First World War British heroines feature on new Serbian stamps

Serbia Post and the British Embassy in Serbia have teamed up to launch six new stamps highlighting the achievements of six British women who served or volunteered in Serbia in the First World War.

The stamps form part of the Great Women of World War I campaign, launched in Serbia in 2014, which pays tribute to 600 British women who served in Serbia during the Great War.

The women featured on the stamps are:

Flora Sandes (1876-1956) - The Serbian army's only female officer and the only British woman known to have been on active service in the First World War. Flora began her service in war-torn Serbia as a nurse and was later recruited as a soldier in the Serbian army.

Dr Katherine Stewart Macphail (1887-1974) - Served as a doctor in Belgrade and carried out humanitarian work in Serbia during the Great War.

Dr Elizabeth Ross (1878-1915) - One of the first female medical graduates from the University of Glasgow, Dr Ross treated servicemen suffering from typhus, at the First Military Reserve Hospital. She contracted the disease herself and died in 1915.

Evelina Haverfield (1867-1920) - A Scottish Women's Hospitals volunteer who travelled to Serbia at the outbreak of the War, before being forced to leave after the German invasion, Evelina set up an orphanage in Serbia and co-founded the Evelina Haverfield’s and Sert-Major Flora Sandes’ Fund for Promoting Comforts for Serbian Soldiers and Prisoners.

Lady Isabel Emslie Galloway Hutton (1887-1960) - Like Evelina Haverfield, Lady Isabel was a Scottish Women's Hospitals volunteer. Her hospital in Vranga treated both servicemen and civilians and she was awarded the Serbian Order of the White Eagle for her services to the country during the First World War.

Elsie Inglis (1864-1917) - Dr Inglis was one of Edinburgh University's first female medical graduates and the founder of the Scottish Women's Hospitals organisations. Her medical work in Serbia was financed by the London Suffrage Society, who paid for eighty medical workers from the UK to work in Serbia.

Each of the stamps features a sketch portrait of one of the women, together with their date of birth and death. Each of the women is featured in front of a background which depicts their wartime work, for example Dr Elizabeth Ross is pictured in front of an image of a Scottish Women's Hospitals ambulance, whilst Flora Sandes is shown against an image of her dressed in her army uniform.

Milan Krkobabic, Post Serbia's director, said of the stamps: 'Blessed is he who lives forever, for he had the reason to be born, and I dare add that people live as long as people remember them. The British heroines are still alive. Their images stand on the postal stamps and will remain permanently in philatelist collections, but also in our hearts and thoughts, first of all as an expression of our gratitude, but also as a matrix and pattern for the new people in the days to come.'

Issue date: 8 December 2015. For more information, visit the Serbian Post website.