Page 232 from Ethel Moir Diary, Vol 1

Category

Library Item

Item no

25260

Title

Page 232 from Ethel Moir Diary, Vol 1

Description

Newspaper article from The Scotsman, dated Mon: 26th Nov: 1917, crossed out and Wed 28th Nov 1917 added:

THE LATE DR ELSIE INGLIS.
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A SCOTTISH WAR HOSPITAL PIONEER.
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WIDESPREAD sorrow will be felt at the announcement of the death of Dr Elsie Inglis, the founder of the Scottish Women's Hospital for Foreign Service. Since the early days of the war, her name has been made familiar in connection with beneficent work in many lands. It will take a high place amongst the records of heroic service in the great struggle. The Scottish Women's Hospital has meant much for those of our Allies whose resources and organisations are not on the same scale as our own. In Serbia and elsewhere, Scotland is associated with the work of Dr Elsie Inglis and her colleagues, on the battlefield and behind the lines, where they tended the wounded and helped to succour the helpless. Dr Inglis was not only the intrepid and inspiring leader on the actual scene of the work; her enthusiasm, energy, and experience were to a large extent the motive power which has created a vast organisation, of which, as a voluntary effort and an expression of humanity, any country might be proud. Dr Inglis only arrived in this country from Russia at the end of last week. She was so ill that she could not be removed, and her relatives were summoned to the port where she expired on Monday night. She was conscious until five minutes before her death, and one of her last acts was to send a message to the Society.

Artist / maker

Moir, Ethel

Date

1916

Size

20.4 x 16.0 cm

Type

Document

Location

Edinburgh and Scottish Collection

Continued from Description :

Dr Elsie Inglis, whose father was in the Indian Civil Service, was one of the earliest women medical students admitted to qualify in medicine. Always in the forefront of movements for the advancement of women's educational, professional, and political work, Dr Elsie Inglis, after taking the M.B.,C.M., Edin., in 1899, established herself in general practice in Edinburgh. Her fine surgical work in connection with the Edinburgh Hospital for Women and Children in Whitehouse Loan, and her opening of the Hospice in the High Street for maternity work, will long be remembered by grateful patients.The call of the great war awakened an irresistible longing to give herself to the service of her country. Difficulties arising as to immediate use being made of the services of medical and surgical women under our own War Office, Dr Inglis, with characteristic foresight, energy, and large-heartedness, turned to our Allies. From the French Red Cross in the first place, and the Serbian Legation and French military authorities later, she received grateful acceptance of help in their hour of stress.
A sub-committee was speedily formed by the Scottish Federation of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, to which was entrusted the management of this arduous undertaking, with Dr Elsie Inglis as its honorary secretary. In December 1914, the first unit - doctors, nurses, and orderlies - was established at the Abbaye de Royaumont in France. Then followed units for Serbia, Corsica, Greece, and Rumania. Early in 1915 Dr Elsie Inglis, having consolidated her Committee at home, proceeded herself to Serbia, where she
worked with zeal and success till that splendid, if geographically small, nation was swept by the enemy, and she with her devoted followers was made prisoner. Released later, Dr Inglis returned for a short period to Britain, only to gather up her forces and proceed to Rumania to give succour to another ill-used and suffering nation. From this last noble mission she has only returned to England to die. The rigours of the various campaigns had their inevitable effect on her constitution, and overwork probably was a factor in her last illness.
Her life, therefore, has been as truly given to the righteous cause for which civilisation is now in the throes as that of the soldier on the battlefield.

TRAGIC DAYS IN SERBIA
The nature of the tasks that had to be under- taken by Dr Inglis and her colleagues is indicated in the descriptions which members of the units sent home regarding their work among the Serbian wounded in the first three tragic months of the enemy occupation. There was great overcrowding

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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