Elsie Inglis

born 1864 in India. Her family returned to Edinburgh in 1876.

Elsie and her sister attended the young ladies Institution in Charlotte Square - a school that concentrated on academic attainment rather than social graces.

Elsie was one of the first pupils at Dr Sophia Blake’s Medical School. However Elsie did not like the strict regime so she and two other sisters, set up their own college at 30 Chambers Street in 1887.

She studied medicine at the Universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, gaining a Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery.

She practised medicine and midwifery briefly in Dublin and lectured in gynaecology in London, setting up a women’s residence in 1898. She became the first resident surgeon at the New Hospital for Women where she worked with Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first woman to qualify as a doctor in Britain.

On returning to Edinburgh she set up practice with Dr Jessie Mcgragor in Atholl Place moving later to Walker Street. Next she set up an appeal to raise funds to open a Nursing Home in George Street. This extended to the Hospice at 219 High Street which was staffed entirely by women. The gynaecology unit was also a teaching hospice.

She practised at the dispensary at Morrison Street and was one of three surgeons at the Edinburgh Hospital founded by Dr Jex Blake and supported its amalgamation with her hospice in the High Street in 1910.

In 1906 she set up the Women’s suffragettes federation

At the outbreak of the First World War she offered her services. These were accepted by the Red Cross. Her team went first to France, then the following year to Serbia. All worked tirelessly and such was her influence and reputation that she set up three military hospitals in Serbia. She was captured, repatriated and went back mush to the delight of the Serbs. She worked herself into ill health, but only when the fighting ceased did she allow herself to be sent home (1917).

She died a few weeks later in Newcastle. She is buried in Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh. She was awarded the Order of the White Eagle by the Yugoslav authorities - their highest honour and the first woman to receive it. She was also honoured by the Russians and the French.

Source - booklet Chapter 23.

link Undiscovered Scotland site and a colloquial version at First Foot