Women as Army Surgeons

After training to be a doctor at the London School of Medicine for Women, Flora Murray (1869–1923) became an active member of the Women's Social and Political Union. At the outbreak of the First World War, she and her fellow suffragists laid down their banners and sought to aid the Allied war effort. Working within the newly formed Women's Hospital Corps, Murray and her colleague Louisa Garrett Anderson (1873–1943) overcame initial prejudice and established two military hospitals in France in the period 1914–15. Their success prompted an invitation from the War Office to open the Endell Street Military Hospital in London, staffed entirely by women. First published in 1920, Murray's account, illustrated with numerous photographs, records important steps in furthering the acceptance of women in the medical profession. For female doctors, surgeons and nurses, the war provided not only the 'occasion for service' but also 'great professional opportunities'.