Margaret (Madge) Neill Fraser (4 June 1880 – 8 March 1915) known as Madge, was a Scottish First World War nurse and notable amateur golfer. She represented Scotland at international level every year from 1905 to 1914.
 Margaret Neill Fraser in the Scottish Ladies Golfing Championship 1910 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Born | 4 June 1880 Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 8 March 1915 (aged 34) Serbia |
| Resting place | Niš Commonwealth Military Cemetery |
| Occupation | nurse |
| Sport | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sport | golf |
Life
Margaret Neill Fraser was born on 4 June 1880 the daughter of Margaret (d.1927) and Patrick Neill Fraser FRSE[1] (d.1905), a botanist. She had an elder sister Rachael A. Neill Fraser (b. 1871) and three brothers: James Watson Neill Fraser (b. 1873), William Neill Fraser (b. 1876)[2] and Patrick (1879 - 1916).[2][3] The family lived at Rockville on Murrayfield Road in western Edinburgh and ran the company Neill & Co, who ran a printers and HMO Stationery Office, both at Bellevue and at 13 George Street.[4] The company had been established by her father's great uncle, Patrick Neill.[5]
Fraser's home golf club was Murrayfield Golf Club. She was runner-up in the 1912 Scottish Ladies Golf Championship, beaten by Dorothea Jenkins and semi-finalist in the 1910 British Championship. She played often at internationals in Ranelagh and Barnehurst.[6] Fraser was a member of the Golfing Gentlewomen and the Ladies' Golf Union.[7]
Fraser was a member of the St Andrews Ambulance Association and a trained nurse. At the outbreak of the First World War she volunteered alongside others such as suffragette doctor Elsie Inglis,[8] with Grace Symonds and Dr Elizabeth Ross (1877-1915) to create the Scottish Women's Hospital in Serbia under the overall umbrella of the French Red Cross. It was locally run by Lady Leila Paget who was married to the ambassador. The majority of the group of women were also suffragettes,[9] for example women doctors surveyed in 1908 had been 538 for the vote and only 15 against.[10] At the time high profile women golfers, like Fraser were a rarity even being allowed to play on men's courses and wanted to demonstrate responsibility and fair play, thus 'most good women golfers of that time tolerated the Suffragists and abhorred the Suffragettes'[11]
Fraser arrived at the hospital in Kragujevac in Serbia early in 1915 in the midst of a typhus epidemic.[12]
Fraser contracted typhus[9] and died[6] on 8 March 1915. Twenty-one other Scottish medical workers died in the same epidemic. Fraser is buried in the Niš Commonwealth Military Cemetery, eastern Serbia. She is memorialised on her parents’ grave stone in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.[3]
Fraser's brother, also Patrick Neill Fraser, was a Lieutenant in the Border Regiment and was killed on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme.[3]
Following Fraser's death, she was described as 'perhaps the most popular woman's golfer in Great Britain'[13] the Ladies Golf Union collected funds sufficient to provide 200 additional beds in Serbian hospitals in her memory.[7] Fraser's funeral was described as a 'terribly sad affair with the funeral party having to struggle through thick snow and mud.'[8]
Madge Neill Fraser is the only woman listed on Murrayfield Golf Club's Roll of Honour[14]
Her name is listed on the globe-shaped memorial to VAD and nurses who died in two world wars, in the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, Staffordshire dedicated by HRH Countess of Wessex, GCVO on 14 June 2018 'As the stars in a dark sky they lit up our world.'[15]
Fraser's name is also on the Women's Roll of Honour in York Minster.[16]
References
- ^ Waterston, C.D.; Shearer, A Macmillan (July 2006). Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002 (PDF). Edinburgh: The Royal Society of Edinburgh. ISBN 0-902-198-84-X.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ a b General Register Office (1881). "1881 England, Wales & Scotland Census Transcription". General Register Office. GBC/1881/0028901406.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b c Sale, Charles. "Gravestone Photographs Resource Countries index page - Patrick Neill Fraser Grave". Gravestone Photos. GPR grave numbered 74869. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory 1904-5. Edinburgh: Post Office. 1904.
- ^ "Neill, Patrick (1776-1851)", Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, vol. Volume 40, retrieved 2 October 2021
{{citation}}:|volume=has extra text (help) - ^ a b "Lady Golfer Dies in Serbia". The Yorkshire Post. 13 March 1915. p. 8.
- ^ a b London, Lucy (12 July 2014). "Inspirational Women Of World War One: Women Golfers in WW1 - Margaret (Madge) Neill-Fraser". Inspirational Women of World War One. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ a b Leneman, Leah. (1994). In the service of life : the story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women's Hospitals. Edinburgh: Mercat Press. ISBN 1-873644-26-4. OCLC 30974154.
- ^ a b Balabanvić, Avram (30 May 2015). "British Nurses in Serbia 1915". Scottish Women's Hospitals. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
- ^ Geddes, Jennian F (1 January 2007). "Deeds and Words in the Suffrage Military Hospital in Endell Street". Medical History. 51 (1): 79–98. doi:10.1017/S0025727300000909. ISSN 0025-7273. PMC 1712367. PMID 17200698.
- ^ informal communication from secretary, Murrayfield Golf Course
- ^ The Newsroom (28 January 2016). "Scottish heroines of the First World War in Serbia". The Scotsman.
{{cite news}}:|last=has generic name (help) - ^ Bryden, Martin A. Murrayfield Golf Club: a picturesque Edinburgh Golf Links (extract). Edinburgh: Murrayfield Golf Club.
- ^ McEwen, Alistair. Murrayfield Golf Club Roll of Honour (PDF). Edinburgh: Murrayfield Golf Club. p. 2.
- ^ "Wartime Nurses Memorial". MilitaryImages.Net. 22 August 2018. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "York Minster - Five Sisters Window and the Women's Roll of Honour". Lives of the First World War. Retrieved 28 October 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)