{"id":216233,"date":"2026-08-12T17:45:51","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/?p=216233"},"modified":"2026-08-12T17:52:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T15:52:22","slug":"england-has-sent-us-her-daughters-the-forgotten-story-of-british-nurses-who-bled-with-the-serbian-army-on-the-salonika-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/serbiantimes.info\/en\/england-has-sent-us-her-daughters-the-forgotten-story-of-british-nurses-who-bled-with-the-serbian-army-on-the-salonika-front\/","title":{"rendered":"“ENGLAND HAS SENT US HER DAUGHTERS”: The forgotten story of British nurses who bled with the Serbian army on the Salonika front!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Kaymakchalan approaches, many Serbs will certainly remember the sacrifice of their soldiers who, just nine months after the evacuation to Corfu, liberated a part of their territory. But, just like the Serbian soldiers and civilians who crossed the “Prokletije” into Albania, they were accompanied and supported by a group of British women \u2013 the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service. Without them, thousands would have lost their lives during the liberation of Serbia, writes retired Colonel Nick Ilic, former military attach\u00e9 at the Embassy of the United Kingdom in Belgrade, in an author’s text for Nova.rs.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

These women left behind comfort, privilege, and security to follow an army fighting for survival. After an epic retreat and reorganization on Corfu, the Serbian army was dispatched to the Salonika front to join British and French forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The British army provided the Serbian military with a fully equipped and staffed 7,000-bed hospital in Salonika.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the British army provided vast hospital infrastructure, British women volunteered as doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, and rescuers to work in the field hospital of the Serbian army \u2014 sharing danger with Serbian soldiers and, in some cases, giving their lives. Their story remains one of the most extraordinary and forgotten chapters in the shared history of Britain and Serbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Serbian infantry climbed the mountain for hours. Ahead of them rose Kaymakchalan \u2014 a stone fortress soaked in blood, more than 2,500 meters above the border between Greece and occupied Serbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 1916, the Serbian army was fighting to return home after the disaster of the Great Retreat, when it was driven out of the homeland and forced to cross the Albanian and Montenegrin mountains. Now restored and strengthened on the Salonika front, it was returning to the battlefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every step was paid for with blood. The mountain was scarred by artillery. The air was full of dust, smoke, and the moans of the wounded being carried back from the positions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the first Serbian attacks succeeded and then stalled, new attempts followed to dislodge the Bulgarians from their fortified positions. Along the entire frontline lay the wounded and dying \u2014 their cries echoing for miles. And then, something unexpected reached the soldiers of the First Army who were preparing for a new assault \u2014 voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not the voices of soldiers \u2014 but the voices of women. English voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the next waves of the Drina Division moved forward, a sight unfolded before them that no one could have imagined. At an improvised dressing station on the mountain slopes, British nurses were working on wounded Serbian soldiers. Stretchers were moving constantly. Mules were transporting the wounded from all directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Medical supplies were passed from hand to hand. Nearby stood a dusty Ford Model T ambulance, ready for a dangerous descent to the main field hospital of the Scottish Hospitals in Ostrovo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind it walked a woman who calmly but decisively gave instructions, with a handbag in hand and her face protected from the sun by a hat with a long band \u2014 Lady Katherine Harley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A LIFE OF PRIVILEGE REPLACED BY SERVICE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Lady Katherine Harley was born into the aristocratic world of Britain, enjoying the comfort, influence, and security of Edwardian high society. She was the daughter of the Duke of Abercorn and sister of Field Marshal Sir John French, former commander of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front in 1914.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She could have stayed far away from the horrors of the First World War. Instead, she chose a different path. When the war began, she joined the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service \u2014 a remarkable organization created after British women doctors were rejected from official military medical services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the leadership of Dr. Elsie Inglis, the Scottish Hospitals challenged the deeply rooted British belief that war was strictly a man’s affair. For Lady Harley, first France and then Serbia became her great war vow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She became commissioner of the Serbian units of the Scottish Hospitals and quickly earned the respect of the Serbian army in the first battles on the Salonika front. In Salonika, she was appointed head of an ambulance unit that saved hundreds of Serbian lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GORNI\u010cEVO AND KAYMAKCHALAN: BRITISH WOMEN ON THE FRONT LINE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After the evacuation and recovery on Corfu, the Serbian army was restored with the help of Britain and France. Less than nine months after the retreat through Albania, it returned to the offensive. It was one of the great feats of the war \u2014 the Serbian army rose like a phoenix from the ashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Battle of Gorni\u010devo in September marked the beginning of the advance into Serbia. The fighting was fierce, and behind the infantry moved medical teams saving lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They worked in heat and dust \u2014 often under shellfire. They treated men wounded, exhausted, and sick. They drove ambulances on roads barely suitable for traffic, to and from the field hospital in Ostrovo, while others worked at dressing stations just behind the front line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then came the Battle of Kaymakchalan. The twin peak became a symbol of Serbian endurance. The fighting lasted for weeks as Serbian soldiers fought against a tenacious Bulgarian defense in some of the hardest terrain of the entire campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The medical challenge was immense. Every wounded man had to be brought down from the heights by any means possible. Mules became a lifeline for the wounded when the terrain allowed transfer from improvised stretchers. Any delay could mean death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The women of the Scottish Hospitals worked as close to the front as possible, aware that shells could hit them at any moment. Their courage was not measured by medals \u2014 but by the lives they saved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the end, determined attacks by the First Army broke the Bulgarian defense, and on September 30, 1916, Kaymakchalan was liberated. Two weeks of fighting cost the Serbian army over 4,500 casualties \u2014 the heaviest Serbian loss on the Salonika front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LADY HARLEY’S LAST MISSION<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Over the next two months, the French and Serbs slowly advanced toward Monastir (Bitola), at great cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The capture of Monastir in November 1916 was of immense significance. But victory revealed a new tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war left thousands of children without parents. Lady Katherine Harley saw a new battlefield \u2014 one that was not fought with cannons and rifles, but against hunger, fear, and loss. Tons of aid arrived from Britain, funded by Lady Paget’s Serbian Relief Fund. While the Scottish Hospitals continued to support the Serbian army, Lady Harley devoted herself to caring for Serbian orphans, establishing a home in Monastir where children could find safety and hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On March 7, 1917, while sitting in her chair at the children’s home, the building was struck by a Bulgarian shell. Lady Harley was killed while protecting the children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Serbian army mourned her as one of their own. She was buried with full military honors at the Lembet Road Cemetery in Salonika.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The children she cared for were part of the funeral procession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her grave is unique and stands out among thousands of British and other Allied tombstones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was erected by the Serbs, and the inscription reads:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“To a noble English lady and a great benefactor of the Serbian people, Mrs. Harley, a great lady. On your grave, instead of flowers, the gratitude of the Serbs for your wonderful deeds will bloom. Your name will be known from generation to generation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few monuments express such gratitude. Few lives deserved it so much \u2014 and yet, like many others, she is today almost forgotten. The generation of Serbs from the Great War is surely turning in their graves over the ignorance of today’s generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FRIENDSHIP FORGED IN SACRIFICE<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The story of Lady Harley and the Scottish Hospitals is not just a historical episode. For some, it is part of a living relationship between Britain and Serbia. Every year, the British military supports the Serbian Armed Forces in conducting the General Staff Course \u2014 a study of the battlefield of the Salonika front. Serbian officers study campaigns, command challenges, and lessons of Allied warfare over a century old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There, British and Serbian officers stand together at the grave of Lady Harley and at the graves of thousands of those who once fought side by side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons of the battlefield remain important \u2014 but so does the lesson of compassion and memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than a century ago, British women followed Serbian soldiers into the mountains of North Macedonia. They shared their suffering. Saved their lives. And, like Lady Katherine Harley \u2014 died beside them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is why the story of Lady Harley and the Scottish Hospitals still matters today. Soon it will be brought back to life in the British-Serbian documentary series “Side by Side,” which will remind Serbs of the stories that the generation of the Great War was determined should never be forgotten \u2014 and which today have almost vanished from memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source:\u00a0<\/strong>Nova.rs<\/a>, Photo:<\/strong> Wikimedia Commons \/ M\u00e9diath\u00e8que de l’architecture et du patrimoine<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Kaymakchalan approaches, many Serbs will certainly remember the sacrifice of their soldiers who, just nine months after the evacuation to Corfu, liberated a part of their territory. But, just like the Serbian soldiers and civilians who crossed the “Prokletije” into Albania, they were accompanied and supported by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":216234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[13915,13916,8364,634,5303,113,8087],"class_list":["post-216233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","tag-bitka-na-kajmakcalanu","tag-britanske-bolnicarke","tag-engleska","tag-istorija","tag-solunski-front","tag-srbija","tag-srpski-vojnici","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t