Scottish Women’s Hospital, Liverpool 28th October 1915. 

Introduction

"my good lady, go home and sit still"

The Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service (SWH) was a group of 14 hospital units established during the First World War, each unit being primarily run and staffed by women. Stemming from the suffrage movement of the early 20th century, the hospitals provided some of the only means by which women could help with the war effort. 

Dr Elsie Inglis (1864-1917) was the mind behind the Scottish Women's Hospitals. Inglis embarked on a career in medicine during a time when women were denied equal access to medical training. While men could undertake medical degrees at universities, women could not. Women were allowed to sit medical examinations, however, and Inglis obtained a license to practice by sitting the Triple Qualification in 1892. 

By the time of the First World War, Inglis was a well-respected practitioner having worked as a gynaecologist in several maternity hospitals. Through her connections to the suffrage movement she was able to raise funds for the establishment a group of hospitals staffed by women, the Scottish Women's Hospitals. She approached the Royal Army Medical Corps to offer the service of the hospitals, but was famously told, "my good lady, go home and sit still." [1] Her offer was instead taken up by the French government and the first of the hospital units was set up in France. 

Within the College's heritage collection is a unique item relating to the hospitals- a photo album collated by one of the nurses, Miss Annie Allan. This digital exhibition explores the story of the SWH through the lens of wartime photography, giving insight into the lives of the medical women working during the war effort and throughout the 20th century.