Ethel Moir

Ethel Mary Moir (1884 - 1973), a nursing orderly who served with the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service on the Eastern Front during World War I. Moir recorded her experiences serving with the Elsie Inglis Unit in Russia and Serbia in two volumes of diaries.

Early life Ethel Mary Moir was born in 1884 in Belize in British Honduras, Moir left British Honduras at the age of 3 months and travelled with her family to Scotland Moir is recorded as residing in Inverness with her family in both the 1901 and 1911 census.

Scottish Women's Hospital In 1916, Moir and Grant enlisted with Dr Elsie Inglis unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service, known as the SWH, Moir notes in her diary that the ship arrived in Arkhangelsk on 10 September 1916 and from there the unit moved upriver to Bacheridza where they were visited by local dignitaries. and set up a field hospital in a barn housing 200 injured soldiers. and there was talk of revolution and the death of Rasputin.

In February 1918, Ethel embarked on a second tour of duty with the Scottish Women's Hospital. Before leaving the UK the unit was inspected by King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace. Ethel left the UK with her unit on 20 February 1918 en route for Serbia. They travelled via Boulogne, Rome, Naples, and Taranto before arriving at the Scottish Women's Hospital in Salonique. While passing through Naples Ethel records a short visit to Pompeii in her diary. From Thessaloniki the unit moved on to S.W.H. “Elsie Inglis” Camp in Verbliani where a tent hospital was to be built as a direct line from the trenches. by Abigail Docherty.