Help the Scottish Women’s Hospitals

Scottish Women’s Hospitals donation box, Note the NUWSS initials. Imperial War Museum, London. (P. Ferguson image, March 2017)

The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies [NUWSS]

Elsie Inglis who initially studied medicine at the Edinburgh School of Medicine in 1887, completed her studies in 1892 at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Inglis was especially cognizant of the required specialized knowledge and treatments for female patients and was appalled by the lack of standards turning to the suffrage movement with whom she became politically active. In the 1890s, Inglis became the Secretary of the Edinburgh National Society for Women’s suffrage and worked closely with the NUWSS.

The NUWSS was a suffragist organization, distinct from the suffragette movement which was a splinter group of former NUWSS women who chose a more fervent political path choosing direct action that included acts of violence. The NUWSS organization favoured peaceful protests, petitions, organized meetings, leaflet campaigns and debating their positions through interactions with Members of Parliaments. Suffragists also worked with men to achieve their aims, whereas Suffragettes preferred a “Women Only” policy.

Dr. Elsie Inglis. Wellcome Library Collection, London via Wikipedia.

With the support of the NUWSS, Inglis founded the Scottish Women’s Hospitals Committee  that established the first Scottish Women’s Hospital in France in November 1914. The work of Inglis, and the NUWSS provided for fourteen medical units during the Great War including field hospitals, specialized facilities for the treatment of fever, dressing stations and clinics. Located in France, Serbia, Corsica, Salonika, Romania, Russia and Malta these units were created through the dedication of women such as Inglis and other associates of the NUWSS.

In all the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Society raised more than £500,000 during the Great War.