Dr. Elsie Inglis

DR. ELSIE INGLIS

BY

LADY FRANCES BALFOUR

AUTHOR OF ‘THE LIFE OF LADY VICTORIA CAMPBELL’

‘LIFE AND LETTERS OF REV. JAMES MACGREGOR, D.D.’

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

HODDER AND STOUGHTON

LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

TO

SERBIA

AND THE

SCOTTISH WOMEN’S HOSPITALS

THAT SERVED AND LOVED

THEIR BRETHREN

1914–1917

‘In your patience possess ye your souls.’

PREFACE

The story of Elsie Inglis needs little introduction. From first to last she was the woman nobly planned. She achieved what she did because she was ready when the opportunity came. Consistently she had lived her life, doing whatever her hand found to do with all her might, and ever following the light. She had the spirit of her nation and of her race: the spirit of courageous adventure, the love of liberty, and equal freedom for all people.

If this memoir represents her faithfully, it is because it has been written among her own family and kindred. Every letter or story of her is part of a consistent whole. Transparently honest, warmly affectioned to all, the record could hardly err if, following exactly her footprints in the sands of time, it presents a portrait of one of old Scotia’s truest daughters. I owe manifold thanks to her sisters, her friends, her patients, above all, to her Units, for the help they have given me in what has been a labour of love and growing respect. She, being dead, yet speaketh; and, while we thank our God for every remembrance of her, we hope that those who are her living memorials, the patients in the Hospice, and the Scottish Women’s Hospitals, will not be forgotten by those who read and pass on the pilgrim way.

The design for the book cover has been drawn by Dr. Inglis’ countryman, Mr. Anning Bell. It is the emblem of her nation and of the S.W.H.

F. B.

CONTENTS