Parcels and Tartan Ties

My Great Aunt, Margaret Box was a nurse with the Elsie Inglis Unit of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals, one of a group of indomitable women who went out to give medical help during the First World War. Margaret travelled to Salonica and Serbia with the unit, and in January 1919 she was working in the… Continue reading Parcels and Tartan Ties

From Salonica to Sarajevo

My Great Aunt, Margaret Box trained as a nurse and, towards the end of the First World War went as a Red Cross Volunteer with the Scottish Women’s Hospitals to join their life-saving work in Serbia. She had been working in Skopje, but the unit was no longer needed there, and they had been sent,… Continue reading From Salonica to Sarajevo

We had a very jolly Xmas 1918

Margaret Box, my Great Aunt, spent the Christmas of 1918 far from the rest of her family, working as a nurse with the Elsie Inglis Unit of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals. On the 28th of December 1918 the unit, including Margaret, were assigned to the hospital in Sarajevo, from where she wrote to her mother.… Continue reading We had a very jolly Xmas 1918

Terra Incognita, Mr Box – 12th December 1918

The Scottish Women’s Hospitals wrote to my Great Grandfather, John Robert Box, on the 12th of December 1918, sympathising with his frustration that he had to communicate with his daughter, my Great Aunt, Margaret Box by way of Salonica (Thessalonica) in Greece, when she was working as a Red Cross Nurse in Sarajevo, over 300… Continue reading Terra Incognita, Mr Box – 12th December 1918

Scottish Women’s Hospitals to Mrs Box – December 6th 1918

During the First World War Elsie Inglis, a Scottish Doctor, realised the urgent need for medical assistance to treat the wounded, but as a woman, her offer of assistance was declined by the War Office. Undeterred she established the Scottish Women’s Hospitals, and recruited women to go and and tend the casualties of war. My… Continue reading Scottish Women’s Hospitals to Mrs Box – December 6th 1918

About to embark on S.S. Danube – 3rd December 1918

Many valiant men, on both sides of the conflict, left their homes to fight in the First World War. There were also valiant women who travelled from the safety and familiarity of their native land to fight, not against people but against the injuries of war, and the disease – particularly Spanish Flu – that… Continue reading About to embark on S.S. Danube – 3rd December 1918