Our annual memorial service to Dr Elsie Ingles, sponsored by the Royal Army Medical Corps Edinburgh Branch was held on Saturday 22nd August 2009 at 11.00am at the Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh.
Dr Elsie Inglis was born in India in 1864. She was brought to Edinburgh as a young child, where, supported by her father, she studied medicine and qualified as a doctor. She then set up a School of Medicine for Women, assisted by Sophia Jex-Blake (the first woman to graduate in medicine in Edinburgh). Dr Inglis then went on to fund her own hospital. The two women went their seperate ways in 1892.
In 1901, after spending time at the Garret Anderson Hospital in London, Dr Inglis set up The Elsie Inglis Hospital in Edinburgh - staffed entirely by women.
During World War I, Dr Inglis wanted to take a medical unit to the front line. She was told by an English official "My good lady, go home and sit still". Dr Inglis then made arrangements with the French Military and went on to serve in Serbia and the Soviet Union, setting up hospitals for the wounded soldiers and civilians in those countries.
On returning to Britain, whilst travelling north by train to Edinburgh, Dr Inglis took ill and died at the age of 53 in Newcastle in 1917.
A number of pictures taken at the Memorial Service can be viewed in our photographs section.