Alexandra Nurses

[mbriscoe]

A project has been running to research and document the history of hospitals in the Highlands. 
History of Highland Hospital project

 

I was just thumbing through their latest book

 

• The Hospitals of Inverness: Their Origin and Development 1650 - 2000 2017 (History of Highland Hospitals)
• by Old Manse Books

 

And noticed a chapter about the Families Maternity Hospital, Fort George.  This was set up after in 1899 an officer's wife noticed that family medical care was being provided by a untrained woman.  In 1906 the SSFA was asked to appoint an Alexandra nursing sister - these had been supplied where needed since 1892 - not the same as the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service which was founded in 1902.

 

A small hospital was built and funded by the SSFA, the regiment and local fund raising.  The service continued through WWI and WWII and the founding of the NHS (the Highlands had had something very similar to the later NHS since about the early 1920's).