WWI's female doctors honoured

Banned from enlisting in the military, a group of pioneering female doctors travelled to Europe at their own expense to join the World War I effort.

Despite their medical degrees, the Australian and British forces knocked them back.

Undeterred, 16 of them paid their own way to Europe and served in hospitals organised by the Scottish suffragette movement.

One of the first women to undertake a medical degree at Melbourne University, Helen Sexton, was in her fifties when war broke out.

Using funds from friends, she travelled to Paris and set up a hospital to treat the wounded.

The case book from her clinic sits in Melbourne University's Medical History Museum as part of a new exhibition about doctors and dentists of the First World War.

"The women found a way to serve despite being told not to," museum curator Jacky Healy told AAP on Thursday.

One of the most remarkable of the women was Mary De Garis.

Her fiancee Colin Thomson was killed fighting in France so she left Australia and joined the Scottish Women's Hospitals, serving under the Serbian Army on the Balkan front for 19 months.

She went on to become the Chief Medical Officer at SWH's America Unit, a 200-bed tent hospital in Ostrovo, Macedonia.

For her work in saving the lives of thousands of troops she was awarded the highest civilian honour from the Serbian government, and two service medals from the British.

She performed over 1300 operations but was never recognised by the Australian government for her service.

A wing of Geelong Hospital is named after De Garis, who settled there after returning from Europe.

The exhibition is open to the public from April 24.