SCOTTISH WOMEN'S HOSPITAL.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Medal awarded to Edith Palliser. A commendation medal, complete with its presentation slip and box, awarded to Edith Palliser in the year that the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Services (SWH) was established. She likely received the honour for her part in setting up their first front-line all-female medical units. Palliser was made chairman of the SWH's London committee the following year.The concept of a medical unit composed entirely of women was first suggested by Dr Elsie Inglis at an August 1914 meeting of the Scottish Federation of the NUWSS. The SWH was duly launched and attracted the assistance of numerous suffrage societies, which contributed their skills in fundraising and logistics. The War Office rejected their offer of help, but this did not dampen their determination: the first SWH emissary travelled to France on 9 November 1914. They ultimately established units in France, Russia, Greece, Corsica, and Serbia.Edith Palliser (1859-1927) became involved with the women's suffrage movement in 1897 and went on to hold key roles in various suffrage societies. Her expertise was immensely valuable to the SWH. The London Committee, which she chaired until the end of the First World War, was responsible for the upkeep of the London Ward at the Abbaye of Royaumont and for the Russo-Serbian units led by Elsie Inglis and Evelina Haverfield.The medal shows a "kneeling woman [who] draws towards her a wounded man, and shields him from the grim figure of Death". The des

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