Christina Woods
A great friendship between brave women and a brave people
What do Irma LeVasseur, the first female
French Canadian physician in Quebec, and
Florence Harvey, a member of Canadian Golf
Hall of Fame, have in common?
They are both women who went to war
in Serbia.
Windsor’s Serbian Heritage Museum is
hosting an exhibit which celebrates the
extraordinary work of the women who
worked for the Scottish Women’s Hospital
Foreign Service during World War I. Women
Who Went to War in Serbia: A Time for
Recognition celebrates the women – doctors,
nurses, stretcher-bearers and ambulance
drivers - deployed to Serbia to provide
medical care and transport under combat
conditions. The exhibit profiles nineteen of
these courageous women including Dr.
LeVasseur and Ms. Harvey. A local committee
of seven dedicated people has worked for over
a year to bring this extraordinary story to
Windsor.
The Scottish Women’s Hospital, located
in Edinburgh, attracted a number of young
women who wanted to do their part for the
war effort. Their courage and volunteerism
was rejected by the British government – a
sign of the anti suffragist times. A number of
jobs were newly open to women by virtue of
the large numbers of men away but there
were still areas where women were not
welcome. When Dr. Elsie Inglis, one of the first
graduates of the Edinburgh School of
Medicine for Women and already considered
a pioneer of social medicine, first approached
the British Home Office in 1914 about
sending female medical personnel to the
front she was told “Go home, my good lady,
The Serbian Heritage Museum at the Serbian Centre houses a wide
range of important artifacts and photographs dedicated to the
promotion and preservation of Serbian heritage and culture.
The Women Who Went to War exhibit runs from June 8 - Nov. 13, 2017.
Walk-in hours are from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Tues – Fri.
Group and private tours by appointment.
Call 519-944-4884 or email for weekend showings.
and sit still.” Dr. Inglis did no such thing. She
approached foreign embassies of allied
countries and in due course organized the
first medical mission to Serbia. In January
1915 , 100 beds and 30 British female doctors
and nurses arrived in Kraguyevac, a city
struggling with a typhoid epidemic and a
food shortage.
This group of women would eventually
number 600 in Serbia and include medical
personnel from several countries, including
Canada.
Canadian Florence Harvey drove an
ambulance in Serbia and fundraised among
her fellow female golf players to buy an
ambulance for the war effort. After the war,
Dr. LeVasseur, a pediatrician, founded both a
hospital and school for disabled children in
Quebec City.
Julka Vlagic, who serves as the
museum’s curator, social media animator
and marketer, explains that the exhibit is the
fourth in a series which started in 2014 that
brings to life both notable and lesser known
Serbian stories of World War I. So far, the
museum has hosted a commemoration of the
100th anniversary of the Serbian internment
camps, a retrospective of The Great Serbian
Retreat and the premiere of the documentary
The King’s Army. In 2018 the museum will
feature The Heriot Boys – the story of the
young Serbian refugees who attended The
George Heriot School in Scotland who
returned home to form Serbia’s first national
rugby team.
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July 2017 - The HUB 9