Remembering …

I doubt that members of the Salonika Campaign Society really need International Women’s Day to remember the service and sacrifice of the women of the Scottish Women’s Hospital who served in the Balkans. The Society has remembered them in books, in talks and presentations, at events and in articles, both printed and online. Even so, it may be helpful to have a reminder of these redoubtable women and their noble enterprise, through the graves of just four of their number. I photographed these on a visit to Thessaloniki ten years ago, at the CWGC Lembet Road Military Cemetery. They are: Sister Mary de Burgh Burt, Sister Florence Missouri Caton, Masseuse Olive Smith and Alice Annie Grey.

Photograph of the headstone of Sister Mary de Burgh Burt of the Scottish Women's Hospital, in the CWGC Lembet Road Cemetery, Thessaloniki. She died on 7 April 1916. (Author's photo from April 2016)
Photograph of the headstone of Sister Florence Missouri Caton of the Scottish Women's Hospital, in the CWGC Lembet Road Cemetery, Thessaloniki. She died on 15 July 1917 (author's photo from April 2016).
Photograph of the headstone of Masseuse Olive Smith of the Scottish Women's Hospital, in the CWGC Lembet Road Cemetery, Thessaloniki. She died on 24 September 1916. (Author's photo from April 2016)
Photograph of the headstone of Alice Annie Grey of the Scottish Women's Hospital, in the CWGC Lembet Road Cemetery, Thessaloniki. She died on 21 August 1916. (Author's photo from April 2016)

Photograph from IWM online collections: A nursing sister of a Scottish Women's Hospital unit teaches a French patient to sew, Salonika, 1916. (Q 31918)
A nursing sister of a Scottish Women’s Hospital unit teaches a French patient to sew, Salonika, 1916. (IWM Q 31918)


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Author: Robin Braysher

Robin's interest in the campaign comes from his grandfather, Fred, who served as a cyclist with the BSF from 1915 to 1917, mainly in the Struma valley where he caught malaria and dysentery. Robin joined the SCS in 2003 and served on the committee for 18 years as journal and then web editor. Opinions expressed in these posts are his and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Society.

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