Lives of the First World War

Royal Free Hospital

Taken from Wikipedia entry

Plaque to mark the site of Endell Street Military Hospital 1915-1919. Established in former workhouse buildings during the First World War under the command of Dr Flora Murray & Dr Louisa Garrett Anderson, the 573-bed hospital is the only British army hospital to have been staffed entirely by women. More than 24,000 soldiers were treated here.

A portrait of Dr Flora Murray sitting at a desk in an office at Endell Street hospital in London, looking down at something on the surface of the desk. By Austin O Spare

The interior of an operating theatre with an operation in progress. A male patient under anaesthetic is being operated on by four surgeons and tended to by an anaesthetist, who sits by his head in the foreground. All of the medical staff are female and dressed in white medical smocks and white cloth caps, apart from the anaesthetist who is not wearing a cap. The surgeons stand directly underneath a strip light suspended from the ceiling and appear to be operating on the patient's stomach or appendix. By Francis Dodd

On the operating table, a wounded soldier is being given chloroform before being operated on by British women surgeons at the Hotel Astoria (or Hotel Claridge), Paris. The chloroform is being administered by the Surgeon-in-Charge Dr Flora Murray (seated figure, seen from the back), and she is assisted by Dr Majorie Blandy (right). They both are members of the Women's Hospital Corps.