Margaret Smith DEWAR. Mentioned in Despatches. Staff Nurse QAIMNSR of 37th General Hospital. Born 1883
She was killed in an aerial bombardment on 37 General Hospital where she was working. Miss Dewar was holding a pillow round a soldier's head, when she was mortally wounded on the 12 March 1917.
At rest in Mikra British Cemetery, Kalamaria, Greece.
The other nurse that died at the same time was Staff Nurse M Marshall
Service medals and Emblem issued 22 September 1924.
Commemorated on the Scottish Nurses Memorial at St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh.
Commemorated on the following link.
https://www.firstworldwarglasgow.co.uk/index.aspx?articleid=11915
Following extract from The British Journal of Nursing 24 March 1917 -
SAD NEWS COMES FROM SALONIKA.
The British hospital camps attached to the Serbian Army at Vertekop, which on three occasions last summer were bombed by German aeroplanes, were again attacked in similar fashion last week, with the result that several of the patients were killed or wounded and two British nurses lost their lives.
These were Staff Nurse M. S. Dewar, Q.A.I.M.N.S. Reserve, and Staff, Nurse M. Marshall, of the same Service. Staff Nurse D. E. Dodds, T.F.N.S., who was trained at the Willesden Infirmary, was wounded, but we are glad to know she is recovering. There is absolutely no excuse for this new act of barbarity,
Because the hospital camps in question are situated a long distance from any other camps and are conspicuously marked with enormous red crosses painted on the ground. It is evident that the enemy bombarded them intentionally.
The People - Sunday 29 July 1917 -
BRAVE BRITISH NURSES.
Died in saving the lives of their patients.
According to an order of the day published in the French “Official Journal,”
The Croix de Guerre (with palm) has been awarded to Miss Margaret Dewar who was mortally wounded during the bombardment of the hospital while protecting a patient’s head with a pillow. The decoration has also been awarded to Miss Mary Marshal who was killed in the same aerial bombardment and to an American volunteer named Lovering who was in charge of an adjoining American establishment. Their courage in protecting the wounded earned for them and admiration and affection of their French comrades.
Photograph credited to Inspirational Women of ww1
