"Assisting in many other ways": An Examination of the Work Undertaken by Scottish Women Humanitarians in Support of Belgian Refugees in the

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 the exercise of "soft power" while supporting Belgian refugees by these middle-class female care givers who were all associated with the Glasgow Corporation Belgian Refugee Committee (GCBRC). Additionally, the actions of the women here considered form part of what Gatrell has described as a constructed "refugee regime" organized by local and nationwide relief providers. Although the women here assessed delivered crucial everyday support for displaced Belgians, including children, their role was underreported and marginalized in the contemporary record of First World War humanitarian aid in Scotland, and more widely, Great Britain.