Fresh research has cast new light on the identity of Margaret Fairlie, an orderly in the original Scottish Women’s Hospitals group which established a hospital at Royaumont Abbey in northern France in 1914.
Like others, I had assumed this was the Margaret Fairlie (pictured above) , the gynaecologist and obstetrician who in 1944 became the first female to be appointed professor by a Scottish university – in this case St Andrews.
There was some circumstantial evidence but nothing definitive. A nagging doubt remained – mainly because she never made any reference to this earlier part of her career.
However, the newsletter of the Royaumont Association digitised by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh points to another woman of the same name. A brief mention here (see text below) notes her death in 1958.
Photographs from the equally splendid Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh collection back this up. This is Margaret Fairlie in the group in 1914 before they left for France.
There are more photographs of her with patients at Royaumont who were mainly poilus – ordinary French soldiers.
So what do we know of this Margaret Fairlie? Not a great deal.
She came from a staunchly Catholic family – her father was a chamberlain to the Pope.
They lived at Myres Castle, Auchtermuchty. The Scotsman of November 27 1914 listing donations to the Red Cross of cars to be used as ambulances includes a vehicle given by Miss Margaret Fairlie of Myres Castle.
Her brother Reginald became a celebrated architect. His designs included the National Library of Scotland and dozens of war memorials.
These included the memorial at Auchtermuchty which records the service and death in 1915 of their brother John along with the other local men. There is no mention of any women who served in France or anywhere else.
This will come as no great surprise – only recently have the immense contributions made by the Scottish Women’s Hospitals been appreciated. There was no recognition then – even if your brother designed the memorial.
Categories: history on the web
The History Company 
I am very happy to see this post as I have believed for some time that the claim that Professor Margaret Fairlie served as an orderly at Royaumont were dubious at best. I think it is far more likely that there was just one orderly of that name and that someone assumed that it was she. That assumption has now spread to many different websites.
Thank you, CF. It was an easy (but lazy) assumption to make. I have alerted others with in an interest in Royaumont to the mistake. No joy yet in persuading the the BMJ to carry a correction to my piece…..
I am one of Professor Margaret Fairlie’s many great-nieces/nephews. To my knowledge there are no family records or lore handed down suggesting she was at Royaumont. I became suspicious when I located the group photo and obituary of the other MF a few years ago.
Thanks. That’s a real pity but not unusual. I’ll send you the material I have – most of which I think you’ll already know about.