Brief Profile

Elsie was a medical pioneer and a suffragist who believed in equality of opportunity in politics and education. She attended the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women from 1886. After further study in Glasgow and experience in hospitals in London and Dublin, she set up a medical practice in Edinburgh in 1894.

After graduating MBChM from Edinburgh University, and travelling abroad for further experience, she established a nursing home and maternity centre in the High Street. In 1910 this amalgamated with Bruntsfield Hospital for Women and Children.

When war broke out , Elsie offered her services to the War Office – to set up hospitals to be staffed wholly by women. Undeterred when her offer was rebuffed, she approached the Allies; hospitals were duly established in France, Serbia and Greece.
Working in the challenging conditions, where disease was endemic and medical supplies uncertain, affected her health. She travelled home, severely ill, to die in Newcastle in 1917.

Her body lay in state in St Giles . Royalty attended her funeral.

The Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital, named in her honour, was opened in 1929. A commemorative statue is planned at the site of her first hospital in the Royal Mile.

Invitation

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