Doctor Louisa Garrett Anderson was one of the first people awarded which Order of the British Empire in 1917?

In 1917, King George V founded the Order of the British Empire to honour those who served in non-combatant roles during the First World War. The Order consists of five classes: Knight/Dame Grand Cross (GBE), Knight/Dame Commander (KBE/DBE), Commander (CBE), Officer (OBE), and Member (MBE). For their medical work in the Endell Street Military Hospital (ESMH), Louisa Garrett Anderson and her partner, Flora Murray, became one of the first people awarded a CBE in August 1917.

Born on 28th July 1873 in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, Louisa was the eldest child of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first female doctor in Britain. During the First World War, Anderson and Murray founded the Women's Hospital Corps (WHC), which they equipped with female staff. They were later invited by the War Office to run the newly built ESMH in London.

Initially, the ESMH opened with enough beds for 520 men, but the number of wounded continued to grow, forcing them to squeeze in another 53 beds. Additional Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) hospitals were established to allow doctors and nurses to treat up to 800 wounded soldiers at a time.

The ESMH saw 50,000 patients between 1915 and 1919, with 80 soldiers arriving each day. Anderson and the other surgeons conducted around 20 operations per day. The majority of staff were women, including drivers, dentists, pathologists, doctors, surgeons and nurses.

Anderson died from cancer on 15th November 1943 at the age of 70.