Efforts to honour Scotland's forgotten heroine are stepped up

Just a short distance from the 13th century Abbaye de Royaumont in Val d’Oise, 30km north of Paris, war in all its bloody horror was being played out in muddy, rat-infested trenches of the Western Front.

Dr Inglis, a well-known campaigner for women’s suffrage and female medical education, was preparing for the worst. Her Scottish Women’s Hospitals’ team had scrubbed abbey rooms to serve as wards and theatres; taps, lavatories, sinks and lights had been installed.

Amid the hard work was a little time to reflect on the festive season, with a service in the ward. It was a comforting chance to pray and gather strength for what would, inevitably, come.

“We are twelve miles from the point from which the wounded are distributed,” she added. “We shall probably be as useful here as anywhere. They think we might even get English Tommies”.

A few months earlier when she had raised the idea of joining the Royal Army Medical Corp to bring her surgical skills to the frontline, she was met with an abrupt dismissal: “My good lady, go home and sit still.”

It transpired the French and Serbian governments, however, welcomed her with open arms.

The hospitals she founded went on to save countless lives. In Serbia, her battle to care for the sick and wounded in the grip of a typhus outbreak led to her becoming known as “The mother of Serbia”. She was the first woman to be awarded the Order of the White Eagle, the country’s greatest honour, and her name went on to feature on memorials, hospitals, public buildings and addresses across the country.

“No body of women has won a higher reputation in the Great War,” wrote Sir Winston Churchill. “Their work, lit up by the fame of Dr. Inglis, will shine in history.”

Perhaps. But it has turned out that efforts to honour the pioneering Dr Inglis with a statue much closer to home have been something of a challenge.

Indeed, a campaign fronted by Edinburgh’s Lord Provost, Cllr Frank Ross, to raise the £50,000 for the statue has scrapped together little more than £2,000 in the four years since its launch.

It is in stark contrast to the vast sums raised by the pioneering doctor’s supporters in 1914, when the equivalent of £50 million in today’s money was gathered to help her achieve her hospitals vision.

“I can’t really answer why there is not already a statue in her honour, nor why it is such a struggle to raise the money for it,” says Fiona Garwood, one of the campaigners battling to see recognition for Dr Inglis’ achievements.

“A few people donated just after the Lord Provost announced the fundraising effort to mark the centennial anniversary of her death. But it seems to have gone cold.

“There is a lot of debate over statues to people at the moment which I completely understand, but she was not connected with slavery and there is a real lack of statues commemorating women in Edinburgh.

“She is well known in Serbia. When you see how they have honoured her, we are not even at the starting post.”

To give the campaign a desperately needed shot in the arm, campaigners have now unveiled plans for a week-long series of events in March which will coincide with International Women’s Day.

It will include a mass ‘sit still’ event at the Meadows hosted by Girlguiding Edinburgh - a reference to the response Dr Inglis received after offering her medical expertise to the war effort.

There are also plans for a Dr Elsie Inglis walking tour led by blue badge tour guides which will take in locations linked to her life, an exhibition at St. Giles Cathedral, and a series of afternoon teas hosted by the Lord Provost at the City Chambers, and one at the Royal College of Surgeons with Prof. Linda Bauld and author Kate Murray Browne.

Recently Edinburgh City Council passed a motion confirming it would give “full and unequivocal support” to fundraising efforts. However, there is no funding on the table.

It’s understood major Edinburgh organisations linked to the pioneering doctor have also so far not contributed to the fundraising drive.

Elsie Inglis was born in India, with family’s roots in Garioch, Aberdeenshire, and went on to become one of the first women to graduate from the University of Edinburgh, in 1899.

She immediately set up a medical practice offering surgical, gynaecological, emergency care and became a leading figure in the women’s healthcare.

Her discontent with women’s health facilities and education led to her joining the suffrage movement – opting to battle to change outdated systems through displaying skill and intellect rather than direct action.

Although she was 50 by the time the First World War began, she approached the British War Office with the offer of a fully-equipped medical unit staffed by women which would operate just behind the frontline.

Having been told to “sit still”, she founded The Scottish Women’s Hospitals (SWH) for Foreign Service. The first SWH unit was at Royaumont in northern France in December 1914, and was eventually followed by ten more spanning France, Belgium, Serbia and Russia.

She worked alongside nurses and doctors often in horrific conditions with patients who had suffered devastating injuries.

Her work in Serbia in early 1915 was particularly demanding: typhus was rife in addition to the harsh winter weather and flood of war casualties.

Yet even as the German army approached, she and her staff refused to leave, and she ended up being held as a prison of war.

Having been repatriated, she was back to work in autumn 1916 with a Serbian army division in Russia. She opted to remain throughout the turbulent days of the 1917 revolution.

By the time she was evacuated from Archangel, she was already in the grip of cancer. She died within hours of arriving back in Britain.

Her funeral saw thousands line Edinburgh’s streets to pay their respects, while Serbian representatives lowered her body into her final resting place at Dean Cemetery.

Despite previous calls and campaigns for a lasting memorial, none has materialised. Indeed, Edinburgh currently has more statues to animals than to women.

“It is awful to think that she is remembered so well in Serbia, but there is nothing here,” adds Fiona. “A statue is long overdue.”

Edinburgh’s Lord Provost Frank Ross, said: “Elsie Inglis was a woman of character, who inspired others with her determination and pioneering work during inauspicious times and it’s important that her achievements will forever be remembered in her home town.

“As a city, we should rally together to commemorate all that Elsie achieved and what she has stood for.

“She was the war hero nurse who ‘refused to go home and sit still’ and I am pleased to be involved in this dedicated campaign to raise funds for a statue.

“It’s important our public realm presents a more complete picture of everyone who has made Edinburgh the city it is today."

Details of the statue campaign and how to donate are at www.elsieinglis.org.