#NHSLouisaJordan is trending but Louisa was only one of many brilliant Scottish medical women who contributed during WWI. So a THREAD of my favies 👇Flora Masson was awarded a Royal Red Cross 1st class & became a sister at Rosewell Hospital. She also wrote several biographies. /1
From Arran, Mary Lee Milne was head cook at the Scottish Women's Hospitals and worked closely with Dr Elsie Inglis, who was key to setting them up. Milne received a medal in 1916 cos she had been under fire. She later said 'I cannot bear to think of the things I saw.' /2
Norah Neilson Grey served as a nurse during WWI but she was an alumni of the Glasgow School of Art & also painted and sketched life in military hospitals. She endowed us with an invaluable record as well as undertaking her medical duties. These women are legends. So. Brave /3
Glasgow graduate, surgeon Honoria Keer, was a Dr with the Scottish Women's Hospitals. She received the French Croix de Guerre & the Serbian order of St Saba - serving on both fronts. Sheroquine. I've never found a picture of her - in that sense she is MIA in our history. /4
These hospitals btw were founded from Edinburgh. The UK military wanted nothing to do with them. The French funded the 1st. 2 women key to the setting up: Dr Elsie Inglis & Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson were both dogged about making their contribution. They saved 1000s of lives. /5
Many of the medical women who volunteered had been suffragettes. Flora Murray was Emmeline Pankhurst's Dr. Once the Scottish Women's Hospitals were founded, she was Dr in Charge in Paris, Boulogne and London. Amazing. Also, Louisa's partner so part of LGBTQ history too ... /6
Another Uni of Glasgow alumni, Irishwoman, Dr Anne McIlroy always wore a thistle badge on her cap and ran hospitals in Troyes, Salonika and Servia. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In 1921 she became the Uk's first woman professor of medicine. I mean - What. A. Quine. /7
On the home front, Augusta Crichton Stuart opened her family home at Mount Stuart as a military hospital, which she helped run. How Downton Abbey. But Scottish obvs. Every one of these lasses would whip the asses of the ppl objecting to calling the new hospital after Louisa. /8
From Aberdeen, Muriel Thomson, ambulance driver, evacuated wounded Belgian soldiers *under fire*. Just. Wow. She received many medals, one for helping the injured during a bombing raid. Our brave NHS workers today come from a long line of Scottish medical foremothers. Legends. /9
Glaswegian Surgeon, Katherine MacPhail not only ran hospitals in Serbia during WWI but stayed on to found the country's first children's hospital in 1921. And with Katherine I'm going to stop cos this was off the top of my head and honestly, I'm not feeling well today, but /10
I wanted to say this. We come from amazing. All these women were extraordinary Like the people on our wards during this crisis, they did not arse about with petty nonsense. So Just Don't. The hospital is #Louisajordan & rightly so. Let's make our grannies proud of us for a change
Please feel free to add more women to this thread - we're definitely not short of this kind of heritage... oh and yes, I wrote a book but I'm off to lie down now. Google Where are the Women by Sara Sheridan if you want to learn more about our incredible female heritage...
Want more Health Heroines? I wrote this thread for Remembrance Sunday last year, so fill your boots. 👇 https://twitter.com/sarasheridan/status/1193463865192976384
You can follow @sarasheridan.
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