(1887-1960)
Doctor and officer with the Scottish Women’s Hospitals (SWH) in France and Serbia during World War I. Hutton received the Serbian Order of the White Eagle for her services.
After being turned away by the Royal Army Medical Corps, Dr. Isabel Hutton (nee Emslie), a trained psychiatrist, accepted the position of assistant medical officer and pathologist with the SWH in 1915. Her unit, the Girton and Newnham Unit, established a tent hospital in Troyes, France. The members of her unit were sent to Ghevgeli, Serbia, in November 1915, where they worked for a few weeks until retreating to Salonika, Greece, in December 1915. Hutton was in the same SWH unit as Olive King and was also a friend of Flora Sandes.
In summer 1918, she was appointed as the chief medical officer of an SWH unit at Ostrovo, Greece, which moved to Vranja, Serbia, in October 1918. Her unit, although equipped with limited resources and staff, treated both the military and Serbian civilians. Her hospital remained in Vranja until October 1919. Hutton helped to establish local hospitals to replace the SWH hospital before it closed. She then assumed command over another unit in Belgrade. After her service with the SWH in Serbia ended in June 1920, Hutton worked briefly with Lady Muriel Paget’s Child Welfare Scheme in the
Crimea. There she assumed the role of commanding medical officer at a hospital in Se-bastopol. However, the hospital’s work was cut short by the Russian Civil War. The Bolshevik advance in November 1920 forced the hospital to evacuate to Constantinople where Hutton led a campaign to assist Russian refugees.
During World War II, Hutton was stationed in India with her husband, Lord Hutton. There she directed the Indian Red Cross Welfare Service and chaired the Ladies’ Advisory Committee of the Auxiliary Nursing Service.
