Aberdeen Medical Women in WW1
At the start of WW1 in 1914 there were some 1000 plus women in Britain who had qualified in medicine, 23 of whom came through the University of Aberdeen.
When war broke out Dr Elsie Inglis, who had qualified in 1892, passing through both Edinburgh and Glasgow medical schools, went to the war office to offer her services as a surgeon and was told to “Go home and sit still”! This she was not going to do and being fully involved with the suffrage movement Elsie proposed at the first Scottish Federation Meeting that they should offer to the Red Cross a fully equipped hospital staffed entirely by women to work at home or abroad. This led to the founding of the Scottish Womens Hospitals who sent over the course of the next 4 years units to work in both France and Serbia.
Four women doctors from Aberdeen worked for the Scottish Women’s Hospitals in various units, Dr Laura Sandeman, Dr Helen Lillie, Dr Myra Mackenzie and Dr Catherine Anderson. Later in the war, the RAMC asked for women to help and Dr Elizabeth Edwards served in Malta.
This page and linked biographies prepared from information researched by Dr Ann Robertson.
