Despite her education, Anderson was unable to join a general major hospital, as attitudes at the time opposed female doctors treating both men and women. As a result, in 1902, she joined the New Hospital for Women, a women's-only hospital founded by her mother which treated women and children. She first worked as a surgical assistant and later as a senior surgeon. Anderson performed gynecological and general operations, and co-published a paper with the hospital pathologist in 1908 discussing her hysterectomy operations and dissecting the 265 cases of uterine cancer treated at the New Hospital for Women.
Suffragette activity
From 1903, Louisa had been active in organizations affiliated with the NUWSS, which advocated for gaining voting rights through peaceful means. Frustrated by the lack of progress on voting rights, in 1907 Louisa became an active member of the more radical WSPU. On 18 November 1910, Anderson joined her mother, Emmeline Pankhurst, Alfred Caldecott, Hertha Ayrton, Mrs Elmy, Hilda Brackenbury, Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, and 300 women to petition Prime Minister Asquith for voting rights. The protest became known as Black Friday, due to the violence and sexual assault the protesters faced from the police and male bystanders. More than one hundred women were arrested, including Louisa, but all were released without charge. In 1912, Anderson was imprisoned in Holloway, briefly, for her suffragette activities which included breaking a window by throwing a brick. In 1914, Anderson joined the new group of men and women in United Suffragists which had branches in London, Liverpool and Edinburgh.
Medicine – WW1
When the First World War broke out, Anderson and Flora Murray founded the Women's Hospital Corps, and recruited women to staff it. Believing that the British War Office would reject their offer of help, and knowing that the French were in need of medical assistance, they offered their assistance to the French Red Cross. The French accepted their offer and provided them the space of a newly built hotel in Paris as their hospital. Murray was appointed Médecin-en-Chef and Anderson became the chief surgeon. Murray reported in her diary that visiting representatives of the British War Office were astonished to find a hospital run successfully by British women, and the hospital was soon treated as a British auxiliary hospital rather than a French one. In addition to the hospital in Paris, the Women's Hospital Corps also ran another military hospital in Wimereux. In January 1915, casualties began to be evacuated to England for treatment. The War Office invited Murray and Anderson to return to London to run a large hospital, the Endell Street Military Hospital, under the Royal Army Medical Corps. ESMH treated almost 50,000 soldiers between May 1915 and September 1919 when it closed. At Endell, Anderson and the hospital pathologist, Helen Chambers, pioneered a new method of treating septic wounds, an antiseptic ointment called BIPP. The paste had been invented by James Rutherford Morison. After positive results from some initial tests by Anderson, Morison asked Anderson and Chambers to run a larger trial of BIPP in 1916. Anderson published case studies in The Lancet, concluding that this method saved patients pain and was better than the Carrel-Dakin method, which used a more powerful antiseptic but had to be frequently reapplied to be effective. Since bandages could be left on for longer, the BIPP method reduced time spent changing bandages by as much as 80%. BIPP was widely adopted by surgeons for the rest of the war, although opinion among doctors remained divided as to the best method for wound treatment. Despite continued debate, BIPP was also used in the Second World War and continues to be in use today in ear, nose, throat, maxillofacial, and neurosurgery procedures.
Death
Anderson is buried at Holy Trinity Church with Murray, near to their home in Penn, Buckinghamshire. The inscription on the gravestone reads "Louisa Garrett Anderson, C.B.E., M.D., Chief Surgeon Women's Hospital Corps 1914–1919. Daughter of James George Skelton Anderson and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson of Aldeburgh, Suffolk. Born 28th July 1873, died November 15. 1943. We have been gloriously happy."
