of Mercy, p. 280.
41
Nettie Hunter Stein (1885-1965) graduated MA with honours from Glasgow University in 1909.
It is unknown what she did before the War, but she joined the SWH and worked as an orderly
at Royaumont from September 1917 until July 1918. This must have inspired her to study
medicine at the London School of Medicine for Women, graduating MB BS in 1925. She started
a private practice in Stirlingshire, until she took the Diploma of Laryngology and Otology from
the Royal College of Surgeons in 1930 and moved to Edinburgh to start practicing as a
laryngologist. She retired in 1940 but volunteered for the Emergency Medical Service. In 1942-
1945 she worked as an Assistant Anaesthetist at the Edinburgh Deaconess Hospital, before re-
retiring after the armistice.
Grace Maria Linton Summerhayes (1894-1993) was a schoolteacher from Colchester with one
blind eye (the results of an accident with a golf club as a child). She volunteered to work as an
orderly at Royaumont in 1917. She enrolled in the LSMW in 1918, graduating MB BS, MRCS
England & LRCP London in 1924. After several hospital positions in provincial England (e.g.
resident MO at the Royal Victoria Hospital 1926), she took the DTM&H in 1928 and embarked
on an adventure to set up a maternity hospital in Gold Coast (Ghana). There she met a senior
surgeon from Scotland called Dr Alexander MacRae, whom she married in 1931. They stayed
in Accra until the outbreak of the Second World War, when they returned to Gloucester. She
practiced there as a GP, got involved in public health and local politics, and was part of many
medical organisations. She remained active throughout her old age, retiring as president of
the local cancer research campaign at 90, and visiting hospitals in Nigeria at 98. She died in
1993, aged 99. 177
Lucy Margaret Cranage (1892-1976) had also been an orderly at Royaumont. She graduated
MRCS England & LRCP London from the LSMW in 1926. She was resident MO at the Royal
Victoria Hospital, Folkstone in 1928, just like Grace Summerhayes had been in 1926. It is
possible that her old Royaumont colleague put in a good word for her. Lucy took the DTM
Liverpool in 1928 and left for Uganda in 1929. She married an Italian named Vincenzo Costa in
that same year, becoming Mrs Costa. In 1931 she worked in Kenya with the Church Mission
Society Hospital, Mareno. They moved to Italy in 1934, though she remained a registered
practitioner in Kenya until at least 1952.178 It could also be possible that she continued to
practice in Africa. She died in Italy in 1976.
177 "Summerhayes Dr Grace Maria Linton". [Accessed 11 July 2018] 178 "The Medical Practitioners and Dentists Ordinance," The Kenya Gazette 54, no. 12 (1952).
42
These seven women all had their own experiences and careers. It is not just any group of
medical women, it includes a doctor with a prestigious private practice in London, a consultant
radiologist, the first Scottish professor, a laryngologist and two doctors who worked in Africa.
Sadly Miss Almond died prematurely. The real question is, to what extent did their war-time
service contribute to their successful careers? In one case it is obvious, Dr Buckley must have
picked up on a passion for radiography as Dr Savill’s assistant at Royaumont, because she
became a distinguished radiologist after the First World War and went on to serve as a
radiologist with the RAMC in the Second.179 At the same time, Dr Stein did not hesitate to
volunteer for the Emergency Medical Service and practiced as an Assistant Anaesthetist in
Edinburgh until 1945. In the other cases the influence was more subtle. Dr Summerhayes, who
had been a schoolteacher, found in the War an honourable excuse to leave her unsatisfying
job.180 She certainly had a sense of adventure, for she specialised in tropical medicine and left
for Africa. The same goes for Dr Cranage, probably a friend of Summerhayes’, who went on to
work in Uganda and Kenya as a missionary. Thus, though the influence of the War is most
outspoken in the cases of Dr Buckley and Dr Stein, it could be argued that all these women
returned home inspired and with an appetite for adventure. Even the ones whose careers
were not obviously affected by the War enjoyed impressively successful careers. It is not
unlikely that fellow SWH ‘veterans’ Dr Martindale, Dr Ivens, Dr McIlroy and Dr Nicholson
played a vital role in Dr Fairlie’s election as FRCOG in 1936 and her consecutive appointment
as the first female professor in Scotland in 1940. These women formed a strong bond during
the War and supported each other in every way for the remainder of their lives.
179 Eileen Crofton makes the same point in Angles of Mercy, p. 224. 180 From an interview with Dr Grace MacRae in 1993, as cited by Crofton. Ibid., p. 277.
43
Conclusion
This dissertation has extensively studied the lives of a group of remarkable early medical
women. It started with a brief description of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals’ organisation and
achievements. Subsequently, it has touched on these women’s origins and a wide range of
accomplishments. The majority of the cohort was of English or Scottish origin and had
graduated from either an English or a Scottish institution.
Contemporaries feared that women doctors would refrain from marriage and its domestic
duties. At time of service, eight of these doctors were married and another twenty-four would
marry later in life. The overall marriage rate was 33%, which was below the national average
but not nearly as low as was feared. Moreover, the proportion of women that ceased practice
upon marriage was small. In fact, they actively challenged the marriage bar in the press.
Furthermore, these women did not return from the Front emptyhanded, for they were
decorated by a variety of governments. Some were honoured for their contributions to
medicine -or society at large- in their later careers.
When looking into academic qualifications, it becomes clear that these women were better
qualified than the women studied in comparable cohort studies. The predominance of
diplomas in midwifery, public health and tropical medicine, however, cannot be disregarded.
This trend is even more notable in the post-war careers explored in Chapter 9. The vast
majority of these women worked in the sectors of public health, women & children, and
missionary/tropical medicine. Some of them were exceptionally successful, but they excelled
within the confines of what was considered appropriate for women. Merely five women
obtained consultancy positions outside pre-mentioned sectors, namely in the fields of
pathology, dermatology, psychiatry, ophthalmology and radiology. No woman succeeded in
making an equally successful career for herself in general surgery or internal medicine; the
pre-eminent sectors of medicine controlled by the male-dominated Royal Colleges.
So, to what extent did the First World War contribute to their subsequent careers? Most of
the women who achieved unsurmountable successes in their later careers, did so within the
scope of obstetrics & gynaecology, to which their war-time experiences would have
contributed little. What’s more, they already had promising careers in gynaecology before the
War! The ones who had the most success (Dr Ivens-Knowles, Dr McIlroy and Dr Emslie-
44
Hutton181), were the ones who served with the SWH as CMO precisely because they were
already accomplished doctors at the outbreak of War.182 Although most women served as
surgeons, treating young men’s battle wounds, the only individual to pursue a career in non-
gynaecological surgery was Dr Estcourt-Oswald, an ophthalmologist.
During and shortly after the War, a certain sense of hopeful expectation prevailed. In 1914 Dr
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, whilst addressing the SWH in a speech, predicted: ‘My dears, if
you are successful over this work, you will have carried women’s profession forward a hundred
years.’183 In 1916 Professor Weinberg, a prominent French professor from the Pasteur
Institute, stated that he could not think of any other initiative on the part of medical women,
which would so convincingly further their cause.184 Winston Churchill himself wrote that ‘The
record of their work in Russia and Rumania [sic] lit up by the fame of Elsie Inglis will shine in
history. Their achievements in France and Serbia and Greece and other theatres were no less
valuable, and no body of women has won higher reputation for organizing power and for
efficacy in works of mercy.’185 Indeed, it is generally believed that the War did great things for
the emancipation of women. Unfortunately, most of the progress that was made between
1914-1918 was reversed once the men returned from the Front. The London teaching
hospitals that had opened their doors to women went on to close them again after the
armistice. Though The Representation of the People Act of 1918 granted certain women over
thirty the vote, it was not until 1928 that women gained electoral equality. The marriage bar,
requiring professional women to give up employment upon marriage, continued to hinder
medical women’s ambitions until well into the second half of the twentieth century. Economic
and political power, as well as pre-eminency within the medical profession, remained securely
within the hands of men. Leneman concluded that ‘The Scottish Women’s Hospitals for
Foreign Service were not, therefore, a precursor of anything: they were unique.’186
181 Though listed as a psychiatrist, Dr Emslie had been Chief Physician of the women’s department of the Royal Mental Hospital Edinburgh. Anita McConnell, "Hutton, Isabel Galloway Emslie [Née Isabel Galloway Emslie], Lady Hutton," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-71709?rskey=pVzHlm&result=1. 182 E. Crawford, "Women and the First World War: The Work of Women Doctors," https://womanandhersphere.com/2014/05/06/women-and-the-first-world-war-the-work-of-women-doctors/. [Accessed 27 August 2018] 183 Royal Free Hospital Press Cuttings, Book 5 p. 86. As cited by Crofton, Angles of Mercy, p. 9. 184 McLaren, A History of the Scottish Women's Hospitals, p. viii. 185 Ibid. 186 Leneman, In the Service of Life, p. 220.
45
Service with the SWH during the Great War undoubtedly improved the situation for a number
of these women, for it created a supporting network of like-minded and ambitious medical
women. During their time of service, they forged lasting friendships and learnt a lot from each
other. The Royaumont Unit took this even further, by formally establishing an association and
continuing to keep in touch until death parted them. Additionally, these individuals proudly
listed their service on the Medical Directories and they were respected for it. Nevertheless,
the Scottish Women’s Hospitals’ war-time successes did not benefit women in the medical
profession at large.
The results of this study were limited by a number of factors. First and foremost, the Medical
Directory does not specify a position in general practice. In the case of men, it is assumed that
any doctor practices as a GP unless stated otherwise. Women, however, could also have
ceased practice due to marriage or domestic duties. This problem was previously encountered
by Dupree187 and Kelly188 when working with the Medical Directory as a historical source.
Secondly, the cohort may not be as complete as it could have been. Some individuals were
lost during the follow-up (did they maybe have a general practice?), and there is no way of
knowing if there were any additional doctors or medical students who served with the SWH
during the War. Lastly, the arbitrary nature of categorisation comes with its own problems;
there is much overlap and everyone seemed to do a little bit of everything. Though this is
illustrative for the nature of the medical profession at the time, it hindered this study’s
statistical approach. Further research, therefore, should strive to confirm (or reject) these
findings by taking a less quantitative approach.
187 M.W. Dupree and M.A. Crowther, "A Profile of the Medical Profession in Scotland in the Early Twentieth Century: The Medical Directory as a Historical Source," Bull Hist Med 65, no. 2 (1991). 188 Kelly, Irish Women in Medicine.
46
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