Florence’s War

At the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, Florence and other women offered their services to the British War Office. Florence therefore went with Mabel St Clair Stobart and the Women’s National Service League to Antwerp under the auspices of the Belgian Red Cross Society. Antwerp was overrun by the German Army, and the group were forced to evacuate their hospital under fire. The Stobart Unit subsequently gave service at the Anglo-French Hospital, at the Château Tourlaville, near Cherbourg. When the work of the hospital in Tourlaville was finished, Florence returned to England, and she was appointed as Head of the X-ray and Electrical Department of the Fulham Military Hospital. When she took up her post was the first woman doctor to work under the War Office in England. For a long time, Florence was the only female member of the medical staff at Fulham Military Hospital. Florence’s anatomical knowledge was of particular value in helping to localise retained shrapnel and to give the surgeons a precise anatomical location. Florence made contributions to the understanding of war injuries, and was particularly concerned with Soldier’s Heart or Disordered Action of the Heart, and believed that some cases were related to hyperthyroidism.