The island of Flotta is now known as a farming community, the site of the Flotta oil terminal and is popular with tourists. Until the mid 20 th Century, like most of the islands in Orkney, it was primarily a farming and fishing community. So far in our search we have discovered 8 women doctors on the island between 1897 and 1943. Their practice also included the even smaller island of Fara. The doctor’s surgery from that time, Springbank, is still in use today. Here is a snapshot of the remarkable women who practised on Flotta during that period. According to Peace’s Almanac of 1897, Dr Margaret Morice , then aged 50, was the Medical Officer on the island.[1] We know little about her time there, but we know she signed death certificates between January and June that year. The population of the island was about 372, with 59 on “South Fara”. Prior to arriving on Flotta, in 1888, Dr Morice was working as a medical missionary in India.[2] A little later, about 1900,...
One of the ways we hope to tell the story of our Orkney women doctors is through small exhibitions within Orkney and possibly beyond. Fiona suggested embroidering a quilt, as a ‘thinking piece’, to bring the names of all the women doctors together with a map to pinpoint where they worked across Orkney. It will show links and similarities between them as well as differences. It provides us, as a group, with a connection to them, through the creation of the quilt, as we speak about their lives on the islands while we plan and sew. Some of the women doctors were skilled sewers, most would have had to make or mend their own clothes. We hope the quilt will provide a tactile artefact that will raise questions and spark discussions among those viewing. Christine was fortunate to find our quilt at a local vintage sale. It was originally from a box bed in the parish of Birsay, from around the 1930s. To begin with Fiona embroidered an outline of the Orkney Mainland and surrounding isl...