“Assisting in many other ways”: An Examination of the Work Undertaken by Scottish Women Humanitarians in Support of Belgian Refugees in the First World War

Abstract: Belgian people displaced following the German invasion of their country in 1914 were supported, supervised, and medically treated by female health care professionals, humanitarian volunteers, and ladies’ refugee committee members during their wartime stay in Scotland. This article focuses on how middle-class female care givers of the Glasgow Corporation Belgian Refugee Committee exercized “soft power” while supporting Belgian refugees. In addition, the actions of the women here considered form part of what Peter Gatrell has described as a constructed “refugee regime” organized by local and nationwide relief providers. Although the women assessed in this article delivered crucial everyday support for displaced Belgians, including children, the contemporary record of First World War humanitarian aid in Scotland and, more widely, Great Britain underreported and marginalized their role.