Medical Women in the First World War: Ranking Nowhere

When war broke out in 1914 officialdom saw no role for medical women. On attempting to volunteer Dr Elsie Inglis was told by a War Office administrator, "My good lady, go home and sit still." Far from sitting still, Dr Inglis, in conjunction with the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, formed the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service, which sent a number of all women medical units to various fronts. But Dr Inglis was not the only, or even the first, to form an all women unit. The great needs of allied armies for medical care, and the generally haphazard arrangements of this war, made it possible for medical women to form voluntary units, or even to approach foreign governments on their own and work in the field. [Author]