Helensburgh WWI nurse Margaret McCallum still honoured in Slovakia

Margaret McCallum was born in the town and went on to be an honoured figure for her role as a nurse during the First World War.

Now, the British embassy there, and local campaigners, want to bring her work even more to the forefront at home and abroad.

There is still much to learn about Margaret's Burgh roots - even as she continues to be honoured for her work in Slovakia in the early years of the 20th century.

Born around 1877, Margaret later moved to Clackmannan, where she became a district nurse.

She was in Petrograd - now St Petersburg - in 1916 until the revolution the next year that set off a chain of events that would eventually lead to the creation of the USSR.

UK Ambassador to Slovakia Nigel Baker lays flowers at the grave of Margaret McCallum (Image: FCO)

Margaret returned to the UK, but then went back to eastern Europe after the end of the war as part of a British nursing mission to work for the Red Cross in Turzovka, in what was then Czechoslovakia - now Slovakia.

But she contracted typhoid fever and died at the age of 42 on September 30, 1919.

To this day Margaret remains admired in Slovakia, and the local branch of the Red Cross maintains her grave.

In June Nigel Baker, the UK's ambassador to Slovakia, laid flowers at Margaret's grave, and said: "I am always pleased to identify connections between the United Kingdom and Slovakia, especially where they are positive.

"Nothing could be more powerful than the connection forged by Margaret McCallum, a district nurse from Helensburgh, who took part in a British nursing mission to distant Turzovka in the then Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) at the end of the First World War

"Sadly she died in a typhus epidemic in 1919 while working on behalf of the poor and needy in the region, but her grave and memory are still well-kept in Turzovka to this day."

Grave of Margaret McCallum, with incorrect Irish spelling, in Slovakia (Image: FCO)

The grave has an Irish spelling of Margaret's name, with locals mistakenly believing her to be Irish.

Now historians there are keen to learn more about Margaret - and the British embassy in Slovakia agreed to help.

They tried before, in 2002 with an appeal from the Slovak Red Cross.

The late Donald Fullarton, the Advertiser's former editor and author of the paper's long-running Eye on Millig column, wrote an article about Margaret for the Helensburgh Heritage Trust back in 2011, and appealed for information then.

In it, Donald wrote: "Post-war conditions in Slovakia were appalling, and she joined the Red Cross Relief Mission in Turzovka led by humanitarian Lady Muriel Paget, a daughter of an Earl.

"In May 1919 her mission helped to build stations to provide first aid for the soldiers of the Czechoslovak Army during the conflict with the Hungarian Red Army.

"It built an epidemic hospital in Turzovka and wiped out an extensive epidemic of typhus in Kysuce. It set up 100 feeding and distribution stations for children in which in nearly two years 24,000 children had their meals every day.

"It built 16 centres of social and medical care for children and mothers where over 22,000 children were treated, and this gave rise to the Modra Children's Hospital which exists today in a much expanded form.

"Margaret was involved in setting up the medical stations in an attempt to deal with the disease spreading amongst the undernourished peasant population.

"The shortages of the war years had caused starvation, and diseases like typhus were prevalent. She was recorded as being good at giving baths to typhus victims brought to her station.

"Transported in from remote villages by Slovak soldiers, many of the peasants, already half dead from their suffering, were disinfected with a series of baths.

"Those who had never seen a bath before yelled and screamed, but the process had to be carried out in order to begin to control the disease.

"Another nurse reported: 'Miss MacCallum, small though she was, was a wonder at this job and a most devoted worker.'

"Because of the fear that nursing staff disinfecting patients might catch typhus passed on by insect bites, the nurses and their soldier helpers all wore the local military uniform of coats, trousers, caps and high boots.

"Margaret, however, complained that this outfit made her hot. It seems she simply did not wear this elaborate uniform, claiming she was 'a tough old Scottie'.

"But when she caught typhus herself, her death was attributed to infection from a louse bite.

"Her death was not in vain, as Lady Paget’s Mission was the beginning of the provision of proper medical services to that region of Slovakia, which is why her sacrifice is still remembered and honoured in Turzovka."