SHE was the heroic Scottish nurse who is remembered annually in Serbia for her bravery and sacrifice in the First World War but is not as well known in Scotland.

Sister Louisa Jordan was just 36 when she passed away in 1915, contracting the deadly disease typhus and having served with "great bravery and distinction".

She died on active service in a military hospital in Serbia, providing much-needed care to an area of dire need helping take charge of a ward where people had been struck down by typhus - a disease spread by lice which thrives in overcrowded, filthy conditions.

Now Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman has said it is time to commemorate that courageous Scot's service as part of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Services.

A new NHS Scotland emergency hospital being created at the Scottish Events Campus (SEC) in Glasgow is now to be named after her, and will be called NHS Louisa Jordan.

The hospital is intended to provide an extra 300 hospital beds with the ability to expand to over 1,000 if needed.

READ MORE: Coronavirus in Scotland - Glasgow's SEC to be turned into 1,000-bed hospital

The hospital created in London’s East End at the Excel Centre is called NHS Nightingale. There will be other hospitals created in Birmingham at the National Exhibition Centre, and in Manchester at the Manchester Central Complex.

The people of Serbia gather each year to commemorate the courage and sacrifice of Sister Jordan and her colleagues.

And she is commemorated on the Buckhaven War Memorial and at Wilton Church in Glasgow.

Ms Freeman said:“Sister Louisa Jordan, born just a couple of miles north of the SEC in Glasgow’s Maryhill, served with great bravery and distinction in the Scottish Women’s Hospital in Serbia during World War 1. She is a person who has perhaps up until now been better remembered in Serbia than in Scotland. This hospital is a fitting tribute to her service and her courage.

“I want to thank the many clinical, operational and construction staff who have been on site at the SEC alongside the army, developing this new temporary hospital. Their work will ensure that, if required, this facility will provide extra capacity for NHS Scotland.

“I hope this new hospital will not be needed – but we must prepare for every eventuality. The public’s contributed efforts to stay at home, in addition to the other measures implemented and the steps we are already taking to increase capacity within existing hospitals are all aimed at making sure NHS Scotland can cope with the expected surge in patients. NHS Louisa Jordan will ensure there is even further capacity if needed.”

Born on 24 July 1878, she lived at 279 Gairbraid Street with her two brothers David and Thomas and Henry Jordan and mum Helen Jordan.

According to archives on Scotland's War, Louisa worked in Manchester's Crumpsall Infirmary, Shotts Fever Hospital and as a district nurse in Buckhaven, Fife.

She signed up with the Scottish Women's Hospital for Foreign Service as a nurse in December, 1914 – a service through which women joined to work in battlefields across Europe. She sailed from Southampton to Salonika in mid-December after enlisting in the 1st Serbian Unit.

The hospital in the military city of Kragujevac was not equipped to deal with the heavy casualties. It was originally intended for 100 beds, but it was quickly expanded to 300.

Sick and wounded men lay everywhere and staff worked long hours to bring them back to health and to help them die with peace and dignity.