39 Facts About Elsie Inglis

Eliza Maud "Elsie" Inglis was a Scottish medical doctor, surgeon, teacher, suffragist, and founder of the Scottish Women's Hospitals.

Elsie Inglis was the first woman to hold the Serbian Order of the White Eagle.

Elsie Inglis had eight siblings and was the second daughter and third youngest.

Elsie Inglis's parents were Harriet Lowes Thompson and John Forbes David Inglis, a magistrate who worked in the Indian civil service as Chief Commissioner of Oudh through the East India Company, as did her maternal grandfather.

Elsie Inglis's parents considered the education of a daughter as important as that of a son, and had them schooled in India.

Elsie Inglis was a cousin to the gynaecologist Sir Henry Simson, as well as fellow female medical pioneer Grace Cadell.

Elsie Inglis's father retired from the East India Company to return to Edinburgh, via Tasmania, where some of her older siblings settled.

Elsie Inglis went on to a private education in Edinburgh and finishing school in Paris.

In 1887, the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women was opened by Dr Sophia Jex-Blake and Elsie Inglis started her studies there.

Elsie Inglis's sponsors arranged clinical training for female students under Sir William MacEwen at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary.

Elsie Inglis was concerned at the low standard of care and lack of specialisation in the needs of female patients, and so obtained a post at Elizabeth Garrett Anderson's pioneering New Hospital for Women in London, and then at the Rotunda in Dublin, a leading maternity hospital.

Elsie Inglis gained her MBChM qualification in 1899, from the University of Edinburgh, after it opened its medical courses to women.

Elsie Inglis returned to Edinburgh in 1894, completed her medical degree and became a lecturer in gynaecology at the Medical College for Women and then set up a medical practice with Jessie MacLaren MacGregor, who had been a fellow student.

In 1913, Elsie Inglis travelled across to the USA to visit and learn from a new type of maternity hospital.

Elsie Inglis often waived the fees owed to her and would pay for her patients to recuperate by the sea-side, with polio being a particular childhood illness she was concerned with.

Elsie Inglis was a consultant at Bruntsfield Hospital, a nearby hospital for women and children, and the Hospice merged with them in 1910.

Elsie Inglis lived and was in a relationship for some time with Flora Murray, a fellow doctor and suffragette.

Elsie Inglis was the secretary of the Edinburgh National Society for Women's Suffrage in the 1890s, supported by her father, and while she was working toward her medical degree.

Elsie Inglis worked closely with Millicent Fawcett, the leader of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, speaking at events all over the country.

Elsie Inglis spoke in support of suffrage in 1907 with Chrystal MacMillan and Alice Low as fellow speakers, at a NUWSS meeting in Edinburgh's Cafe Oak Hall.

Elsie Inglis wanted a neutral name in order to attract "wide support from men and women".

Elsie Inglis was involved in all aspects of the organisation of this service down to the colours of the uniform, 'a hodden grey, with Gordon tartan facings'.

Elsie Inglis initially offered a 100-bed hospital but it grew to hold 600 beds as it coped with the severity of battles, including that on the Somme.

Elsie Inglis went with the teams sent to Serbia, to work in improving hygiene which reduced typhus and other epidemics there.

Four SWH units in Serbia were established but in 1915 Elsie Inglis was captured, when the Austro-Hungarian and German forces took over the region, as she had stayed behind with others to repatriate the wounded.

Elsie Inglis was taken prisoner when at Krushevatz Hospital in Serbia.

Elsie Inglis headed the Scots team when it left in August 1916 for Odessa, Russia.

Elsie Inglis was said, in the chaos, to think of her homeland 'there, quiet, strong and invincible, behind everything and everyone'.

Elsie Inglis got the news that her nephew was shot in the head and blinded on the day that she was leaving for Reni.

Elsie Inglis died on 26 November 1917, the day after she arrived back in Britain, with her sisters at her bedside at the Station Hotel, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Elsie Inglis is buried in the north section of Dean Cemetery, on a corner north of the central path.

At its closure there were public protests that a new maternity unit should be named after Elsie Inglis, which has not yet happened.

Elsie Inglis fought energetically against prejudice, for social and political emancipation of women in Britain.

Elsie Inglis was a tireless volunteer, courageous organiser of the Scottish Women's Hospitals and a dedicated humanitarian.

Elsie Inglis was described as one of the 'greatest-ever' Scottish women, 'a great role model and someone young Scots can be proud of'.

Elsie Inglis was a woman who would not be told to sit still and know her place.

Dr Elsie Inglis was included in the series along with Captain Flora Sandes, Evelina Haverfield, Dr Elizabeth Ross, Dr Katherine MacPhail, and Dr Isabel Emslie Hutton.

Elsie Inglis had previously been awarded the Order of Saint Sava.

Elsie Inglis's name appears on the screens commemorating the 1,513 women who lost their lives in the First World War as part of the Five Sisters window in York Minster.