Photograph of Endell Street Military Hospital staff

The Endell Street Military Hospital was a Great War military hospital located in Covent Garden, central London. This was the only hospital entirely staffed by female suffragists. The hospital was established in May 1915 by doctors Flora Murray and Louisa Garrett Anderson. Both women were former members of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). Murray acted as physician to the militants but in addition spoke at meeting and rallies, marched in processions, provided first aid at Suffragette demonstrations, and looked after Emmeline Pankhurst and other hunger-strikers after their release from prison. She campaigned with other doctors against forcible feeding of prisoners. In the First World War she served in France with the Women’s Hospital Corps (WHC) along with Garrett Anderson. They established military hospitals for the Army in Paris and Wimereux. Their proposals to establish a hospital for British soldiers was initially rejected by the authorities, but eventually the WHC became established at Endell Street. The hospital was run under the Royal Army Medical Corps of the British Army, and in 1917 Murray and Anderson each received a CBE for their work there. The Hospital had 573 beds, allowing for some 26,000 patients to be cared for during the five years the hospital was active. The women doctors performed upwards of 7,000 operations during that time. In October 1919 Endell Street received orders to evacuate, finally closing its doors in the December of that year