International Women's Day on 8 March is a chance to celebrate the achievements of inspirational women around the world. Given that I'm a First World War enthusiast, part time historic battlefield guide and a researcher at IWM North, part of Imperial War Museums, I’d like to share some of the ground breaking women going against Edwardian sensibilities of what 'a women should be' during the First World War.

Dr Elsie Maud Inglis was one of those women. Trained as a surgeon in Edinburgh – hugely unusual for a woman of the time – when war was declared she volunteered her services to help overseas. The response from the War Office was that she should ‘go home and sit still’.

Already an active member of the Scottish Federation of Women’s Suffrage Societies, Elsie wasn’t one for sitting back and instead in August 1914, she organised the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service. She went to Serbia to treat wounded soldiers and was even captured as a prisoner of war. She returned to England on 26 November 1917 and sadly died a day later.

Another woman who was doing things radically differently 100 years ago was Flora Sandes, the only documented British woman to serve as a soldier during the conflict. The early 1900s were a time when women couldn't even wear trousers as it was perceived to be unfeminine.

An adventurous and spirited young woman, Yorkshire born Flora broke conventions even before the war began by becoming one of the first women to receive a driving licence, and learning to ride and shoot. After the outbreak of war, she went to Serbia to serve as a nurse but was then recruited as a soldier in the Serbian Army, which unlike other countries allowed women to join the ranks. Flora didn't shy away from the fighting, so much so that an injury from a grenade explosion meant that she had to use a walking stick for the rest of her life. Flora lived to the grand old age of 80, and always felt that her war experiences were the best of her life.

These are just two of the inspirational women's stories in IWM's collections. IWM North will be celebrating women like Flora and Elsie with free daily tours throughout March, which explore the changing roles of women during the First World War through the special exhibition From Street To Trench: A World War That Shaped A Region.