Homes and Hospitals: Locating Medical Memorials

Abstract

After the Great War the concept of ‘war memorials’ extended far beyond traditional stone and metal statues. There was a move towards utilitarian monuments that were ‘other than stone and mortar’¹ with parks, hospitals and homes for the elderly and wounded compared to traditional stone arches, crosses cenotaphs and obelisks.² This chapter locates and analyses the hospitals, wards and rest homes around the world that commemorated Cavell. There was a high degree of sameness in the form that medical memorials took, and this was often an example of networks whereby the peripheries copied the metropolis. British and European initiatives were followed by colonial elites who sought to create civic and national identities out of a connection with the imperial centre. Organizing medical monuments was a gendered project, and transnationally medical memorials for Cavell depended upon organized elite women with the necessary respect and resources to fulfil their wishes. As well as being able to run large fund-raising campaigns, women needed to occupy key positions of influence on hospital boards. They were able to draw upon their fund-raising skills learnt during the war, and had a practical sense of what utilities were needed. There was a new-found confidence in these women’s endeavours.