A special garden dedicated to the memory of unsung World War One heroes who served on l oating hospitals has opened in Edinburgh.

Located in the grounds of Polwarth Parish Church on the banks of the Union Canal, the Peace Garden honours nurses and others who evacuated wounded military personnel on barges along canals in countries like Belgium and France during the Great War.

Vessels were requisitioned and converted to hospitals, each with 30 beds.

The nurses worked in dangerous conditions to treat people with serious injuries, travelling in l otillas of six barges piloted by engineers from Britain’s Inland Waterways.

They transported the wounded to hospital bases in towns including Boulogne and Rouen and were very exposed to aerial bombardments because they could only travel by daylight.

The Peace Garden is the brainchild of Professor Yvonne McEwen, director of Scotland’s War 1914-1919. It features a stone bench, a commemorative plaque and is complemented by an exhibition of photographs of barge medical staf in the church’s Drennan Hall.