BMJ: Inspirational Band of Sisters Who Were Medics in WW1

[ArranUpsideDown]

Good piece by Chris Holme: Rejected by the British war effort in 1914 because they were women, a band of medics took their considerable skills across the channel to France, holding together in the face of horrendous waves of casualties.

www.bmj.com/content/367/bmj.l6747?

See also, True heroines of the battlefield:

www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/true-heroines-of-the-battlefield-1-986650

I learned some names that I didn't know and about some innovations for which I didn't know the origin. I'm annoyed that the presiding image is still of the Lady of the Lamp rather than these remarkable women.

Fascinating and so inspiring!

What's wrong with honouring Florence Nightingale for her work too though?

Thank you for this.

Florence Nightingale was in the Crimean War, these women were medics in the First World War...

And Florence is - rightly - celebrated for being the founder of modern nursing. She greatly improved sanitary practices, saving many many lives. She was awarded money which she put towards the renovation of St Thomas's, along with the foundation of a school for nurses there. Florence raised the profile of nursing and it became an acceptable occupation for all, not just the lower classes.

Not to detract from the WW1 medics but it's a bit apples and pears. Why can't we celebrate them all...?

1916 saw an appeal to all women on the British Medical Register to join the RAMC... (clicky link takes you to record of Ireland’s first female doctor [who very much considered herself British, before anyone feels need to bring up complicated ID politics of NI]...)

An awful lot of issues with women in RAMC in WWI in terms of Not Being Treated As Equal To Men. Shocker. Worse than in civilian setting, I mean - am afraid can’t offer sources for this though. (Female doctors were generally expected to confine themselves to treating women & children, which Dr Bell did [inc treating suffragettes released under Cat & Mouse Act] - is notable that in BMJ’s Reports From Societies [or whatever it’s called...] her contributions - & those of other women - are very much limited to Women & Children. Men, obviously, will witter on about anything...)

I remember reading about a surgeon called Morna Vaughan who treated troops during WWI. She later became an expert on gonorrhoea in women, of all things.

Florence Nightingale is an interesting example. Her "Lady of the Lamp" schtick 100% plays to patriarchal ideas of what female medics should be - caring bedside angels. Nightingale's Scutari hospital wasn't particularly well-run though; it was dirty and not very effective as a place for recovery or treatment. It was only later in her life that put what she had learned from her experience and previous mistakes into becoming a public health campaigner and reformer, with her emphasis on hygiene and organisation.

Re Florence Nightingale-see also Mary Seacole who isn’t remembered for her role in nursing.

Our local primary teaches about Mary Seacole and does not teach about Florence Nightingale.

Nightingale was a bit of a special packet of biscuits really. I mean, she was clearly clever (inventing the pie chart) & certainly driven (responsible for a LOT in terms of evolution of nursing); but she’d serious MH problems & never mind the lamp, the woman used to tote an owl about the place with her in her apron pocket...

Mary Seacole’s been taught about for years - she was included in the “Medicine Through Time” GCSE module by some point in the 1990s (not sure when, before I sat it); & a regular fixture of Black History Month since that began (though obviously if you’re somewhere that doesn’t/didn’t “do” BHM you’d not hear of her...) for example. Horrible Histories have helped bring her story to a wider audience too; and ofc there was lots of press coverage around her getting a statue at St Thomas’ a couple of years ago...

According to Helen Rappaport who has written about and researched Mary Seacole extensively, her contributions to medicine in the Crimea are often misrepresented too. She did very little battlefield first aid and worked in hospitals away from the frontline, like Florence Nightingale. The two women were not really adversaries either and barely knew each other.

Military nursing and medicine never was about figureheads. It always involved large numbers of women working together, most of whom were never celebrated or recognised particularly. They came from all kinds of backgrounds and many were BAME.

Does anyone know whether the Windrush-era Caribbean nurses who worked in so many UK hospitals had backgrounds in military nursing?

I think most Windrush-era nurses came over & did their training in the UK...

Mary Seacole who isn’t remembered for her role in nursing.

Not for want of trying:

I should say that I include in that people having to retrain because their qualifications weren’t recognised, because

(Of course, part of reason some women didn’t move home as planned was because the SEN qualification wasn’t recognised in the Caribbean... oh hello structural inequality...)

Well MS isn’t remembered as FN is really is she? I’m old so no idea if either are taught about now.

I think Mary Seacole is one of the success stories of history being reclaimed these days.

I first read about Mary Seacole when I was about 21 and I'm seventy soon. Fascinating.