Many nurses served in World War One and there are several memorials to them. I was intrigued to find an entry for Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI) nurses in the Imperial War Museum’s War Memorials’ Register. The Register refers to two Rolls of Honour for GRI nurses from the First World War (WW1). These framed documents (see pictures) are under the care of the Friends of GRI museum. Although neither are on public display, I have been able to see both.

The two Rolls of Honours are stylistically very different. Picture 1 clearly states this is a GRI Roll of Honour, and it includes a lovely watercolour image of a nurse signed by Jean L. Hardie. I could not find out anything about her, so we do not know if she was a nurse, artist or both. Picture 1’s border includes images of Glasgow’s full coat of arms, GRI nurses’ badge, the St Andrews Cross and Red Cross symbols. The second Roll of Honour shown in Picture 2 also has an illustrated border incorporating thistles, Scotland’s national flower, but the artwork is not as fine as in Picture 1. I have been unable to find anything about these documents including who wrote them. Information on these documents is at times quite basic, names do not appear fully alphabetical, and names may not be 100% correct. I’d be delighted to hear from anyone who knows more about them.

These two framed Rolls are 63cm x 77cm with 184 GRI nurses named. These nurses were attached to the British Expeditionary Force (98), Territorial Force Nursing Service (TFNS) (76), Serbian Unit (6), Naval Nursing Service (3) and Red Cross (1). I then looked into the war records of a few of these nurses to find out more and give details below. Several received the Royal Red Cross (RRC) in recognition of their nursing to the armed forces, whilst the bar was awarded for additional exceptional service.

Janet Melrose, RRC + bar was matron of GRI from 1907-1921 and Principal Matron of the 3rd Scottish General Hospital.

Matron Christina Elmslie CBE RRC, trained at GRI from 1895-1900. She served in the Boer War and was later appointed to the Queen Alexandra's Military Families' Nursing Service.

Catherine Geddes Stronach CBE RRC, listed as Grace Stronach in the roll, trained at GRI from 1896-1900. She served in the Boer War and joined Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service in 1903. She worked in France and Egypt, and after WW1 was in Portsmouth (1920-1922), Hong Kong (1922-1925) before becoming principal matron in 1926 and embarking for India.

Elizabeth Thomson was matron of the 4th Scottish General Hospital from 1914-1919. She had been a matron and superintendent of nurses at GRI prior to this appointment.

Kate Carruthers is noted on the picture as receiving the Military Medal and RRC for her devotion to duty under fire in France. She started her training at GRI in 1907. In 1914 she joined the TFNS and moved to a Casualty Clearing Station in France. On 15th November 1916 the clearing station was bombed by enemy aeroplanes, killing two and injuring 14. Despite Kate having wounds to her legs and head, she stayed on duty setting up a new shelter and attending to casualties for the next 24 hours before help arrived. She then spent several weeks recovering in hospital.

Two nurses are listed as having died during service. Agnes Climie was ‘killed by bomb’ in France during an enemy bombardment. Although not on duty, she returned to her ward and was killed while singing to a patient who was nervous. Christina Murdoch Wilson is noted to have ‘died on service’ in France although from pneumonia.

Thank you to the Friends of GRI Museum who retrieved the Rolls of Honour from their store so I could view them and gave me permission to use the photographs.

Sources

• IWM War Memorials register - Glasgow Royal Infirmary - WW1 Nurses Served and Died.
• All the above nurses have National Archives service records available online in The National Archives (WO 399)

If you have further information, please email honf@rcn.org.uk FAO Sue Campbell.