ID: 1774
Personal album of service in the Scottish Women's Hospital for Foreign Service 1917-17.
WORLD WAR ONE: Mackenzie-Edwards, Hester

Category: First World War, Photography/Film

Place/Publisher/Date:
No Place. No Date.

Description: Album; 4to; modern brown cloth boards. 52 pp. Containing approximately 150 photographs some captioned, a number of letters and documents concerning her service. There is also a Russian citation; extracts from newspapers and a travel permit to be handed on arrival at Petrograd and her medal ribbons. The Scottish Women's hospitals movement was founded in 1914 with financial support from the Suffragettes and the American Red Cross. Its founder Dr Elsie Maud Inglis was a leading Suffragette in her own right and she recruited fellow Suffragettes into the movement. The idea was that either women doctors should work alongside the Royal Army Medical Corps or women's medical units should be allowed to serve on the Western Front. Inglis met with less than enthusiasm from the authorities with one official saying to her 'My God lady, go home and sit still.' Nevertheless the movement flourished and the first hospital was opened in France. During the War, the movement arranged 14 medical units to serve in Corsica, France, Malta, Romania, Salonika, Serbia and in Russia providing nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, cooks and orderlies. It was in August 1916 that the London Suffrage Society financed a group of 80 women to support Serbian soldiers fighting in Russia. Head of transport was the leading Suffragette Evelina Haverfield. Such was the courage and dedication of these incredibly brave women that one Serbian official who saw their work in Russia commented 'No wonder England is a great country if women are like that.' Mackenzie-Edwards was recruited in July 1916 and was appointed a chauffeur to Transport Flying Column (II) for work in Russia with the Serbian army. The photopraphs in the album chronicle her arrival in Archangel and her journey across Russia to Odessa and her life at the front. They also convey an impression on Russia on the eve of the Revolution. Later photographs show that she was transferred Romania in 1917. Fine, a number of the documents and some duplicate photographs are loosely inserted. A very scarce and important document.

Price £2,000.00