Louisa Garrett Anderson

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Louisa Garrett Anderson
Alan Garrett Anderson
(brother)
Medical career
ProfessionPhysician and surgeon

Louisa Garrett Anderson,

social reformer. She was the daughter of the founding medical pioneer Elizabeth Garrett Anderson
, whose biography she wrote in 1939.

Anderson was the Chief Surgeon of the Women's Hospital Corps (WHC) and a Fellow of the

suffragist. Her partner was fellow doctor and suffragette Flora Murray. Her cousin was Dr Mona Chalmers Watson who also supported suffragettes and founded the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps.[1]

Early life and education

Louisa Garrett Anderson was the oldest of three children of

Johns Hopkins Medical School and travelled to observe operations in Paris and Chicago.[3]

Early career

Despite her education, Anderson was unable to join a general major hospital, as attitudes at the time opposed female doctors treating both men and women. As a result, in 1902, she joined the

New Hospital for Women, a women's-only hospital founded by her mother which treated women and children. Anderson first worked as a surgical assistant and later as a senior surgeon. She performed gynaecological and general operations, and co-published a paper with the hospital pathologist in 1908 discussing her hysterectomy operations and dissecting the 265 cases of uterine cancer treated at the New Hospital for Women.[3]

Suffragette activity

Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Louisa Garrett Anderson, Alfred Caldecott and another in 1910 on the day they went to see the Prime Minister

From 1903, Anderson had been active in organizations affiliated with the

Asquith for voting rights.[5] The protest became known as Black Friday, due to the violence and sexual assault the protesters faced from the police and male bystanders.[6] More than one hundred women were arrested, including Anderson, but all were released without charge.[6] In 1912, she was imprisoned in Holloway, briefly, for her suffragette activities which included breaking a window by throwing a brick. In 1914, Anderson joined Agnes Harben and the new group of women and men: H. J. Gillespie, Gerald Gould, Bessie Lansbury and George Lansbury, Mary Neal, Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Julia Scurr and John Scurr, Evelyn Sharp, and Edith Ayrton, Louise Eates and Lena Ashwell[7] in starting the United Suffragists which grew to have branches in London, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow.[5][8]

Medicine – World War I

When the

First World War broke out, Anderson and Flora Murray founded the Women's Hospital Corps (WHC), and recruited women to staff it.[9] Believing that the British War Office would reject their offer of help, and knowing that the French were in need of medical assistance, they offered their assistance to the French Red Cross.[10] The French accepted their offer and provided them the space of a newly built hotel, Claridge's, in Paris as their hospital.[11] Murray was appointed Médecin-en-Chef (chief physician) and Anderson became the chief surgeon.[10]

Murray reported in her diary that visiting representatives of the British War Office were astonished to find a hospital run successfully by British women, and the hospital was soon treated as a British auxiliary hospital rather than a French one.[10] In addition to the hospital in Paris, the Women's Hospital Corps also ran another military hospital in Wimereux.[11]

In January 1915, casualties began to be evacuated to England for treatment. The War Office invited Murray and Anderson to return to London to run a large hospital, the Endell Street Military Hospital (ESMH), under the Royal Army Medical Corps. ESMH treated almost 50,000 soldiers between May 1915 and September 1919 when it closed.[11]

At Endell, Anderson and the hospital pathologist,

Second World War and continues to be in use today in ear, nose, throat, maxillofacial, and neurosurgery procedures.[13]

Flora Murray (left) and Louise Garrett Anderson (right) leaving Buckingham Palace after receiving decorations

Awards

Murray and Anderson were both appointed to the Order of the British Empire as Commanders (CBE) in August 1917, as part of the first group to receive the honour.[14]

Death

Anderson died in Brighton and was cremated. Her ashes were scattered over the South Downs. She is memorialised on Murray's gravestone, near to their home in Penn, Buckinghamshire. The inscription reads:[15][16]

To the dear love of comrades and in memory of

Flora Murray

CBE, MD, BS Durham, DPH. Cambridge

Daughter of Com John Murray RN

Murraythwaite, Dumfriesshire

Born 8 May 1869

Died 26 July 1923

She commanded the military hospital Endell Street London with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel RAMC 1915 -1919

God gave her the strength to lead, to pity and to heal

And of her friend

Louisa Garrett Anderson

C.B.E., M.D., Chief Surgeon Women's Hospital Corps 1914–1919

Daughter of James George Skelton Anderson and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson of Aldeburgh, Suffolk.

Born 28 July 1873

Died 15 November 1943

WE HAVE BEEN GLORIOUSLY HAPPY

Archives

The archives of Louisa Garrett Anderson are held at

The Women's Library at the Library of the London School of Economics, ref. 7LGA].[17][18]

Posthumous recognition

Anderson's name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the

plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.[19][20][21]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Back in the day: Mona Chalmers - general in battle with the sexists". The National. 28 March 2017. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
  2. ^ Manton, Jo (1965). Elizabeth Garrett Anderson: England's First Woman Physician. 217-218.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. ^ a b Moore, Wendy (2020). No Man's Land: The Trailblazing Women Who Ran Britain's Most Extraordinary Military Hospital During World War I. Basic Books. p. 34.
  4. ^ Moore, Wendy (2020). No Man's Land: The Trailblazing Women Who Ran Britain's Most Extraordinary Military Hospital During World War I. Basic Books. p. 36.
  5. ^
    OCLC 1016848621
    .
  6. ^ a b Moore, Wendy (2020). No Man's Land: The Trailblazing Women Who Ran Britain's Most Extraordinary Military Hospital During World War I. Basic Books. p. 38.
  7. ISBN 978-1-84142-031-8
    .
  8. ^ "Suffrage in Glasgow". Votes for Women. 30 July 1915.
  9. ^ "Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray: Redefining gender roles in military medicine". The Bulletin. 1 April 2019. Retrieved 18 July 2020.
  10. ^
    PMID 8007751
    .
  11. ^
    PMID 17200698
    .
  12. ^ Moore, Wendy (2020). No Man's Land: The Trailblazing Women Who Ran Britain's Most Extraordinary Hospital During World War I. Basic Books. p. 293.
  13. ^ Moore, Wendy (2020). No Man's Land: The Trailblazing Women Who Ran Britain's Most Extraordinary Military Hospital During World War I. Basic Books. p. 295.
  14. ^ "Supplement to the Edinburgh Gazette" (PDF). Edinburgh Gazette. 27 August 1917. Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  15. ^ Iain MacFarlaine (21 June 2002). "Louisa Garret Anderson". Medical Pioneer, Social Reformer. Find a Grave. Retrieved 17 August 2011.
  16. ^ Strutt, Peter. "Dr. Flora Murray 1869-1923 and Dr. Louisa Garrett Anderson 1873‑1943 | History, Monuments and Memorials of Penn". Retrieved 12 February 2021.
  17. ^ Science, London School of Economics and Political. "Library". London School of Economics and Political Science.
  18. ^ "Overview". twl-calm.library.lse.ac.uk. Retrieved 8 June 2020.
  19. ^ "Historic statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett unveiled in Parliament Square". Gov.uk. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  20. ^ Topping, Alexandra (24 April 2018). "First statue of a woman in Parliament Square unveiled". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  21. ^ Saul, Heather (24 April 2018). "Millicent Fawcett statue unveiling: the women and men whose names will be on the plinth". iNews. Retrieved 25 July 2020.

Other sources

  • Geddes, Jennian F (November 2008). "Louisa Garrett Anderson (1873–1943), surgeon and suffragette".
    S2CID 704972
    .

External links

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