Two more - Liverpool-based - Inspirational Women of WW1

Dr. Frances IVENS of the Scottish Women's Hospital in France at Royaumont Abbey

and

Dr. Mary BIRRELL DAVIES who founded the Liverpool Women's War Service Bureau.

With grateful thanks to Adrienne Mayers, Librarian at the Liverpool Medical Institution and to Meg Parkes who is an Honorary Research Fellow of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine who I met by chance and who told me about the work of the LMI.  Find out more on the LMI website - http://www.lmi.org.uk   The Institution is organising a fantastic WW1 commemorative event in October - see poster left.

Contact the LMI via their website for details and to sign up to attend this fantastic event.   See you there!

WW1 Organisations

My research today has led to Elizabeth Crawford's wonderful website:  

http://womanandhersphere.com/2014/05/06/women-and-the-first-world-war-the-work-of-women-doctors/

where Elizabeth has written a superb article about the work of women who were doctors durng WW1.

Organisations

The Serbian Relief Fund 

The Society of Friends

The Wounded Allies Relief Committee

The British Farmers

The Berry Mission

The Almeric Pages Massage Corps

The Women's Imperial Service League (Mrs Mabel Stobart -Women's Convoy Corps Balkan War 1912)

The Women's Hospital Corps

The Scottish Women's Hospitals 

All those organised medical teams to serve in the various theatres of the First World War. Many organisations were happy to include women doctors, however the Women’s Imperial Service League, the Women’s Hospital Corps, and the Scottish Women’s Hospitals would only employ women doctors.

With thanks to Adrienne Mayers who is the Librarian at the Liverpool Medical Institution for pointing me in the right direction to find more inspirational women for the project.

Blue Plaque to commemorate Dame Maud McCarthy

I was so pleased to see that there is now a blue plaque outside the house in Chelsea (London, England) in which Dame Maud McCarthy lived from 1919 until her death in 1949.

Maud was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in 1859.  In 1891 she enrolled at the London Hospital, Whitechapel as a probationer nurse.   When the Boer War began, Maud was one of six nurses personally chosen by Princess Alexandra to go to South Africa as military nursing sisters.

In 1902 the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service was formed and in 1910 Maud became Matron-in-Chief at the War Office.   When war was declared in 1914, Maud was made Matron-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force.  She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1918 for her services to nursing.

After the War, Maud formed the Territorial Army Nursing Service of which she was in charge until 1925.   Dame Maud McCarthy died in 1949.

Liverpool Medical Institution WW1 Commemorative Event, 2nd - 4th October 2014

With thanks to Meg Parkes for telling me about this event about medical services during WW1 - details and registration on the Institution website - http://www.lmi.org.uk/

Edith Appleton (1877 - 1958) - British Nurse

I am indebted to Sonia Bidwell who sent me a copy of  "A Nurse at the Front The First World War Diaries of Sister Edith Appleton" - thank you so much Sonia.

The book is really fascinating and has been put together by Edith's great nephew with Edith's words edited by Ruth Cowen.   Edith's diaries were found after her death but lay undiscovered until 2008 when her great nephew, Dick Robinson. decided to get them published.

There is also a website where you can find out more about Edith and her amazing experiences as a nurse on the Western Front in the First World War - www.edithappleton.org.uk

As Ruth Cowen mentions in her Introduction to the book, "...the work goes on..."

“A Nurse at the Front The First World War Diaries of Sister Edith Appleton”, edited by Ruth Cowen, Simon & Schuster UK Ltd., London, 2013  

Sonia Bidwell is a textile artist/storyteller - details of her work can be found on http://www.spanglefish.com/abhrasstudio/

Dame Lucy Innes Branfoot

My grateful thanks to Colin Reeves who is Dame Lucy's Great Grandson for telling me more about his Great Grandmother.

I am in awe of those amazing women who went to the various theatres of war to help out in many different ways.

I will write a post about Dame Lucy asap.

Margaret Hall - American Red Cross volunteer worker on the Western Front

My grateful thanks to Dr Margaret Stetz from Delaware University for sending me the following link about Margaret Hall, an heiress from Massachusets who went with the American Expeditionary Force to help out during WW1:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/06/06/arts/design/over-there-daughters-of-liberty.html

I will make some notes and add a posting about Margaret asap.