Angels of Mercy
Nurses on the Western Front
by Eileen Crofton
£7.99
in stock
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A remarkable story of women's achievement - The heroic efforts of those critical days have now finally been given their true record
The Times Literary Supplement
Rich as it is in first-hand anecdote, Eileen Crofton's account is as remarkable for its humour as for its horror . . . inspiring
The Scotsman
Beautifully written ... informed, accessible and finely crafted
The Herald
This is a very human book about the heroism of a small group of Scottish women who believed they could make a difference and help their fellow man
Scottish Field
Dr Crofton's account surely establishes for all time the debt owed to "Angels of Mercy" in war and peace
Scots Magazine
About the Book
They may have been angels of mercy. But they were also angels with attitude – real women, with real guts.
This is the little-known story of the gritty and free-spirited women who, in 1914, put aside their fight for the vote to set up a hospital in an abandoned French abbey to treat the appalling injuries sustained on the Western Front. Uniquely in that theatre, the hospital was staffed entirely by women – doctors, surgeons, nurses, bateriologists, radiographers, orderlies and ambulance drivers.
In the face of opposition from the military and medical establishments, and in the teeth of many hardships, they succeeded in establishing one of the most effective and longest-serving frontline military hospitals of the First World War.
The Author
Eileen Crofton
Eileen Crofton studied medicine at Somerville College, Oxford. She joined the Royal Medical Corps in 1944 and was posted to County Down where she met her husband. She was appointed county medical officer of the Midlothian branch of the British Red Cross Society in 1963, later being awarded life membership for exceptional service. In 1971 she helped to establish Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and was awarded an MBE on her retirement from ASH Scotland. She died in 2010.
