From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee :
The Women who went to War - tonight, Tuesday 9th December - 6pm
Gannochy Trust Lecture Theatre, School of Medicine, Ninewells Hospital
A free talk and film screening organised by the Tayside Medical History Museum about the Scottish Women’s Hospitals during the Great War, presented by Alan Cumming.
When war broke out in August 1914, people clamoured to do what they could to support the war effort. While men volunteered for the armed forces, women were eager to assist in other ways. The Scottish Women’s Hospitals were set up with two very specific aims: firstly, to help the war effort by providing medical assistance and secondly, and equally importantly, to promote the cause of women’s rights and by their involvement in the war, help win those rights.
Their original idea was to establish a hospital in Edinburgh to treat war wounded but this was quickly abandoned in favour of establishing hospitals in the field and close to the fighting to treat the injured. Ultimately, there were hospitals established in France, Macedonia, Greece, Corsica, Romania and Russia, but the majority of their work was in Serbia.
Amateur researcher Alan Cumming became fascinated by the story of these women, and recently featured in the STV documentary The Women who went to War presented by Kirsty Wark. In this special free event he will introduce a film about his own journeys to Serbia and France to research the Scottish Women’s Hospitals, and will tell the stories of some of the women from Dundee and Tayside who worked in them – including former University College, Dundee students Agnes Blackadder and Florence Inglis (who was the niece of Elsie Inglis, the prime mover behind the Scottish Women’s Hospitals).
Free admission – all welcome.