We thought we’d let you know about another fascinating historical project that we’re currently working on. Tucked away on the shelves of the Edinburgh and Scottish Collection, is a remarkable woman’s story told in her own words through her personal journals and scrapbook. Ethel Moir was a young woman who lived an incredible life working as a nurse to help save the lives of soldiers and victims of war during World War One. As the war raged across Europe she served as a ward orderly in Dr Elsie Inglis’ Scottish Women’s Hospital in Rumania and Serbia. 
Ethel’s journey started in Liverpool as she departed on the troopship Hanspiel on August 30th 1916. The Hanspiel also carried thirty Serbian soldiers and six officers returning to the battlefields. Their ship was escorted by a naval destroyer past the coast of Northern Ireland, before it headed out alone west into the stormy Atlantic and then north over the Arctic Circle, passing close to Iceland and through the Barents Sea. The Hanspiel finally made land at Bacheridza, about five miles from the seaport town of Archangel in Russia, on September 10th 1916. Ethel and her companions would continue their journey by train. Plans to go to Petrograd were changed because on arrival at Archangel a wire was waiting for Dr Elsie Inglis. Ethel writes, “Plenty of work awaiting us “down south” we hear, so Dr Inglis wants to hurry on as quickly as possible”.
In her journals which span September 1916 to January 1919, Ethel Moir recounts her daily life through words and photographs. This picture shows Dr. Elsie Inglis surrounded by her nursing unit. We plan to make the full volumes as well as transcriptions of the diaries accessible to all via Capital Collections. Look out for further instalments as Ethel’s journey unfolds…
