The Women's Victory—and After: Personal Reminiscences, 1911-1918
John Stuart Mill · en
The work of the hospital at Royaumont was particularly heavy in the
spring of 1918. The place was frequently exposed to bombardment. The
three operating theatres were kept busy night and day, the surgeons
having frequently to work by candle-light and under shell-fire. In July
the hospital was taken over by the French military authorities, when
the number of beds was brought up to 600. Down to the very end of the
war the work of the Scottish Women's Hospitals was continued in France
and Serbia undiminished in vigour and extent. In October and November,
1918, the organization was maintaining 1,885 beds. Many of the doctors
and nurses have received decorations and other honours from the French
and Serbian nations; but, so far as I know, no national honour has been
conferred on them by the country of their birth. In recognition of her
splendid work, the chief medical officer at Royaumont, Dr. Frances
Ivens, received the Croix de Guerre avec Palme, and twenty-three of
her staff the Croix de Guerre avec Étoiles from the French Army. In
February, 1919, the hospital was closed; but the organization of the
Scottish Women's Hospitals still exists. The committee at headquarters
in Edinburgh are raising a fund to establish a training school for
Serbian nurses in Belgrade as a memorial to Dr. Elsie Inglis; while
the London committee, with the same object in view, are in process of
endowing a chair of medicine in the University of Belgrade. The name of
Elsie Inglis will live for ever in Serbian history. Her works do follow
her, and her memory will be cherished by the gallant nation to which
she devoted her great powers.