Scottish Women's Hospital at the Macedonian Front during the First World War

Women of the Sixth (American) Unit of the Scottish Women's Hospital at Ostrovo (Wikipedia.org)

The Scottish Women’s Hospitals was founded by the surgeon and suffragette Dr. Elsie Maud Inglis (16 August 1864 – 26 November 1917), after the outbreak of World War I. Elsie Inglis and fellow suffragists, with the financial support of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, formed the ‘Scottish Women’s Hospitals Committee’.

Portrait of Dr. Elsie Maud Inglis (catalogue.wellcomelibrary.org)

At first, Inglis offered her service as surgeon to the British army, but she was told “go home and sit still woman”. In that time nurses and orderlies were permitted to serve in the British Red Cross but women doctors, were not considered competent enough. However, this did not deter Dr. Inglis who later formed the Scottish Women's Hospital (SWH), an all-woman medical organisation that would tend to the wounded of the allied nations, and give testament to the skills and professionalism of women medical practitioners.

The Scottish Women's Hospital was formed in 1914 in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and by November the first medical unit was already set with state of the art equipment. With the help of the French Red Cross, a mobile hospital unit was set in Royaumont, France. The complete staff of the unit consisted of women - doctors, nurses, orderlies, cooks and even the ambulance drivers. The unit in Royaumont, France proved to be a successful one and it served in France until the end of the war.
The Kingdom of Serbia since the beginning of the First World War, requested medical and other assistance, from the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. Under the impression of the situation in Serbia, Dr. Inglis, offered the Serbian mission to London to send SWH units to the Serbian battlefield, and the Serbian government accepted this offer with gratitude.

The organized work of the Association of Scottish Women's Societies in the Kingdom of Serbia began, on Christmas 1915. Soon after medical missions and well-equipped hospitals arrived in Serbia, and in 1915 there were four large hospitals of the Association of Scottish Women's Associations in Kragujevac, Valjevo, Lazarevac, Mladenovac and two large English-Serbian hospitals in Kragujevac and Skopje.

Attacked by Austro-Hungary, the conditions in Serbia were terrible with many victims, wounded soldiers and prisoners of war, starved civilian population and major typhus epidemic in 1914/1915. Many  perished in the first years of the war, including several members of SWH.
When the great offensive of the Central Powers began in October 1915 (Bulgaria joined on the side of the Central Powers and attacked Serbia), all hospitals were evacuated to Krusevac, and later some retreated together with the Serbian army trough Albania.

Dr. Inglis and the majority of her staff refused to evacuate and stayed with their patients in occupied Serbia, becoming prisoners of war in November, 1915. They continued to treat their patients until their repatriation in February, 1916.

One part of SWH followed the Serbian army, which after its reorganization was sent on the newly formed Macedonian Front in 1916. Dr. Inglis, returned to England, formed another SWH unit and went to Russia, again to aid the Serbian army on Dobrudja front. After the Bolshevik revolution, she returned to Newcastle, England, where she died of cancer one day after her arrival.

Dr. Elsie Maud Inglis (left) (source of photo: Ратни албум 1914-1918, Поповић, Андра, Београд, 1926)

SWH on the Macedonian front (Salonika Front, Thessaloniki Front)

By the end of 1915, Serbia was attacked from all sides. The government, together with what remained of the army and part of the civilian population, retreated through Albania to the island of Corfu, Greece. On this island was the new headquarters of the government and began the reorganization of the army, which in 1916 was sent to the newly formed front near Salonica (Thessaloniki). Aldo Greece was still neutral, around Salonica there were Allied fortifications protecting the city and the port from the Central Powers. Hence, in some sources this front is called Salonika or Thessaloniki Front.

With the arrival of the reorganized Serbian army and the reinforcements from France, England, Italy and Russia, the front line was considerably expanded, reaching the Aegean Sea to the east and the Adriatic to the west, across the ethnic region of Macedonia – ie Macedonian Front. 
At the end of 1915 the Scottish Women's Hospital unit at Troyes, France was ordered to pack. Designed as a mobile unit, it was equipped with tents and vehicles, and attached to a division of the French army, it was dispatched to Salonica. The hospital (known as the Girton & Newnham Unit after the Cambridge University colleges which funded it) first was set up in a silkworm factory in the border town of Gevgelia, and after the rapid Bulgarian advance is was relocated to Salonica.

SWH unit on the Macedonian front (source of photo: Ратни албум 1914-1918, Поповић, Андра, Београд, 1926)

In Salonika the unit was joined by the American Unit (funded by American donors and named as to thank them), and both later were moved to Lake Ostrovo, where they supported the Serbian Army.
The SWH had hospitals and a transport unit on the Macedonian Front. Medical missions from other parts of the Commonwealth came from: Australia, New Zealand and Canada. A total of 60 women arrived, serving as nurses, ambulance drivers, doctors and surgeons. They were well equipped with vehicles with which they transported wounded soldiers from the Macedonian mountains (Transport Column). The Transport Column was an ambulance unit which allowed SWH to go and get the casualties quickly rather than waiting for casualties to be brought to them.

“Amongst the SWH staff was also Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin (Miles Franklin), a famous Australian writer”

Transport Column - Scottish Women`s Hospitals Motor Ambulance Column

Scottish Women’s Hospitals ambulance drivers on the Macedonian Front (source of photo: Australian War Memorial Collection)

Scottish Women`s Hospitals Motor Ambulance Column was specially organized motor vehicle unit, which played a remarkable role with the medical evacuation of wounded during the battles. The Transport Column, was established in the United Kingdom as a special unit of 18 members, which arrived in Thessaloniki by boat in the summer of 1916. It was led by Mary Josephine Beford, with role to operate near the front line, to collect the wounded and bring them to the SWH hospitals for treatment. The seriously wounded were evacuated with light ambulance cars 'Fords' which would come every morning to the prime-aid locations to take the seriously wounded. Thanks to them the evacuation was carried out and quickly and without delay.

“At first the Transport Column unit was commanded by Katherine Harley, who died during the bombardment of Bitola on March 7th, 1917.”

Katherine Harley with the Transport unit in Thessaloniki (source of photo: Ратни албум 1914-1918, Поповић, Андра, Београд, 1926)

The transport unit proved particularly successful during the breakthrough of the Macedonian Front in September 1918. The small Ford trucks proved to be very useful in the inaccessible Macedonian mountains and, unlike the other Serbian hospitals, the Scottish women's hospital was able to keep up with the fast advancing Serbian army, on a victorious road to Belgrade and Novi Sad.
After the end of the First World War, SWH was disbanded. Most of its members returned to their home countries, while some continued to deal with humanitarian activities in Serbia. Dr Kathleen McPhail in Belgrade established a children hospital and Evelina Haverfield with Vera Holme established an orphanage in Bajina Bašta. Others, left endowments in money and equipment, educated pupils, and provided scholarships for women doctors.

More info on Scottish Women's Hospital:

• https://www.scottishwomenshospitals.co.uk
• https://debbierobson.net/australians-working-with-the-scottish-womens-hospitals/#Bsurname

THE HERNIA BROTHERHOOD - A BRIGAND CHIEF UNDER AN ANESTHETIC

Еxcerpt from: "CERTAIN SAMARITANS" BY ESTHER POHL LOVEJOY, NEW YORK, THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 1927

Under the direction of Dr. Gray, assisted by Drs. Hazel D. Bonness, May T. Stout, Marguerite White, Mary N. Bercea and Miss Freda Frost, head nurse and general supervisor, with a corps of American nurses, Veles became an Important medical center, especially for surgical work and children’s diseases. Patients came from all directions, sometimes walking for miles and reaching the hospital in a state of complete exhaustion. We have a report of one boy who walked fifteen days slowly leading his sister, who could not see, to the eye clinic. Many of the sick and disabled came in ox-carts, or on donkeys, and those who could not afford to pay for lodgings at the world’s worst hotels sat outside the hospital walls and waited until beds were vacated.
Chronic surgical cases had been accumulating in that district for years. Such hernias! The country had been stripped of its horses, and men and women had become pack animals. Under the heavy weights which these burden bearers carried on their backs their abdominal walls gave way, and all kinds of hernias resulted, some of which were of enormous size, containing part of the abdominal viscera.
Without treatment these unfortunate people got worse or died. If the rupture was small and an intestinal loop became strangulated, the victim suffered agony and died promptly. But where strangulation did not occur, the abdominal contents escaped, little by little, through the opening, and the hernia increased in size month after month and year after year.
Dr. Gray, in her surgical cap and gown, with a choice selection of scalpels, forceps, scissors, needles and thread, bandages and anaesthetics, was a popular lady with the hernia brotherhood. One after another they came to be operated upon and sometimes sat in the court for a week waiting for a bed.
A Comitadji chieftain from the mountains, a regular “he-man” with emphasis on the he, appeared at the hospital one fine morning. Everybody knew him and made way. With his band of brigands he had helped take the Bubuna Pass from the Bulgarians, and this service had glorified a criminal record of many years. Like Drake, Morgan and other dear old pirates and bandits of the past, whose natural gifts and initiative had been developed in active private practice, he was highly qualified when the time came to answer his country’s call.
This nationally acknowledged dare-devil, and leader of dare-devils, looked the part as he walked among the common men in the hospital court. Times had been hard for several years, but he wasn’t wearing any cast-off American clothes. The Macedonian costume was his native dress, and he was proud of its color and its cut. It had a style of its own. Every part of his picturesque suit, from cap to opankes (sandals), bristled with personality. His movements had grace and swank. In physical type he stood between Apollo and Hercules, with an “eye like Mars to threaten and command.” The sound of his voice was known and feared in the Macedonian mountains, and great was the curiosity in the men’s ward and the women’s ward when it was whispered that he, too, had a weak spot, an Achilles’ heel, as It were, in his groin.
Men, guns or governments had no terrors for our brigand chief. His life had been an open defiance of constituted authority, but the first whiff of ether In the distance and he was a changed man. He had heard about the stuff and he was afraid it would get him unaware. The hernia threatened his life, and worse. It would make him a physical weakling, therefore he had decided to take the chance, live or die. But he didn’t want to die ingloriously breathing devil fumes. Milder than a lamb for the sacrifice, he allowed the assistants to strap him to the operating table.
Fortunately, they strapped him well, for after the first few whiffs of ether he found himself In his fiercest mood, and if his arms had been free he might have reached out a giant hand and wrung somebody’s neck. His language was not understood, but his tone and vehemence were piratical, strangely suggesting a North Pacific whaler of the old school, trained before the mast, in the first throes of an anaesthetic.
The American nurse giving the ether could not pronounce his Macedonian name, but Willie Is a good name for all big men who are afraid in the dark, and over and over in a low mothering croon, she repeated: “Breathe it In, Willie, there’s a good boy. Don’t be afraid, take a long breath.” Gradually his violence subsided, his aspect changed and another dangerous personality emerged. This bad boy brigand turned good. There was method in his murmurs. He was going on a long journey through a strange country where there were evil spirits, werewolves and all kinds of unknown dangers. He was afraid to go alone. Perhaps he could coax one of these women to go with him. His voice became soft, cajoling, pleading and irresistible, as drop by drop the ether fell on the cone over his mouth. The little Macedonian nurse understood his language. After the manner of women, she felt sorry for this strong, weak man, so she slipped her hand into his and he held tight to this world while he floated away into oblivion — and when he came back he hadn’t any hernia.

Lecture: "Dutch Medical Missions to Macedonia in World War One" by John Stienen

Discover the unknown Dutch-Macedonian links from the past!
Embassy of the Netherlands in Macedonia is happy to announce the lecture "Dutch Medical Missions to Macedonia in World War One", held by John Stienen.

• 24 April at 7 pm, at the Military Museum of Macedonia, and
• 25 April at 1 pm, at the City Museum of Bitola

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The Netherlands was neutral during World War One, but surrounded by warring nations. The general public in the Netherlands financially supported Dutch medical teams abroad at that time.

A remarkable mission was that of dr. Henri van Dijk, who led a non-military hospital in Bitola in 1917. Van Dijk and six nurses kept open the polyclinic to treat the most urgent cases among the civilian population.
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John Stienen, M.Sc. (1972) is Senior Policy Advisor at the Netherlands Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Relations with a broad interest in historical subjects – especially if they connect Netherlands to Central and Eastern Europe. An industrial engineer (Eindhoven University of Technology, 2002) by vocation, he has been conducting research on lesser known topics such as internees and prisoners of war in Netherlands during World War One, or Dutch humanitarian presence on the Balkans in the early 20th century.

Photo - The Dutch Medical Mission to Monastir (Bitola) - May 16, 1917 - The Illustrated war News

Viole (1859-1925) French missionary in Bitola

Viole, (1859-1925), French Sister of Mercy of the catholic order, establishing manager and overall participant in Lazarus mission in Bitola, humanist, especially before and after the Ilinden rebellion, greatly contributed to the victims in Bitola and Bitola’s region.
Parallel with Lazarus missionaries in Bitola, there started another mission of the female nun order “St Vensan”. She arrived to Bitola in 1900, along with two Sisters of Mercy, with whom she opened a dispensary and a school.
In January 1901 they started working there, engaging themselves in the fields of Children treatment and teaching.
In November 1900 three Sisters of Mercy led by Sister Viole opened a French Female School in Bitola. The Sisters from the nun order “St Vensan” opened a dispensary in Bitola. In their rooms they provided the population from the city and wider surrounding with the needed medical help and care. People were treated successfully and for free and soon the Sisters, under his leadership of the Sister Viole, obtained enormous respect. They treated wounded Turkish soldiers as well.
Sister Viole regularly sent reports to France regarding the military, political and difficult economic situation of the Macedonian people and other citizens (non Muslims). She sent one in August 1903 from Bitola to Lisen Proa in Paris informing:
….”The country is in Revolution…”
“During the Ilinden rebellion battles……”
The dispensary of Sister Viole worked continuously, providing aid and assistance wholeheartedly. Besides providing medical help and care, Sister Viole managed to convince the Turkish authority to liberate a large number of Macedonians who were captured as participants in the rebellion battles.
Sister Viole together with her assistants remained in Bitola after the Ilinden rebellion.
In 1908 the number of sisters at Sister Viole’s dispensary increased to 8, where beside preventive, they adjusted a hall for surgeries, but they could not obtain the necessary instruments and apparatus for sterilization.
During the First World War the dispensary of Sister Viole worked constantly, treating wounded soldiers from both sides.
In 1915 and 1916 the epidemics in Bitola were frequently spreading; there were too many sick people and only 2 sisters, which implied that they had to be engaged tirelessly in treating and helping, handeling the difficult health situation sucessfully. She died in 1925 in Bitola.

Excerpt from: DISTINGUISHED PEOPLE FOR BITOLA - authors: Lence Andonovska, Naume Gorgievski, Blagoj Nikolov, Trajko Ognenovski, Gordana Pesevska, Aneta Stefanovska, Svetlana Taleska ; translation in english Vesna Milevska. NIUL "St. Clement Ohridski": Municipality of Bitola

Avram Balaban - Balalanoglu (1865- 1913)

Avram Balaban - Balalanoglu (1865- 1913), was skilled surgeon and gynecologist, who performed difficult surgeon interventions.
He was also considered to be a very good doctor and a humanist, having in mind the fact, that he worked in the hospital for the poor “Guraba Hasta Hanesti”.

Born in Endurljuk in 1865 (Kesarija, Turkey), in 1890 he graduated at the Faculty of Medicine in Carigrad and got the title “doctor of medicine and surgery”.
After, his graduation he worked in Sozopol (Bulgaria).
For a very short period of time he was assigned a municipal doctor in Ohrid.
From Ohrid he continued his brilliant doctor’s career in Struga, Pristine and Elbasan. Everywhere he went he gained the affections from the local population and the Turkish authorities. Then, he came to work in Bitola from (1899 or 1901), and there in a special building in the garden of his own house, he opened a private shelter with several hospital rooms, where he was running a private practice and an operation hall.
He also opened his own pharmacy nearby Jeni Amman (at the wooden market). During the Balkan wars, he actively participated in destroying one of the disastrous epidemic of the time, spotty typhus.But, an easily infectious disease took his life in 1913 and Bitola lost one of its most experienced doctors.

Excerpt from: DISTINGUISHED PEOPLE FOR BITOLA - authors: Lence Andonovska, Naume Gorgievski, Blagoj Nikolov, Trajko Ognenovski, Gordana Pesevska, Aneta Stefanovska, Svetlana Taleska ; translation in english Vesna Milevska. NIUL "St. Clement Ohridski": Municipality of Bitola

Malaria as an infectious disease in Macedonia during the First World War

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by parasitic protozoans of the genus Plasmodium that infect red blood cells. Malaria is transmitted between humans through mosquito bites of genus Anopheles.
Globally, the malaria is one of the greatest threats to mankind with over 200 million illnesses annually, and approximately one million deaths, mostly children from Africa(1).
Throughout the history, this disease did great damage to the population in Macedonia living in settlements near still water and swamps, which aided by the large number of sunny days and humidity, enabled optimum conditions for the development of malaria.
The most vulnerable regions in Macedonia were in Pelagonija Region along the flow of the Crna River (so called Bitola Marsh) in certain areas along the flow of Vardar River, Katlanovo Marsh, Monospitovo Marsh etc. Malarial areas in Macedonia encompassed about 70% of fertile land, on which lived 92-94% of the total population. Each year 60-70% of the population in Macedonia suffered from malaria (2).
In literature the term "Macedonian malaria" is known which during the Balkan Wars and the First World War, made serious problems to the foreign armies who fought in Macedonia. Often military operations were delayed or canceled due to the large number of soldiers infected by malaria, which caused great concern to the commands on both sides of the front. For example, in spring 1918. Some 25,000 British troops were sent back home due to severe consequences of chronic malaria (3).

Malarious regions in Europe during the First World War (Source: https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2875-13-497)

About the victims of the armies that fought in Macedonia and the measures taken by them today we can find a lot of information. But little information we can find about the indirect victims, the civilian population which starved and with reduced immunity was particularly affected by communicable diseases.
Given the fact that during military conflicts there is a constant movement of troops, this led to further spread of malaria in Macedonia. Poor living standards, the illiterate population, poor living habits, the small number of medical personal, further helped the spread of this and other infectious diseases. All this resulted in an extremely high rate of mortality, particularly among children. Namely, malaria in Macedonia has for centuries been an endemic disease with epidemic eruptions and morbidity greater than 80% in individual malarious areas and in the war years it reached frightening proportions with high mortality especially among the children(4).
How many people in Macedonia died from malaria during the First World War is difficult to determine, but overwhelming is the percentage of the total number of victims. According to some sources, during the First World War, Serbia had the highest percentage of casualties in proportion to the total population, 16.67% - 27.78% (5) (Vardar part of Macedonia was part of Serbia).
It should be borne in mind that these statistics refer to the whole territory of Serbia then, and we can only imagine that the section near the front line (Macedonian Front) was with far higher percentage of casualties. Many villages were totally destroyed in the period, with mortality over 60% in certain regions. Also, the above statistics do not take into account the epidemic of Spanish fever (1918-1919) which worldwide took more than 50 million lives, and which is a direct consequence of the war.
Today, there are only few articles about these victims and especially striking is the fact that neither can roughly assume their number.
After the war, malaria continued to hair in Macedonia until 60-70-ies of the 20th century, when the government of Yugoslavia has taken measures for drying the wetlands, arranging the riverbeds and introduced various measures to protect the population . Thanks to this, in 1972 there were no patients infected with malaria.
How many generations have been saved thanks to these measures and whether those who carried them out they will ever get the deserved recognition, are questions which remain to be answered.

Pargovski Jove,
Macedonia 1912-1918

Literature:
1. Министерство за здравство на Репиблика Македонија „УПАТСТВО ЗА МЕДИЦИНСКОТО ЗГРИЖУВАЊЕ ПРИ МАЛАРИЈА“
2. Петар Бојџиевски, Рената Бојаџиевска – Цветковска „Санитетот во Македонија за време на Балканските и Првата светска војна“ Битола 2011
3. Проф. д-р Никтополијан Чернобузов, „Маларија“, Београд, 1949, 7-13.
4. Верица Јосимовска „ЕПИДЕМИИТЕ ВО ВАРДАРСКИОТ ДЕЛ НА МАКЕДОНИЈА И БОРБАТА СО НИВ ЗА ВРЕМЕ НА ВОЈНИТЕ (1912-1918)“ Штип 2014
5. Wikipedia - World War I casualties (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties)

Katherine Harley (Kent, May 3, 1855 – Bitola 7th March 1917)

Katherine Harley (maiden name: Katherine Mary French) was born in Kent on May 3, 1855. She was married to George Ernest Harley in 1877.
She served as Administrator of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals (SWH) at Royaumont and Troyes in France, in 1915 and was awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French government for her service to France.

In late 1915 she helped establishing a hospital in a disused tobacco warehouse in the Macedonian border town of Gevgelia. The hospital did not function for a long time, since with the advance of the Bulgarian army, it was forced to move to Thessaloniki (Salonica) in Greece.
In early 1916 she resigns her position and returns to UK, but she was soon back in Macedonia and trough the SWH Committee establishes an independent motorized ambulance unit - The Transport Column, with her in command.
The role of the unit was to operate near the front line to collect Serbian casualties and bring them to the SWH hospitals for treatment. The seriously wounded were evacuated with light ambulance cars 'Fords' which would come every morning to the prime-aid locations to take the seriously wounded. Thanks to them the evacuation was carried out and quickly and without delay.

The Transport Ambulance Column did an excellent work in evacuating the wounded and worked non-stop to keep their vehicles roadworthy on the especially bad road infrastructure at that time. The woman drivers often were even to enthusiastic about their work and sometimes even insubordinate, operating at night close to the battlefield despite explicit orders not to this.
Katherine was criticized about the loose behavior of the unit and for failing to enforce discipline, so she was encouraged to resign in December 1916.
Together with her daughters she went to the recently liberated town of Monastir (today Bitola), where she acted independently, providing assistance to the inhabitants of the town. The population in Bitola then suffered from diseases, illnesses and the ravages of war and was in bad condition.
Katherine Harley rented a house within the town, which was on the actual front line, with the Bulgarian and German army located on the surrounding mountains from where the city was constantly bombarded.
On 7th March 1917 Katherine Harley was with her daughter and with Miss Mary L. Matthews, head of the American Girls' School, when the shell hit in the street, shattering the window glass, which pierced her head.

"
March 7, Wed. 1917
A fine warm day. Mrs. Harley, sister of Field-Marshall Sir John French of the British Forces in France, and her daughter Edith, have been here some weeks, giving proper food to little children. In the afternoon, I went to invite the ladies to tea tomorrow. They were living in a house near the Government Headquarters. It was about half past three. Shelling often began about that time. I should have remembered and suggested that we go down stairs.

Miss Edith was serving tea and had just gone to get another cup when a shell burst in the street and shattered the windows of the room where we were sitting. I looked across at Mrs. Harley whose body had stiffened and her face was very white.
Then I saw blood trickle down her face. We laid her on the floor and I had to run to the Government to ask for an Ambulance to take Mrs. Harley to the Hospital.
The Governor and his staff were down in a sub-cellar, waiting for the firing to cease. After quarter or half an hour, it was considered safe to come up. Mrs. Harley was taken to the hospital, but as they laid her on the operating table she died. A bit of glass had ended her useful life. Miss Edith said they knew the danger when they came, but they wanted to feed babies and small children. Mrs. Harley was laid out in a shirt of the British Red Cross and her uniform jacket.
She looked very peaceful. General Sarrail (French) at Salonica arranged for a military funeral and burial there. The Governor and the Mayor called on Miss Harley and were sympathetic. It was strange that Miss Harley and I escaped harm.
" 

Excerpt from the diary of Mary L. Matthews, head of the American Girls' School

Mary L. Matthews

 The full diaries and letters of Miss Mary L. Matthews will be available online after the opening on September 15 of an exhibition at Mount Holyoke College, where she was in the class of 1885.   https://ascdc.mtholyoke.edu/exhibits/show/marymatthews

Since at the time of her death she was a civilian working for the Serbian forces, she was not qualified for military commemoration. She however is the only woman buried in the military cemetery Zejtinlik in Thessaloniki. At her funeral attended Prince George of Serbia, General Milne, the commander of the British forces, and many other dignitaries accompanied by contingents of troops and military bands.

Her grave was erected by the Serbian Army, and the memorial is inscribed in two languages:
"The generous English lady and great benefactress of the Serbian people, Madame Harley a great lady. On your tomb instead of flowers the gratitude of the Serbs shall blossom there for your wonderful acts. Your name shall be known from generation to generation."

„Великој добротворки српског народа, госпођи Харлеј...
На твоме гробу уместо цвећа
српска захвалност вечно ће цвати,
за Твоја дела и Твоје име,
покољења ће далека знати.“
У потпису:
„Српски официри допунске команде“.

Until the Second World War the present street "Car Samoil" in Bitola was named Mrs. Harley.

References:
http://scottishwomenshospitals.co.uk/women/
http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=56085&hl=Harley
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205380484
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205380483

Serbian Barrel - the barrel which saved many lives

Huge problem that affected all combatants and especially civilians in the Balkan Wars and the First World War were communicable diseases.
At the proposal of the British military medical mission led by Colonel Dr. Hunter, a series of draconian measures were implemented in order to eliminate widespread epidemics in Serbia, which than also covered the area of Vardar Macedonia.
The civilians were forbidden to visit sick relatives, quarantines were imposed for all suspected cases, the flow of people was strictly controlled and the means of transportation of patients were disinfected daily. Also in certain areas was conducted mass disinfection of buildings and rooms where people gathered.
A key factor was the disinfection of clothing and bedding in order to successfully suppress the epidemic. The destruction of lice and their eggs in this poor and devastated country, was done using a variety of improvised devices for disinfection, using hot air and steam.
The proposal by the British physician Dr. Stummers first used metal barrels that had water on the bottom and were put on fire. In the inner part with the basket that prevented contact with water were placed clothes and bedding. In Kragujevac were made 100 such barrels, which as models associated with manual design and application were sent to different parts of Serbia.
Given that at that time in Serbia there were not so many metal barrels, the initial model was further modified and the clothing was put in an empty wooden barrel whose bottom was drilled. A container with water was placed over a fire and above it was placed the wooden barrel. The hot steam from the container penetrated through the barrel holes and it disinfecting the clothing. This new invention soon was named "Serbian barrel" and it has contributed greatly to minimize the epidemic of typhus in 1915.

Српско Буре

Огромен проблем кој ги засегало сите завојувани страни а особено цивилното население во Балканските Војни и Првата светска војна, биле заразните болести.
На предлог на Британската воена медицинска мисија предводена од Полковник Др. Хантер (Dr. Hunter), серија на драконски мерки биле имплементирани со цел за елиминирање на епидемиите кои владееле во тогашна Србија, во чиј склоп бил и Вардарскиот дел на Македонија.
На цивилите им било забрането да ги посетуваат болните роднини, биле воведени карантини во кои се сместувале сите сомнителни случаи, протокот на луѓе бил строго контролиран и средствата за превоз на болни биле секојдневно дезинфицирани. Исто така во одредени делови била спроведена масовна дезинфекција на зградите и просториите во кои се собирале луѓето.
Клучен фактор бил и дезинфекцијата на облеката и постелнината со цел на успешно сузбивање на епидемијата. Уништувањето на вошките и нивните јајца во оваа тогаш сиромашна и опостушена земја, било правено со помош на најразлични импровизирани уреди за дезинфекција кои користеле топол воздух и пареа.
На предлог на Британскиот лекар Др. Стамерс (Dr. Stummers) прво се користеле метални буриња кои имале вода на дното и биле ставени над оган. Во нив во внатрешниот дел со помош на корпа која го спречувала контактот со водата биле ставани алиштата и постелнината. Во Крагуевац биле направени 100 вакви буриња, кои како модели пропратени со упатство за конструкција и примена биле пратени во најразлични делови на тогашна Србија.
Со оглед на тоа дека во тој период во Србија немало многу метални буриња, почетниот модел бил дополнително модификуван, односно облеката била ставана во празно дрвено буре чие што дно било избушено. Така, казан со вода бил ставен над оган а над него било поставено дрвеното буре. Топлата пареа од казанот продирала низ отворите на бурето и ја дезинфицирала облеката. Овај импровизиран пронајдок набргу го добил името „Српско буре“ и истиот придонесол во голема мера да се сузбие епидемијата на тифус која владеела во 1915 година.

Sketch of boats used on Doiran Lake for the evacuation of sick and wounded

The native boats on Lake Doiran were used for conveying lying-down patients across the lake from Doiran village to the railway station, during the withdrawal from Serbia in December 1915.
The boats were built of broad planks coated with pitch. They were flat-bottomed, sharp at both ends, and were about 18 ft. long by 3 ft. wide at the middle, and the sides came together somewhat, narrowing to about 2 ft. across the gunwhales at the widest part. One man rowed from the front of the boat with a pair of oars and a wooden outrigger. Each boat just held one stretcher and an attendant in addition to the native boatman.
The shores of the lake shelved very gently and were pebbly, and the bows of the boat could thus be drawn up on the shore and the patient carried on the stretcher and placed in the bottom of the boat with great ease. The journey across the lake took nearly an hour, and stretcher bearers met the boats and carried the patients to the railway station.
This method of bringing lying down cases was exceedingly comfortable, and saved a journey of nearly three miles over a bad road.

Excerpt from: Medical services; general history
by Macpherson, William Grant, (Sir) 1858-; Mitchell, Thomas John, 1882-
Published 1921
Publisher London H.M. Stationery Off

Miss Emily Simmonds - one of the most noted nurses of the American Red cross

Miss Emily Simmonds, one of the most noted nurses of the American Red cross, at lunch with 2 soldiers assigned to protect her. Location – village Brod, Macedonia

Мис Емили Симондс од Американскиот Црвен Крст, на ручек заедно со 2 војници назначени за нејзина заштита во село Брод.
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AMERICAN NURSE FED THE STARVING AT BROD

When the Serbians took the town they found several hundred of the people still there. There was no food. The village was under constant bombardment. Each Macedonian peasant is a potential spy, for lineage and allegiance are too mixed for either side to place reliance in his loyalty. The people of Brod were moved out to the last man and baby. The Serbs searched the houses one by one, and looked under the caving bank of the Cerner and hunted over the bare hillside. There was none left. The village headman swore it.

Yet a little later, when the Serbs had given place to the Italians, the mired and filthy streets of Brood suddenly became alive with children. Children were everywhere; starving children, impossibly dirty children, children that were verminous and pallid and so ragged that the snow struck against bare flesh through the holes in their garments. No men and few women were seen at this time. The Italian soldiers fed these little outcasts with the scraps of their rations. A military ration is scientifically adjusted to the needs of the soldier. There is no excess to be devoted to charity.

Miss Emily Simmonds, of the American Red Cross, relieved this situation. Miss Simmonds secured an assignment as nurse in a near-by hospital and while there learned of the children's famine at Brod. She moved in one night without a pass, without a guard, and equipped only with a small tent that was so imperfect a shelter that the constant rains rotted the mattress of her bed. She took a census of the starving ones.

By this time there were 40 women and 200 children, and there was not a bite to eat, nor a stick of fuel nor a blanket. They lived in that defiance of natural law which seems the rule of the destitute in the Balkans. Most of the time they were starving. They slept in heaps, like animals, in order to keep from freezing.

"Send food," Miss Simmonds telegraphed, "especially beans.""
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Excerpt from the article "ON THE MONASTIR ROAD" published in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE - May 1917 Author: Herbert Corney.

Извадок од статијата „ON THE MONASTIR ROAD“ објавена во NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE - Мај 1917 г. Автор: Herbert Corney.