First World War

Casualties from the Western Front during the First World War were often evacuated to base hospitals on the northern coast of France for more advanced and specialist care. These temporary base hospitals frequently had more than 1,000 beds and were typically staffed by older, more senior doctors than were present nearer the front line. The 13th Stationary Hospital opened in October 1914 on the Boulogne docks and became the main specialist unit for the treatment of eye, face and jaw injuries.

The Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service were established shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. Opportunities were limited for medical women prior to the war and during it they were unable to obtain a commission in the Royal Army Medical Corps, hence the formation of these voluntary all-women units. The Girton and Newnham Unit, under the leadership of Dr L McIlroy, served with distinction in France, Serbia and Greece, demonstrating clinical competence in the management of the emergency medical and surgical

In 1915, under the aegis of the French Red Cross, volunteer medical women from the Scottish Women’s Hospital Service for Foreign Service established a hospital at Royaumont Abbey in France, to treat casualties of the First World War. By working as a team comprised of radiologists, bacteriologists and surgeons, they were able to combat gas gangrene and record remarkable results. The circumstances and the way in which the doctors were portrayed in France and Britain prevented them from actively promoting their results to gain

By December 1914, overwhelming numbers of soldiers with infected musculoskeletal wounds had filled hospitals in France and Britain. Frequently initial management had been inadequate. In 1915, patients with orthopaedic wounds were segregated for the first time when Robert Jones established an experimental orthopaedic unit in Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool. In 1916 he opened the first of 17 orthopaedic centres in Britain to surgically treat and rehabilitate patients. Henry Gray from Aberdeen emerged as the leading authority in the management of acute