At the outbreak of the First World War the Suffragettes not only ceased their military campaign, they actively threw themselves behind the national war effort. One way in which they did this was through their work as nurses, doctors, and surgeons.
There is currently a small display in the Camden Local Studies Centre about such an effort. At the outbreak of the war, Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray established a hospital which was run entirely by women. This story epitomises Emmeline Pankhurst’s call for “Deeds not Words” in the fight for the female franchise. These two medically trained women and their staff highlighted that Suffragettes could be both patriotic and professional.
Louisa Garrett Anderson had surgical training and Flora Murray was a doctor but, as was common at the time, they had only worked with women and children. Both women were also active Suffragettes. Louisa had spent a month in prison for breaking a window during a demonstration and both had treated women who had endured force-feeding.
Louisa and Flora wanted use their medical skills to help with the war effort. Knowing that they would not be allowed to treat casualties in Britain, they headed for Paris where they set up a hospital unit. They later set up another hospital on the coast of the Channel. The success of their work was noticed by the War Office and the two women were offered a workhouse in Endell Street, Covent Garden, to convert into a 600 bed military hospital. They recruited women they knew from the suffrage movement to staff the hospital, which was the only one run entirely by women. They adopted the slogan “Deeds Not Words” for the hospital. Flora told staff:
“You not only have got to do a good job, you have got to do a superior job. What would be accepted from a man will not be accepted from a woman. You’ve got to do better.”
Although the Royal Army Medical Corps were hostile to the idea of a female-run hospital, many expecting failure, the Endell Street hospital made a major contribution. Serious casualties arriving by train at Charing Cross would be brought to the hospital, with up to 80 arriving at once. Louisa was the Chief Surgeon and as many as 30 of these arrivals required surgery.
The hospital functioned for four and a half years; treating 26,000 patients and performing 7,000 operations during the war and the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918. Both Louisa and Flora received the C.B.E. in recognition of their work.
The display in the Local Studies Centre shows the building both as a workhouse and as a hospital. Alongside the display is a film produced by Digital Media, which has been short-listed for the Imperial War Museum Short Film Festival next month. You can watch the film here http://www.digitaldrama.org/deeds-not-words-film/
The display also includes banners produced by pupils from St Joseph’s Primary School, residents of St Mungo’s and residents from Dudley Court, which was built on the site of the Endell Street Hospital. The film and the banners are part of a project to commemorate the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act which has Heritage Lottery funding.
The display is running until 29th December at Camden Local Studies Centre (second floor of the Holborn Library, 32-38 Theobalds Road, London WC1X 8PA). https://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/navigation/leisure/local-history/local-history-news-and-events/
By Barbara Lister.
Barbara is a researcher at the Croydon branch of the U3A.
