Source 59:  Film of Scottish Women's Hospital, 1917

 

Description

Scottish Women's Hospitals: A field hospital on the frontline during the First World War, 1917 (Black & White, Silent, Length of clip - 06:57)
Click on this link to view the film clip.

At the outbreak of the Great War, one of the founders of the Scottish Women's Suffrage Federation, Doctor Elsie Inglis, helped to set up the Scottish Women's Hospitals for the Foreign Service Committee to help support the war effort. This organisation, which was staffed almost entirely by women, set up fourteen field hospitals to treat the wounded in France, Serbia and Russia. This is one of the earliest true documentaries to be made and shows daily life in a field hospital in Benevole, France (the front line hospital at Villers, Cotterets, France). Dr Elsie Inglis is one of the surgeons shown removing shrapnel from the leg of a wounded soldier, which is then coated with 'German creosote' that was used as an antiseptic. Dr Elsie Inglis contracted cancer in 1916 and died the day after she returned to the UK. As one of the first women surgeons trained in Scotland, Dr Inglis' funeral service was held at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh on 29 November 1917. Dr Inglis' heroism is commemorated on the £50 bank note issued by the Clydesdale Bank.

 

Resources Right Holder: National Library of Scotland