Miss Isabella Paul Dow: An Aberdeenshire nurse who served with the Scottish Women’s Hospital, during World War One.

I attended a local church to take part in their service for Remembrance and afterwards went to visit the unmarked resting place of a World War One nurse, who served in Britian, Serbia and Salonika.

One of my areas of research is the Scottish Women’s Hospital (SWH) and the people who volunteered with it.  My interest is where did all these volunteers come from? Did anyone in the North East of Scotland  volunteer with the SWH? Who were they and what did they do in the organisation? 

They certainly did volunteer! About 50 people from the area  played their part in the War through the SWH – not just doctors but matrons, nurses, orderlies, cooks, drivers and administrators.

So today,  I’d  like to tell you  a bit about one of those nurses -  Miss Isabella Paul Dow.
She was born on the 23rd October 1872, at the Porter’s Lodge, Rothiemay, Banffshire.  Her father, George Dow, worked as a coachman there.  He and his wife Mary Smith had  at least 8 children. 

George Dow died in January 1881.  After the death of her father, the family lived  at Strachan House, Old Machar where her mother worked as a housekeeper. Isabella was educated at the Girls’ School, Aberdeen, and when she was  aged 18 she was still living with her mother and some siblings,  at  15 Claremont St.,  Aberdeen. She was employed as a bookkeeper, possibly working from home– from there she went straight into nursing. 

Isabella’s nursing career  began in the 1890’s, it can be followed by looking at the Queen’s Nursing Roll and her entry on it.  

She worked as a nurse in the Fever Hospital at Monsall, Manchester and the Whitehaven Hospital (Cumbria).  She returned to Scotland in May 1898 and  was based in the Victoria Infirmary Glasgow,  then Paisley Infirmary, and a number of other posts.

Working in the Glasgow hospitals she would certainly have heard about Dr Inglis  call for volunteers for the SWH and as an experienced, mature nurse who had fever hospital skills,  she would have been an ideal candidate.  Just prior her application to the SWH Isabella was working in Perthshire as a temporary Matron  at a Convalescence Home for wounded soldiers.

So in September 1915, aged 43, she  packed her luggage and  donned her SWH uniform and set sail for Serbia  where she joined the 2nd Serbian Unit known as the London-Wales unit. The unit was based in Valjevo, but just a month after her arrival the hospital was ordered to evacuate. During the evacuation journey the women of her unit were detained by the Austrian Army and became  prisoners of war, even though this was against the Geneva Convention.

Isabella’s unit had 32 women in the group.  Food was scare and accommodation was sparse, each member had managed to smuggle a blanket, pinned  underneath their coats.  The captives were moved around by armed guard first to Belgrade, then Hungary and onto Vienna.  There, the women and their belongings were searched - any papers, diaries, photos and camera film were confiscated before they were set free in Zurich.  The women arrived back to London on the 12th February 1916.

By July of 1916, Isabella’s application for another  tour with the SWH came through.  This time with the American Unit. She sailed out of Southampton with other SWH colleagues and set sail for Salonika, now known as Thessaloniki, in the northern Greek region of Macedonia.

The journey was challenging and dangerous, the seas would have been mined, there were German submarines  and they could have encountered Zeppelins flying overhead.

This unit hospital was  under canvas, in meadows by Lake Ostrovo, very picturesque under normal conditions. However, at this time, the summer  heat brought malaria with it, in the winter, it was so cold that the nurses hair froze to their pillows.  The fighting was close by and casualties were brought to the hospital by mules or the SWH ambulances, the 200 beds filled up quickly.  The hospital supported  the Serbian Army and they set up various field hospitals, as the front line moved about.

I can only find two photographs of Isabella, one  a very grainy picture in a Daily Record article published in 1916 which will have copyright restrictions on it, however the photo below is allowed under the IWM Non Commercial Licence, and Isabella is there, somewhere within the group of nurses!

Isabella remained working for the unit until May 1917. On her return she was placed in charge of a London hospital for wounded officers and men. Later she returned to Scotland, where she was transferred to  work in a soldiers convalescence home in Perth.

After the war, Isabella returned to nursing in Paisley until she retired.

On retirement, she settled and bought a home in Banchory – The Chalet, Ramsay Road.  She had some family nearby, a brother in Banchory and a sister and family in Inverbervie.

Isabella died aged 63,  on the 11th February 1935. She must have died while out walking or visiting, as she was found dead on that evening in the nearby garden of Marlow Cottage, Banchory.

There was a small obituary in the local paper, announcing her death and funeral arrangements.  She was buried in Springfield Cemetery, Aberdeen, in the same liar as her mother and two siblings, although the stone bears no mention of Isabella … maybe she had seen so many unmarked grave and deaths in her time, that she chose the same for herself …

References:-
“Aberdeen nurse from Serbia”, Aberdeen Weekly Journal. 18th Feb 1916. Page 8
Women of the sixth (American) Unit of Scottish Women’s Hospital – http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//21/media-2144/large.jpg