Flora Murray
Who am I?
Dr Flora Murray was a pioneering military doctor and women’s suffrage campaigner. Born in Cummertrees, Dumfries & Galloway, in 1869, she was the daughter of a landowner and Royal Navy captain. She received her medical degree from the University of Durham in 1903 - and thereafter moved to London to work as an anaesthetist.
Source: The Biographical Dictionary of Scottish Women
I am monumental because...
In 1908, Murray joined the Women’s Social and Political Union and set up a clinic to treat suffragettes injured in violent demonstrations. With fellow-doctor Louisa Garrett Anderson (the daughter of Elizabeth Garret Anderson, the first woman in the UK to qualify as a doctor) she treated hunger-striking suffragettes, and campaigned against forced feeding. At the outbreak of the First World War Murray and Garrett Anderson moved to France and set up a surgical unit for wounded soldiers. At the behest of the British Army they then set up a hospital near Boulogne - before returning to London to run the Endell Street Military Hospital. Murray rose to the rank of Doctor-in-Charge (equivalent to a Lieutenant-Colonel). All of the hospitals the women ran were staffed almost exclusively by women. Flora died in 1923 - and is buried adjacent to Louisa.
Dr Flora Murray: Endell Street Hospital, London
© IWM (Art.IWM ART 2767)
Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson at work, in a painting by Francis Dodd.
© IWM (Art.IWM ART 4084)
Find out more about Flora Murray
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