Katherine Stewart MacPhail OBE (30 October 1887 – 11 September 1974) was a Scottish surgeon. During World War I, she served as chief medical officer of two units of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service. She cared for the wounded in Serbia, France, and the Thessaloniki Front. In 1921, during her stay in Serbia, she founded the country's first children's hospital. While she is remembered as a national hero in Serbia, she was criticised by some for providing her expertise in Serbia rather than in her own country. Her honours include several medals, plaques, and a postage stamp.
Early years and education Katherine Stewart MacPhail was born in Glasgow on 30 October 1887, the third of four daughters of Jessie MacPhail and Dr Donald MacPhail, a doctor. MacPhail was the only daughter in the family who showed an interest in her father's work. As a young girl, she entered the father's office and watched him examine the patients or treat wounds; she also went with him to visit patients on remote farms. In addition, her decision to dedicate her life to medicine was probably influenced by her uncles who were successful doctors: James led a missionary hospital in India, and Alex was a professor of anatomy at the University of Glasgow.
MacPhail and her siblings were initially home-schooled by private teachers. Once they were old enough they attended the distant elementary school in Coatbridge, going on to study at Hillhead High School in Glasgow. All four children successfully completed their studies at the academy, and later at the University of Glasgow.
At that time in Scotland, it was unusual for women to study at all, and especially medicine. Of the well-educated women from reputable families, they were expected only to lead the household well and deal with art. Probably for this reason, her father was against his daughter's desire to study medicine. However, she had already demonstrated decisive determination and persistence, and he could not stand in the way of her decision. Her parents understood the importance of education, and on 26 April 1906 she enrolled to study medicine at the University of Glasgow. She was an excellent student, and received numerous awards for her studies: prizes in physiology (first class) and second class in practical zoology, anatomy and surgery. She graduated on 12 October 1911 with an MB ChB from University of Glasgow Medical School.
MacPhail began her medical career at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, and she was also an assistant doctor at her father's clinic.
World War I Scotland, 1914 When World War I broke out, MacPhail decided to volunteer for active service in the British Army and sent a letter to the War Office requesting to do so. The answer was fast, declining her request and explaining that the Royal Army Medical Corps did not accept women. She turned to the Red Cross, and received a similar response, as it too did not accept female doctors. She contacted Dr Elsie Inglis, who was recruiting women doctors and other medical staff for a women's volunteer medical units. Dr Inglis offered her hospital team to the British War Office, but was rejected by the sentence: "My dear lady, go home and sit still." Dr Inglis then sent letters to the embassies of France, Belgium, Russia and Serbia, who accepted this offer immediately and with gratitude.
From then, she began active work for the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service which affiliated itself with the suffrage movement. As the units for France and Belgium had already been filled, MacPhail was in a dilemma whether to go to Serbia, which was little known in the United Kingdom at that time. MacPhail later said: "I really hardly knew where Serbia was, but from what I read, I knew it was very difficult for them." MacPhail accepted the offer and joined as the youngest in a group of 30 women who comprised the staff of the first unit of the Scottish Women's Hospital in Serbia. Her sister Isabel accompanied her as an orderly.
Serbia, 1915 In mid-December 1914, MacPhail's group boarded a transport boat in Southampton. On the way to Malta, most members of the unit spent time learning Serbian. Immediately after Christmas, they boarded the ship Nile, which sailed to Piraeus. They arrived in Thessaloniki on 1 January 1915, and the next day boarded a train for Kragujevac, which was the headquarters of the Serbian army and military medical team. Though she was a junior doctor, she felt her skills were not being used appropriately.
In the year 1915, an epidemic of typhoid fever emerged among the Serbian army. In June 1915, when the epidemic was in decline, MacPhail became ill with a severe form of the infection. Her hearing was damaged by long-lasting high temperatures, and she lost her hair, so covered her head wearing a hat or a scarf for a long time. When she was healed, on the insistence of Admiral Ernest Troubridge, she left Serbia and returned to Scotland in order to recover completely. She reached Scotland in September 1915.
France, 1916 As soon as she had recovered sufficiently, MacPhail contacted the Serbian Support Fund in London and began a campaign to help the organisation. She traveled all over Scotland, attended charity meetings and held lectures about her experiences in Serbia, appealing for help for the country.
As she was unable to return to Serbia, which by then was behind enemy lines, in January 1916, she joined the Friends charity, which worked in France. She worked at Shalona in Marni, in the Champagne region, northeast of Paris. In April 1916, she was offered a job in Corsica, and in May 1916, arrived in Bastia to work at a hospital. A few days after her arrival she went to Ajaccio, visiting a Scottish Women's Hospital. There, she met with several acquaintances she knew from Serbia, and they told her what was happening to their old unit. Finding that there were opportunities to return to Serbia, she interrupted her stay in Corsica, in order to try to organise the accommodation of Serbian orphans in the Friends home in the High Savai. However, this failed. Friends took over a hotel in Samoan, about from the Swiss border, and turned it into a refugee camp. At the end of September 1916, MacPhail took over the duties of a doctor in this home. During her stay in France, Dr. Sondermayer, chief of the Sanitary Department of the Serbian Army, offered her a place in a hospital and MacPhail, immediately accepted the offer.
Serbia, 1917
In the early spring of 1917, MacPhail was on the Thessaloniki front. In Thessaloniki, MacPhail located her younger sister, Isabel, who arrived there earlier with the Scottish Women's Hospital. Dr Sondermayer offered MacPhail and Isabel an opportunity to work in a newly formed large hospital, which France provided to the Serbian army, named the Serbian Hospital of Crown Prince Alexander.
A few days later, they received an invitation from the head of the Serbian Relielf Fund in Thessaloniki to come to their hospital in Sorović (today the Greek town of Amyntaio, near the Greek-Macedonian border) to help care for the injured civilian population during the bombing of Bitola and the surrounding area. MacPhail and Isabel as well as two other nurses and a cook were sent to the village of Brod, on the south-eastern side of the Bitola area. Isabel soon left Brod and returned to Thessaloniki to work in the Serbian hospital of Crown Prince Alexander, while MacPhail remained behind. At the end of the year, she traveled to Thessaloniki, returning to Brod with a serious illness. She was sure that it was a disease that was caused by long-term poor nutrition, and later it was identified as pellagra, then a little-known disease caused by a diet insufficient in vitamins.
At the end of 1917, the hospital of the Serbian Support Fund was moved from Sorović to Germijan near Brod, where MacPhail's outpatient clinic. At the same time, she approached her deadline to report to her post at the Serbian Hospital of Crown Prince Alexander in Thessaloniki. MacPhail was convinced that her medical help was far more needed in the villages, so she managed to persuade Dr Sondermayer to let her remain in Bitola. At that time, MacPhail was visited by her friend, Dr Edward W. Ryan, whom she showed the poor living conditions in the nearby villages. Seeing this, Ryan immediately began collecting aid through the American Red Cross, and managed to obtain a mobile outpatient unit, which was supplied with drugs and food supplies so that MacPhail could expand her work to improving the nutrition of vulnerable children.
During the winter of 1917–18, MacPhail was invited to a celebration where she first saw and met Crown Prince Alexander. In the Macedonian mountains, conditions were harsh and cold, but MacPhail with her mobile outpatient unit visited the surrounding villages regularly and did her job. In the meantime, her family and friends in Scotland collected warm clothes and footwear which she shared with impoverished women and children.
Scotland, 1918 In the summer of 1918, MacPhail returned to Scotland for a short time to assist her father, Dr Donald MacPhail, who was working alone attending to patients who had contracted Spanish flu. When he contracted the flu, MacPhail and Isabel left Serbia, and the responsible parties accepted their reasons. MacPhail was awarded the Order of St. Sava IV class and the Medal of the Serbian Red Cross, while Isabel received the Cross of Mercy. In August 1918, the sisters MacPhail left Thessaloniki and returned to their native Scotland.
In Scotland, MacPhail cared for her sick father and some of his patients.
On 15 August 1918 MacPhail became an honorary citizen of Coatbridge, and at a special ceremony received the town's charter, and a gold watch.
MacPhail followed news of the offensives on the Thessaloniki front and the allies' breakthrough in September 1918.
Interwar period Return to Serbia At the end of November 1918 MacPhail returned to Serbia. Clothing, footwear and other supplies to help Serbia, were collected by her family, friends and patients, were packaged and sent separately via the Red Cross. From London, MacPhail traveled to Paris and Toulon where she waited to board a ship to Dubrovnik. At that time Toulon was crowded with refugees from Serbia, soldiers and civilians trying to return home. In Toulon she met Darinka Grujic, who had been taking care of Serbian orphans and refugees in France since the beginning of the war, which she wanted to return to Serbia. After several days waiting in Toulon, she embarked for Dubrovnik, then traveled for three days to Sarajevo, Zemun and finally Belgrade.
After her arrival in Belgrade MacPhail applied to the Ministry of the Interior and was granted permission to stay to carryout charity work.
First Children's Hospital in Belgrade At the beginning of 1919, she opened the first children's hospital in Belgrade. This was facilitated by Darinka Grujic securing five military barracks in Studenicka Street, near the Military Hospital, and giving one of the barracks to MacPhail to establish a children's hospital. British marines, under the command of Admiral Troubridge, cleaned, repaired and outfitted the barrack. A steriliser was installed along with 25 military beds, bedding, blankets and other supplies from Red Cross. Drugs and military supplies came from the American Red Cross. The Serbian Support Fund opened a charity kitchen for a nearby school, so MacPhail managed to arrange to supply this kitchen with food as well as for children at the hospital, while firewood was provided by the city government. Troubridge received many toys, and Florence Harvey offered to provide a car for free. At the end of January 1919, the hospital received its first patients.