Tag: Activism

Who was Flora Murray?

Born in Dalton, Scotland, in May 1869, Dr Flora Murray was one of Britain’s early woman doctors and a prominent suffragette. 

She began her career as a probationer nurse at the London Hospital, Whitechapel, aged 21. And from there studied at the London School of Medicine for Women, the University of Durham and, eventually, the University of Cambridge.¹

Together with her partner, fellow medical practitioner and daughter of the first English women to qualify as a doctor, Louisa Garrett Anderson, she set up the Women’s Hospital for Children which provided health care for working class children.²

But despite her extensive skills and savvy leadership style, Flora struggled to progress in her career.

You see, until the start of the First World War women doctors were only permitted to treat women and children and could not study general medicine and surgery either.³ This is one of the reasons why Flora – already a staunch women’s rights advocate – believed so passionately in women’s suffrage.

Alongside delivering medical support to suffragettes recovering from hunger strike and other injuries sustained through their activism, Flora spoke regularly at public gatherings and became one of the key figures for the movement in Scotland.⁴

She also joined the 1911 census protest – whereby Emmeline Pankhurst rallied women suffragettes to refuse the 1911 census in protest of the government’s unwillingness to give women the vote.

How did Flora help during the First World War?

Thousands of soldiers needed urgent medical assistance during the First World War. This is where Flora and Louisa spotted an opportunity to do their bit, plus try and change damaging societal norms for the better. 

So, knowing their offers to help would likely be rejected by the British War Office, together they set up the Women’s Hospital Corps (WHC) – a group of women doctors and nurses who ran two military hospitals in Paris and Wimereux, France, between September 1914 to January 1915.⁵

Following the success of those hospitals, Flora and Louisa were then invited by the UK Government to run Endell Street Military Hospital – a large institution in London staffed predominately by suffragette women. 

More than 50,000 seriously ill soldiers were treated and countless lives saved while the hospitals were open.⁶ Even more impressive; both Flora and Louisa had little knowledge of trauma or orthopaedics, yet rose to the challenge nonetheless.

More than

50,000

seriously ill soldiers were treated while the hospitals were open

According to writer and suffragette Beatrice Harraden, both Flora and Louisa: “opened the doors to further fields of opportunity for women physicians and surgeons, and not only for medical women, but for all women who are setting out, or have already set out to conquer fresh territory.”⁷

Unsurprisingly, Flora’s heroism didn’t go unnoticed. In 1917 she and Louisa were awarded the CBE for their efforts during the war. And in 1923, they retired to their cottage in Buckinghamshire with their two terrier dogs. Although little is known about Flora and Louisa’s personal lives they remained in a committed relationship, and even wore matching diamond rings.⁸

In 1923, Flora sadly died of cancer at the age of 54, leaving behind an inspiring legacy that promoted gender integration within the medical profession. She was buried in Buckinghamshire. Her memorial stone also pays tribute to Louisa, and concludes with the line ‘We have been gloriously happy.”⁹