Page 230 from Ethel Moir Diary, Vol 1

Category

Library Item

Item no

25258

Title

Page 230 from Ethel Moir Diary, Vol 1

Description

Newspaper article from The Scotsman dated May 28th 1918:

DR ELSIE INGLIS, whose sculptured bust bythe great Serbian artist Mestrovic passed into the keeping of the Scottish nation yesterday, is the Florence Nightingale of the present war. As the one, with the woman's solicitude for suffering, nursed our soldiers through the terrible pestilences of the Crimean War, so the other, moved by the same noble impulse, devoted her great skill in the art of healing to the battle with disease and the relief and cure of the wounded in one suffering corner of the war-stricken world of to-day. Although she did not die where she had served, she returned to her homeland mortally stricken, and it can be said in a very real sense that she gave her life on the field of battle, wearing herself out in assuaging the sufferings of others, spending her strength with too great a prodigality that others might live. The Serbian Government, mindful even in their troubled exile of the debt of gratitude which they owed to the devoted friend and succourer of their people, commissioned their greatest artist, and one of the world's most distinguished and individual sculptors, to prepare a permanent memorial of Dr Inglis. It is this work by a cunning hand which Prince George of Serbia handed over yesterday to the Secretary for Scotland to be retained on behalf of the Scottish people in one or other of the National Galleries. It was suitable that Serbia should thus acknowledge her "great benefactress and friend," and it is equally appropriate that Mestrovic's masterly memorial of this "admirable daughter of Scotland" should find a resting place in national keeping. Dr Inglis was gifted with great ability and a strong personality. Difficulties disappeared before the compelling force of her character. A pioneer among women doctors, she raised herself to a position of eminence in her profession, challenging the supremacy of the male specialist, protected by centuries of

Artist / maker

Moir, Ethel

Date

1916

Size

20.4 x 16.0 cm

Type

Document

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Continued from Description:
exclusive possession of the medical field. In the political sphere also she was a forceful personality, devoting herself to the cause of woman's suffrage with the same intensity and enthusiasm as she gave to her profession. But her service in the war was the crown of her career. To her, as Mr Munro said yesterday, "the call of Serbia proved irresistible." She, and the medical unit which she directed, were one of the earliest relief parties to reach that "stricken land," and she continued to labour there, "battling "with cold and disease and death with a "matchless heroism," until, with some of her colleagues, she was taken prisoner. Released after a weary and painful captivity, she took out another medical unit for work in Rumania, again undergoing all the fatigues and alarms of evacuation before an enemy advance, facing difficulties which, Mr Munro truly said, no man can fully appraise, and encountering perils which no one can adequately visualise. Credit in hardly less measure belongs to her colleagues of the Scottish Women's Hospital units who passed through the same experiences. But they will be the first to acknowledge that it was the leadership and inspiration of Dr Inglis which made their work so fruitful, and which gave such a heroic cast to their high adventure.
The records of history enshrine the story of many distinguished and noble women - a Boadicea and a Joan of Arc in the arts of war; a Semiramis and Elizabeth in the arts of government; in art and letters many of the highest distinction. But today women are making for themselves names in a new sphere - in science and medicine - and among these Scotland will be proud to claim Dr Elsie Inglis.

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Events > Wars > Wars

Events > Wars > World wars

Healthcare and welfare > Healthcare and welfare facilities > Scottish Women's Hospitals

People > Health and safety > Nurses