Skip to content

Moir, Ethel

Moir, Ethel
Moir, Ethel
Moir, Ethel
About the artist
Name
Moir, Ethel
Biography
Ethel Moir was born in British Honduras (Belize). Her father, John Moir was a doctor and she had two sisters and one brother. In around 1900 the family moved to Inverness. Ethel was about 30 years old at the outbreak of the First World War and she departed with Dr Elsie Inglis' Scottish Women's Hospital unit in 1916.

Ethel Moir and her friend and fellow nurse Lilias Mary Grant both came from Inverness and joined up together. Both women kept diaries of their time serving with the unit which are held by Edinburgh City Libraries. Ethel served with the unit as an orderly from August 1916 to February 1917, then again from February 1918 to January 1919. Ethel was not a trained nurse but as a ward orderly she would have tended to the sick and wounded. Frequently, in wartime, professional boundaries were crossed and men and women without nurse training, found themselves carrying out nursing duties.

Biographical information kindly shared by Yvonne McEwen, The Centre for the Study of The Two World Wars, The University of Edinburgh.
Creator of