Veteran nurse, 95, to open Erskine garden exhibit
Agnes MacLeod will do the honours at Ideal Home Show
A veteran Army nurse from the Erskine home is to open a major exhibit.
Agnes MacLeod, 95, will help cut the ribbon at Ideal Home Show in Glasgow tomorrow.
Part of the event is the Erskine show garden Under the White Cross, which is taken from the motto of the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps and was inspired by Mrs MacLeod, who lives at Erskine.
She joined the Army after World War II, having already completed her nursing training.
The young Agnes served in the Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps, travelling the world for six years nursing the troops in Woolwich, Hong Kong, York and Germany.
Mrs McLeod, who hails originally from Skye, said: “I’m thrilled to be going to the show.
“I’ve even got a new outfit for it. My family are going along too and I’m looking forward to that.”
The garden will aim to take visitors back to the height of the conflict when Scotland needed a hospital to care for soldiers returning home with lost limbs.
It was for this reason that The Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers was established by pioneering Scottish surgeon Sir William Macewen and Queen Victoria’s fourth daughter, Princess Louise, in October 1916.
The state-of-the-art hospital had an operating theatre, recreation areas and workshops for the manufacture of limbs for patients.
By the end of the First World War, more than 3,450 men had been admitted with 2,697 being fitted with artificial limbs.
The hospital became a national institution, and has now cared for more than 86,000 veterans. It is known now simply as Erskine. The garden was designed by Erskine events project officer Jennifer Campbell. She said: “Over the past five years, the Erskine garden has taken us on a journey through the lives of those who have fought and served during war and conflict for our country.
“In 2018, Erskine will take you back to the height of the First World War, when a hospital was set up to care for Scotland’s injured and limbless soldiers returning from the frontline.”
I’m thrilled to be going to the show. I’ve even got a new outfit for it. My family are going too Agnes MacLeod