Odds and quads - 28 February 2013

This suitcase, filled with memorabilia from the First World War, was recently found in a cupboard in the University of Abertay Dundee’s psychology department.

It turned out to have belonged to a nurse from Paisley called Margaret Maule, who graduated in 1917 and became part of Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service. She was required to look after badly wounded German soldiers at the Dartford War Hospital in Kent, although this distressed her because her brother had been killed in action. She also cared for British soldiers at the Shakespeare Hospital in Glasgow, and later qualified as a Queen’s Nurse in Greenock.

Nobody knows how the suitcase ended up at Abertay. Its contents include letters, Ms Maule’s qualification certificates, photographs of her and her fellow nurses, an article she wrote for The People’s Journal and an autograph book with messages and sketches from grateful patients.

Send suggestions for this series on the treasures, oddities and curiosities owned by universities across the world to matthew.reisz@tsleducation.com