Little Grey Partridge

[tommy mcclimonds]

Published in 1988 by Aberdeen University Press. I picked this up recently at an auction for just a couple of pounds as I wanted to see what I could learn about the Scottish Womens Hospital and I was also researching a member of the RAMC who had served in Salonika/Serbia.

I read the Diary over just two days and it provides a very down to earth account of a young woman experiences in the day to day life of the Scottish Womens Hospitals. It is written from a very different perspective from most books of the time covering this topic and her diary concentrates on Isobel's day to day "adventures" both inside and outside the hospital. Filled with 71 excellent pictures it provides a social portrait of the work undertaken by the SWH in Serbia. It was a very easy read indeed and as Rosemary I Weir, Department of Nusing Studies, University of Edinburgh, writes in 1988 in her foreword to the book, "it is a fitting tribute to a remarkable young women who faced the hardships of war with cheerfulness and equanimity", something which comes across on every page.

The Serbian soldiers, admiring the trim grey uniforms and rapid walk of the Scottish women in the hospital unit, (no doubt developed at home trying to get away from Scottish men - ) called them affectionately "little grey partirdges", hence the title for the book.

Regards, Tommy.

PS: According to the book, apparently her father, one James Ross also invented the golden drink "dram buidhe" (based on a Fench recipe I might add) or as it's called today "Drambuie".