Scottish Women's Hospital at Royaumont

The Scottish Women's Hospital at Royaumont was a medical hospital during World War I active from January 1915 to March 1919 operated by Scottish Women's Hospitals (SWH), under the direction of the French Red Cross and located at Royaumont Abbey. The Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey, located near Asnières-sur-Oise in Val-d'Oise, approximately 30 km north of Paris, France. The hospital was started by Dr Frances Ivens and founder of SWH, Dr Elsie Maud Inglis. It was especially noted for its performance treating soldiers involved in the Battle of the Somme.

The hospital was officially known as the Hôpital Auxiliaire 301 and was never affiliated with the British military or British Red Cross. Nora Neilson Gray's painting was called Hôpital Auxiliaire 1918 was not originally accepted by the Imperial War Museum.^[1] The soldiers treated at Royaumont were mostly French with some Senegalese and North Africans from the French colonial troops.^[2] It was not the only facility of its kind; other female hospital units in France include the Women's Hospital Corps established by Louisa Garrett Anderson and Flora Murray and the Women's Imperial Service League established by Florence Stoney in Paris and Boulogne, but SWH was the largest such group with other locations in Serbia, Greece, Romania, and Corsica.^[2] Royaumont was the largest British voluntary hospital, one of the closest such hospitals to the front line, and the only one to operate continuously from January 1915 to March 1919.^[2] An ancillary hospital to Royaumont was established even closer to the front line-at Villers-Cotterêts.^[3]