ericwebb Posted 6 November , 2008 Share Posted 6 November , 2008 I learn [on impeccable authority] that a commemorative wall plaque is to be unveiled on the site of the old Endell Street Military Hospital tomorrow, Friday 7th November, at 11.45am. However my informant points out that the ceremony itself is chiefly for those with family connections with those who worked there. This is a narrow thoroughfare and the police have concerns over crowd and traffic control. Hence, if interested, please visit later. [Endell Street is just behind Covent Garden.] Regular contributors to the forum will not need telling that this was the only official British military hospital in the Great War run solely by women. For an excellent short history of the hospital see: Endell Street Military Hospital Cheers all, Eric Webb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petestarling Posted 8 November , 2008 Share Posted 8 November , 2008 Eric It was and I was lucky enough to be invited as Director, AMS Museum. It was unvieled by the senior female doctor in the Army, Colonel Hillary Hodgson and there was quite a crowd present. The plaque was draped in the flag of the Sufferage Movement and some of the females present were sporting ribbons in the same colours. Afterwards there was a small exhibition of photographs of the hospital put together by Jennien Geddes. Pete Starling Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennyford Posted 9 November , 2008 Share Posted 9 November , 2008 As Eric said, we had to limit invitations to the ceremony because the Endell Street pavement isn't very wide, and the road is busy - in the event about 70 people were there, including several whose mothers, grandmothers or great-aunts had worked at the hospital. However, the plaque is now up for everyone to see. Jennian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennyford Posted 9 November , 2008 Share Posted 9 November , 2008 PS I should have explained that 'Deeds Not Words' is the motto of Mrs Pankhurst's organisation, to which Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson both belonged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royalredcross Posted 9 November , 2008 Share Posted 9 November , 2008 Any photograph of Sister E. Pearson ?? NGG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennyford Posted 10 November , 2008 Share Posted 10 November , 2008 No photos of nurses, though I have scanned the picture of the entire staff of the hospital in August 1916, which presumably includes Miss Pearson. The trouble is that there are around 200 people in the photo, which is just like a school photo, and it isn't easy to identify individuals. Also, because it's a long photograph I had to scan it in two halves and try and paste it together. The original is the frontispiece to Flora Murray's book, 'Women as Army Surgeons', published in 1920, if you want to try yourself. If not, send me an email I can give you my jpeg of it. Jennian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
royalredcross Posted 10 November , 2008 Share Posted 10 November , 2008 Thanks, Jennian. I have Flora Murray's book and had always assumed that Pearson was in the photo. But which one ? These things are sent to try us. I have Pearson's medals. For those interested, the 1914 Star is named E. Pearson W. HOSP: CORPS NGG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauldesmondwhite Posted 15 November , 2010 Share Posted 15 November , 2010 I don't know if everyone has gone to sleep since the last posting here? Lucky old Pete to get invited! Do you need an assistant at Keogh??? My question is about patients at Endell Street - about 24,000 soldiers, they say. It turns out that a woman i'm researching, Emily Moore, who joined the WRAF as a housemaid in 1918 died in Endell Street hospital 18/19 November 1918. While i'm waiting for her death certificate, does anyone know if the patients included many women? Or maybe (perhaps unlikely?) she was posted there? Thanks if you can help, thanks if you can't. Paul. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauldesmondwhite Posted 15 November , 2010 Share Posted 15 November , 2010 I think "Deeds and Words" is yours, Jennian? Brilliant, thanks. BTW i just read that out of over 26,000 patients treated at Endell Street, 24,000 were men. Suppose the 2000+ women were any military(?) service women within easy reach of Holborn? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennyford Posted 17 November , 2010 Share Posted 17 November , 2010 This is what Flora Murray says about the female patients: "In August 1917 sixty beds were set aside for women, and were available for QMAAC and other women's units until January 1919. Ladies who had been working abroad with the YMCA or canteens found hospitality at Endell Street, and the wives of officers and NCO's, with children and little babies and their governesses and their nurses, returning from the East, spent a few days there. In all, two thousand women passed throught those wards." So a motley crew. Jennian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauldesmondwhite Posted 17 November , 2010 Share Posted 17 November , 2010 Ah, thanks for that, Jennian. Dad says he read somewhere that the top floor was reserved for women. Maybe i'll get a source for that some time. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennyford Posted 17 November , 2010 Share Posted 17 November , 2010 More info: looks as though your father was right. "The women's wards, at the top of the East Block, were the best in the hospital, and as the women were less destructive than men, it was easy to make them homelike and comfortable. The arrangement to take women was initiated as a temporary measure, but it continued for more than two years. The work was both surgical and medical. The recruiting for the women's units had not always been prudent, and many women were sent home unfit, as the result of illnesses or operations occurring before enlistment.."etc Jennian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauldesmondwhite Posted 17 November , 2010 Share Posted 17 November , 2010 LOL, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 17 November , 2010 Share Posted 17 November , 2010 I shall walk round the corner and take a look next time I go to the Poetry Café in Betterton Street. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carmania Posted 18 November , 2010 Share Posted 18 November , 2010 Betsy Mary Walsh, Worker 40785, Cook, QMAAC, died of double pneumonia and heart failure at Endell Street on the 29 June 1918. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauldesmondwhite Posted 23 November , 2010 Share Posted 23 November , 2010 Very excited - WRAF member Emily Moore's death certificate has informant "Chief Resident Officer" Flora Murray MD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauldesmondwhite Posted 26 November , 2010 Share Posted 26 November , 2010 With apologies to Jennian and any others who may have the original Flora Murray "Women as army surgeons", Hewlett Packard has recently reprinted this from the University of Michigan digital scan. I got a copy from Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YDXSH2/ref=oss_product), a real bargain at $21.99 (paperback). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennyford Posted 27 November , 2010 Share Posted 27 November , 2010 Congratulations - I reckon that's saved you about £150! Jennian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauldesmondwhite Posted 27 November , 2010 Share Posted 27 November , 2010 How lovely it would be to have a nominal roll of the medical & nursing staff at Endell Street: "The New Hospital for Women lent their matron to Endell Street, and she and Murray and Anderson between them conducted around a thousand interviews in early 1915, searching for suitable non-medical staff." [Grace Hale, ‘The women's hospital corps’, St Bartholomew's Hospital League News, Mar. 1917, pp. 755–8, 757]. "Murray was Doctor in Charge; Anderson was Chief Surgeon. They had with them around 15 doctors, including visiting specialists, 36 nurses..." [imperial War Museum (hereafter IWM), Women's Work Collection (hereafter WWC), MUN 18.6, Ministry of Munitions Committee for the Organisation of Women's Services, 8.12.16, Evidence of Dr Flora Murray, p. 43]. Super, too, to have the same for Women's Hospital Corps in France? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennyford Posted 28 November , 2010 Share Posted 28 November , 2010 This for starters: the list I've compiled for non-medical staff of the WHC, from a variety of sources. Those with asterisks served with the WHC in France. I've put in the schools, where I knew them, because girls' public schools are a great source of info. There was also a large group of American orderlies, known as the 'Hazard Unit' because they were brought over by Mrs Hazard of Syracuse, in 1918. I have a few names but can't find them at the moment. They weren't a success - complained at the conditions, shirked work and were often at odds with the other orderlies. Matron at Endell Street Miss Hale Sisters: Beatrice Whitehouse - Leamington High School; Newnham College *Miss Breen *Miss Pearson *Mrs Lawrence *Miss Clemow *Miss Belton Sister May Sister Beales Sister Moore Quartermaster *Olga Campbell - St George’s, Edinburgh Transport Officer *Mardie Hodgson Orderlies: *Isabel Lowe Miss Anderson Miss Nicholson Miss Paul Miss Chance Miss Tanner Eva Graham Prior Joan Mary Palmer Mary Graham Nina Last Barbara Last Sylvia Campbell - St Leonard’s School Hilda Milne - St Leonard’s School M Rettie - St Leonard’s School Jean Grant - St Leonard’s School Gladys Greenless - St Leonard’s School Janet Greenlees - St Leonard’s School M Lowenfield - Cheltenham Ladies’ College Gladys E Morrison - Cheltenham Ladies’ College Geraldine Massy - Roedean School Olive Peirs - Roedean School Barbara Johnson - Roedean School Kathie Bell - Roedean School Sybil Nicholson - Roedean School Dalzie James - Roedean School Kathleen Bell - Roedean School Dorothy Low - Roedean School Norah Craggs - Roedean School Maisie Duncan - Roedean School Marjorie Wheatley - Roedean School Olwen Craggs - Roedean School Phyllis White - Roedean School Alice Pirie-Gordon - Roedean School Lorna Lewis - Roedean School Phyllis Thompson - Roedean School M Harnett - Wycombe Abbey School Nancy Cook – Syracuse University Marion Dickerman - Syracuse University Records and administration: *Miss Jarvis *Esther Hatten Emma Hepburn - Roedean School Marian Illingworth - Roedean School M Ashley Cooper - Wycombe Abbey School Macintosh - Wycombe Abbey School A Paing Macintosh - Wycombe Abbey School Joyce Ward Pathology assistant Helen Wilks Xray D Robinson - Cheltenham Ladies’ College Library SF Fergusson - Cheltenham Ladies’ College Evelyn Glover - Cheltenham Ladies’ College * = also served with the WHC in France I also have a list of about 37 doctors, which I can give anyone who is interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennyford Posted 28 November , 2010 Share Posted 28 November , 2010 should have asked - can anyone add to the list? There were many more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue Light Posted 28 November , 2010 Share Posted 28 November , 2010 should have asked - can anyone add to the list? There were many more. Additional names from the Royal Red Cross Register (TNA 145/1 and /2) are: Florence Gertrude Hughes, Staff Nurse, Acting Sister Elizabeth Lawton, Sister And to add some forenames for a few of the others: Gertrude Hale Evelyn Maud Clemow Rose Amelia Beales Ethel May Louise Mackenzie Lawrence Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennyford Posted 29 November , 2010 Share Posted 29 November , 2010 Thanks, Sue. I found surnames of other nurses/orderlies - Nicholson, Finch, Read, Gilmore, Chandley, McCall, Shingles, Morgan, Dawes, Hancock - in a scrapbook at the IWM, but didn't think it would be possible to work out who they were. However, in this forum someone may know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pauldesmondwhite Posted 7 January , 2011 Share Posted 7 January , 2011 I also have a list of about 37 doctors, which I can give anyone who is interested. I would love to have that list, please, Jenny. Emily Moore's certifying doctor was H M Arnell, MB. Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennyford Posted 8 January , 2011 Share Posted 8 January , 2011 Hi Paul - In its current format my list of WHC medics is too large to post - I can email it. Jennian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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