A royal visit
The Belgians did not expect Mairi Chisholm and Elsie Knocker to last out for more than 24 hours in the front-line trenches.
In the end, the women were there for nearly four years, witnessing the arrival of British troops in 1917 to reinforce the Belgians.
Unique front-line access
Mairi and Elsie were unique in being the only women to be given full access to the front line. So important was their work that they were given special permission to stay by the Belgian king himself, who also visited them at Pervyse.
Mairi recalled the situation in her interview:
' … due to [Elsie's] extraordinarily fine work with the wounded [the authorities] gave permission. The King said yes we must stay because we were doing such good work … He came up to see us and was deeply impressed with what had been done to save the men right from the very moment they were hit. So after that we stayed up there and then, of course, the British came up in 1917 and the whole place behind us was stiff with British howitzers.'
— Extract quoted by permission of the Imperial War Museum.
