13 Facts About Eleanor Soltau

Eleanor Soltau was an English doctor who led the first unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service in Serbia.

Eleanor Soltau attended Launceston Ladies' College and was successful in the matriculation examination for Melbourne University in 1893.

Eleanor Soltau is known for her leadership of a hospital unit in Serbia during the First World War, but the bulk of her career was spent in Stoke-by-Nayland in Suffolk, where for 25 years she worked alongside Jane Walker at the special tuberculosis hospital there founded by Walker.

Eleanor Soltau recalled that many newly qualified medical women gained their first experience at the sanatoriums.

Eleanor Soltau worked at the Royal Free Hospital in London at some point before the First World War.

Walker and Eleanor Soltau published on treatment by artificial pneumothorax, a form of lung collapse therapy, in the BMJ in 1913.

Eleanor Soltau was in charge of young tuberculous cases at the sanatorium and commented on treatment by artificial pneumothorax in children in her care in the British Journal of Tuberculosis.

Eleanor Soltau was among those who applied to help the war effort under the auspices of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service, whose first unit left for France in November 1914.

Eleanor Soltau wore the 3rd Class Order of St Sava and the Serbian Red Cross Order.

On 17 November 1917 Eleanor Soltau was appointed medical controller in the QMAAC.

Eleanor Soltau moved to London and lived at de Vere Gardens, Kensington.

Eleanor Soltau died on 30 December 1962 at Arranmore, Bushey, Hertfordshire.

Eleanor Soltau is reported to have been buried next to Jane Walker in the graveyard at Wissington church.