Pictured above Left to Right : Lady Angela Forbes, Millie, Duchess of Sutherland, Nellie Hozier, Shelagh, Duchess of Westminster and a small group of the Duchess of Westminster's nurses ( with patients) at Le Touquet, France.
Pictured below the Duchess of Westminter's Nurses enroute to Le Touquet, France, on board Sir Thomas Lipman's Yacht
Some Society Angels of the Great War
AN ILLUSTRATED TALK
FROM WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT
Using research material from his book “ Lady Carnarvon’s Nursing Homes : Nursing the Privileged in Wartime and Peace” ISBN 978-1-905914-3-6 (2011) William Cross explores and appraises the brave contribution made by several woman aristocrats of High Society in nursing the wounded during the Great War both at home and in the theatres of war. Among the ladies featured are:
Margaret ( Nellie ) Ogilvy Hozier, later Mrs Bertram Romilly ( 1888-1955) “ one of the first women to join a party of doctors and nurses to Belgium in August 1914 in time to help with the carnage of Mons.” Nellie was the sister in law of Winston Churchill.
Millicent Leveson Gower, Dowager Duchess of Sutherland ( 1867-1955) and her sister Lady Angela Forbes ( 1876-1950) ( fictionalised in the TV series ‘ The Monocled Mutineeer’,) who established respectively hospitals “ the camp in the oatfield” at Bourbourg ( near Dunkirk) and soldiers’ canteens ( Angelinas) at Boulogne and the British Soldiers’ Buffets near Estaples, France.
Constance, ( ‘Shelagh ‘ Cornwallis-West), Duchess of Westminster, ( 1876-1970) who established a large military hospital at Le Touquet , France, where some pioneering work was done on treating cases of shell shock.
Contact William Cross by e-mail williecross@virginmedia.com
This talk was successfully launched at Newport's U3A on 26 March, 2015.
Pictured below is Shelagh, Duchess of Westminster
