This was a question I’d been pondering, after researching the life of a woman doctor who worked on North Ronaldsay, between 1930 and 1946. Beatrice Garvie was her name. I knew about her from the North Ronaldsay Archive, which displays many of her superb photographs of island life, and in which I had been delighted to find her pictures of my own family. Thomson family at South Ness, Jenny Sanderson, nee Thomson, seated left, with baby on lap. This is Ray Sanderson, Fiona's Father. Reference D156/0239 Orkney Library and Archive. Over the last few years, I have worked with islanders who still hold her in living memory, to document the people in the more than 500 photographs, and, where possible, to note the events and places that are in them too. These photographs are held by the Orkney Archive. At the same time, I was looking into other Archives, to see what I could find about Dr Garvie. The more I found, the more I realised what an incredible life she had led. She was one of the ea
Orkney Women Doctors Project (1894 to 1948)