Victorian values, venereal diseases and the systemic abuse of Glasgow’s working-class girls
The Glasgow Lock Hospital for Unfortunate Females was a crucial part in the city's systemic abuse of women in the mid-nineteenth century.
By Dr Anni Donaldson
Annie McGuire was only nine and her wee pal Elizabeth Martin just seven when they were admitted to The Glasgow Lock Hospital for Unfortunate Females. Both Annie and Elizabeth were designated a “W” for Wanderer and “M” for Magdalene against their names. They had gonorrhoea and died in the hospital at the Lock three years later. These sparse details in a dusty register are all that remain of their short, tragic and long-forgotten lives.
Along with ballet girls, cigar makers and dairy maids, Annie and Elizabeth were among thousands of women and girls admitted to the Lock Hospital between 1846 and 1947. The notorious hospital’s records, full of mystery and judgement, tell us very little about the individual women or their personal stories. But by reading between the lines, we can unearth glimpses of a well-hidden tale of nineteenth-century Glasgow and how it treated working-class women and girls in its mission to eradicate the “social evil” of prostitution.
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