Page 22 - QARANC Vol 16 No 1 2018

20 QARANC THE GAZETTE
Dr Elsie Inglis
A Scottish female doctor who refused to ‘go home and sit still’ has been remembered a century after her death by members of 205 (Scottish) Field Hospital. They attended a Centenary Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Dr Elsie Inglis which was held in the presence of HRH The Princess Royal at St Giles Cathedral, Edinburgh on 29 November 2017. One of the number, Sgt Catherine Pounder QARANC, was selected to carry the wreath laid by The Princess Royal at Dr Inglis’ Memorial.
The service, organised by Women at War 100 Scotland, commemorated Dr Inglis’ life and work. She was one of the first women to qualify as a doctor in Scotland, gaining her qualifications in 1892 and setting up a practice in Edinburgh which included a maternity hospital for poor women. Her disaffection with the medical care available for women led her to become a suffragist and she became the secretary of the Scottish Federation of Women’s Suffrage Societies.
On the outbreak of WW1, the Scottish Federation, through her initiative and her initial contribution of £100.00, set up the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service Committee with the aim of providing all female-staffed relief hospitals for the war effort.
Princess Anne paying her respects at Dr Inglis’ Memorial
Dr Inglis approached the RAMC to offer a ready-made medical unit staffed by females but the War Office declined, telling her “my good lady go home and sit still” as women doctors and surgeons were not permitted to serve in front-line hospitals. Undeterred she offered her services to Britain’s allies. On their acceptance, she and her colleagues and associates from the suffragist movement raised the equivalent of £53 million in today’s money throughout the war to buy equipment and move their hospitals to the fronts.
Seventeen Scottish Women’s Hospitals, as well as a number of satellite hospitals and dressing stations, staffed by nearly 1,500 women, were set up across Serbia, Macedonia, Romania, Greece, Corsica and France to treat soldiers. She served with the hospital based in Serbia in 1915 until captured and repatriated. She then took another team to Russia in 1916 but returned ill with cancer a year later. She died on 26 November 1917, a day after returning to Britain. Her body lay in state at St Giles’ Cathedral and her funeral was attended by British and Serbian royalty.
The congregation at the Service of Thanksgiving included descendants of Dr Inglis, many members of the Scottish Parliament led by the First Minister as well as many consular representatives and other dignitaries from Edinburgh. One of the lessons was read by The Chief Medical Officer Scotland, Dr Catherine Calderwood, who has been appointed as Honorary Colonel 205 Field Hospital. Sgt Pounder acted as the wreath-bearer for The Princess Royal who laid the wreath in memory of Dr Inglis’ remarkable life and achievements in a male-dominated world a century ago.
Major Fiona Cameron
Princess Anne talking with Sgt Pounder and other service representatives after the service