Red Cross hails war heroines of the aristocracy

THE efforts of two aristocratic women who gave up home comforts to set up a First World War military hospital have been “overlooked”, says the Red Cross.

Lady Muriel Paget and Lady Sybil Grey ran a hospital in Petrograd (St Petersburg) from 1915 to 1918, but details of their extraordinary efforts lay buried for years in British Red Cross archives.

But thanks to the archived accounts and pictures, their work has finally been revealed.

The daughter of the 12th Earl of Winchilsea, Lady Muriel Paget “suddenly saw where her destiny would lead her” when, in 1915, she heard the British government wanted to extend military aid to its Russian allies.

With her fellow high-society friend, Lady Sybil Grey, the daughter of the fourth Earl Grey, she went on to form a unit of English surgeons and nurses.

Concerned at the casualties on the Eastern front, they went to Petrograd to set up the Anglo-russian Hospital.

The British Journal of Nursing insisted they were inexperienced and unfit for the job. But the pair remained unfazed. Lady Sybil’s mother later suggested the journal’s comments “should be framed and hung on a wall”.

In fact, Lady Muriel was so determined to help others during the war that when she met leading statesmen from the Allied forces to demand their support, Edvard Benes, the Czechoslovak foreign minister, was reported to have said: “Protect me! Protect me from this woman!”

Dr Alasdair Brooks, heritage manager at the British Red Cross, said: “The story of these incredible women has been hugely overlooked.”