Endell Street: The Women Who Ran Britain's Trailblazing Military Hospital

Description

When the First World War broke out, the suffragettes suspended their campaigning and joined the war effort. For pioneering suffragette doctors (and life partners) Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson that meant moving to France, where they set up two small military hospitals amidst fierce opposition. Yet their medical and organisational skills were so impressive that in 1915 Flora and Louisa were asked by the War Ministry to return to London and establish a new military hospital in a vast and derelict old workhouse in Covent Garden's Endell Street. That they did, creating a 573-bed hospital staffed from top to bottom by female surgeons, doctors and nurses, and developing entirely new techniques to deal with the horrific mortar and gas injuries suffered by British soldiers. Receiving 26,000 wounded men over the next four years, Flora and Louisa created such a caring atmosphere that soldiers begged to be sent to Endell Street. And then, following the end of the war and the Spanish Flu outbreak, the hospital was closed and Flora, Louisa and their staff were once again sidelined in the medical profession. The story of Endell Street provides both a keyhole view into the horrors and thrills of wartime London and a long-overdue tribute to the brilliance and bravery of an extraordinary group of women.

Wendy Moore is a freelance journalist and author of four nonfiction books on medical and social history. Her second book, Wedlock, was a Channel 4 TV Book Club choice and a Sunday Times no 1 bestseller. She lives in London.

'This is the best book I've read about the First World War since Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth...With her impressively focused research and eye for human detail, Wendy Moore has produced an unforgettable microcosm...this fascinating book is a microcosm of early 20th-century Britain at its very best - and its very worst.' - The Times 'Rarely is a book so important, so timely...vividly and meticulously written, Endell Street is a masterpiece to stretcher straight into a major film studio...[an] unmissable, thrilling read. ' - Evening Standard 'Fascinating, carefully researched... Moore is superb at describing the medical advances that resulted in seven research papers by Endell Street doctors being published in The Lancet, among the first ever by women.' - Guardian 'Moore has scoured archives and diaries to produce a meticulously researched history of this extraordinary institution. By writing this splendid book, Moore has ensured that the efforts of these pioneering women will never be forgotten.' - Literary Review