Memory of Dr Elisabeth Ross

VOJNOSANITETSKI PREGLED VOJNOMEDICINSKA AKADEMIJA Crnotravska 17, 11 000 Beograd, Srbija Tel/faks: +381 11 2669689 [email protected]

ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT

Accepted manuscripts are the articles in press that have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication by the Editorial Board of the Vojnosanitetski Pregled. They have not yet been copy edited and/or formatted in the publication house style, and the text could still be changed before final publication.

Although accepted manuscripts do not yet have all bibliographic details available, they can already be cited using the year of online publication and the DOI, as follows: article title, the author(s), publication (year), the DOI.

Please cite this MEMORY OF DR ELISABETH ROSS

Authors Katarina Janicijevic†, Maja Sazdanovic||, Mirjana A. Janicijevic Petrovic‡, Zoran Kovacevic*, Vojnosanitetski pregled (2020); Online First May, 2020.

UDC:

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2298/VSP200410051J

When the final article is assigned to volumes/issues of the Journal, the Article in Press version will be removed and the final version appear in the associated published volumes/issues of the Journal. The date the article was made available online first will be carried over.

THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE MEMORY OF DR ELISABETH ROSS

Katarina Janicijevic†, Maja Sazdanovic||, Mirjana A. Janicijevic Petrovic‡, Zoran Kovacevic*

†Department of Social medicine, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia

||Department of Histology and Embriology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia ‡Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia *Department of Internal medicine, Clinical Centre of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia

‡Corresponding author: Mirjana A. Janicijevic Petrovic, full professor Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Serbia Svetozara Markovica 69, 34000 Kragujevac, Serbia E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +381 64 8065048 Fax: +381 34 306 800

Following the outbreak of the First World War, the first humanitarian medical assistance came to Serbia from the Red Cross Society of Allied and neutral countries (1). Concerning the mission of the Red Cross, the doctors from abroad and the medical staff expressed the dedication and enthusiasm (2). Kragujevac was one of "the main centers of the wounded and prisoners". At the beginning of 1915, four foreign medical missions came: English (located in tents in the Upper park, with a capacity of one hundred beds), Russian (located at the Military Hospital, one of the two units of the Slovenian charity, with 18 members), Scottish (located in civil hospital; thanks to Dr. Elsie Maud Inglis, the hospital in the endowment of Milovan Gušić was enabled at the time - now elementary school "Radoje Domanović") and French, to vaccinate Serbian soldiers and mortify the infection in the vicinity of Kragujevac. Due to poor medical care, the epidemic affected the rural population, so the tents with basic medical equipment were placed at various locations on the road Kragujevac - Topola - Mladenovac (3). At the end of 1914, a new enemy appeared in Serbia, deadlier and more ruthless than the Austro-Hungarian soldiers. For only a few months, 35000 soldiers died from epidemic typhus in Serbia, between 100000 and 200000 civilians and about a third of the medical staff (4), Figure 1. Figure 1. Illustration, Serbian soldiers, 1915.

Photo by Getty/Central Press/Stringer When the epidemic increased, Serbia requested the assistance from allies. Help Serbia by sending medical staff (200 doctors and 500 nurses), materials and equipment at the time of the epidemic typhus fever has sent the many number of countries, including England, France and Russia. Elizabeth Ross was among them, a young doctor of Scottish

origin from London, who had volunteered and came in Kragujevac, where she cared for about 1000 patients (5). Elizabeth Ross was born in Tain in 1878 into a prosperous, rich and adventurous family. Her father was a banker, a director at the Bank of Scotland in London. Her brother David, worked for many years in Japan, at the Bank of Hong Kong and Shanghai. She had four sisters, one of whom was a professor of mathematics and science, and spent many years in India. The second was the secretary of the company for explosives in Glasgow, the third was a qualified doctor in York, while the fourth was on the farm (6). She studied at the College of Queen Margrethe and graduated in medicine in 1901, as one of the first women in the United Kingdom. Contemporaries described her as an adventurous, open- minded, courageous woman, who did not allow anything and anyone to prevent her from carrying out her intentions. She traveled and studied the medicine of ancient Persia (Iran), and in 1910 she accepted to work as ship's doctor and traveled to India and Japan. She was the first ship's surgeon woman in Great Britain (7), shown in the Figure 2. Figure 2. Dr. Elisabeth Ross, who pushed the limits

Аутор: University of Glasgow http://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/image/?id1=2845&id2=1129022825&p=4

After graduation, Ross had briefly worked as a doctor in Tain, before she became a medical officer for the island of Colonsay. She worked as an assistant to the Armenian doctor in Persia. The largest part of her career was spent in humanitarian missions in Persia and then in Serbia. When she heard about the horrors faced by Serbia, Elizabeth Ross applied as a volunteer and came in our country in mid-January 1915, under the patronage of the Russian government. The French and the British did not allow women to participate even on the fronts where their armies participated, so Elizabeth Ross asked for Russia's mediation. She was a doctor in the First Military Hospital in Kragujevac, the city which was heavily 4

affected by the epidemic typhus in 1915. Doctor Ross was likely to know where she was coming, but nothing could prepare for the hell that was on in Serbia in those months. Serbia had 409 doctors at the biginning of the War, and most of them assigned to the army (doctors in the Serbian employment, foreigners who came to Serbia in the initial months of the war, mostly contractors from Russia and Greece) (8). Dr Elisabeth Ross came after a coded dispatch sent by Dr. Elisabeth Solto to SWH headquarters in Britain. Serbian censorship, at the behest of the government, did not miss dispatches mentioning the epidemic, but stressed the demand for infectologists, epidemiologists and nurses trained to work on febrile, infectious patients. First, she went to Niš, and at the end of January 1915, she volunteered to go to Kragujevac hospital for typhus, instead of Scottish women's hospital that was set up nearby. When she arrived at the First Reserve Military Hospital of Kragujevac that had been converted into an infectious, a terrible picture caught her. There were only 200 beds in the hospital, with a large number of patients, so it happened that two patients were lying in the same bed. There was not a sufficient number of nurses. At the time of epidemic typhus, Kragujevac was justifiably called the "Dead city". The doctors and other medical staff were desperately trying to cope with typhus, which was spreading with incredible speed. Cherishing patients by day and night, Dr. Ross weathered the heaviest rush of epidemic. Despite the horrible conditions and the belief that it would be very difficult to avoid the infection herself, she continued engaging in doctoral call. "She knew that she really did not have much chance to survive, because typhus was strong and back then they did not know what caused it" (8) In Kragujevac, she saw doctors and nurses, who were now lying sick among patients or already had passed away. In spite of this, she was ready to accept the risk. Without retrenching herself, she was working round the clock. Clearly visible was her devoted effort, to monitor the course of European medicine and to implement it in the treatment of the Serbian people. Just a week after arriving in Kragujevac, Ross began to feel the first signs of typhus. She continued working until she could stand on her feet. "All around her was falling; she was watching it with her own eyes and she was aware that the same fate was ahead for her; but in spite of the requests and admonitions to spare herself a bit, she eminently and fearlessly officiated to the end. More braver was she in the disease: she was quietly, silently lying, severely ill, in a very modest ward. The only thing she regretted for was: why couldn’t she administer the aid to our sick

soldiers for longer", wrote her colleague and the head of the Kragujevac hospital, doctor Dimitrije Antić (9).

After 13 days of fighting the disease, Elizabeth Ross died. It was February 14th

1915, on her 37th birthday. During the First World War, 22 British women lost their lives from typhus in Serbia, trying to help the wounded and sick soldiers (10). Doctor Elizabeth Ross was buried with all military honors in the City cemetery in Kragujevac, on February 1915. Two of her colleagues from the British humanitarian missions repose next to her. There is an epitaph at the monument of the brave British woman: "Here lies doctor Elizabeth Ross", and underneath it is written in Cyrillic script, "You presented the heart to the Serbian people" (11) shown in the Figure 3. Figure 3. Memorial

Gravestones of Dr Elizabeth Ross, Lorna Ferris and Mabel Dearmer, Kragujevac, Serbia

(image courtesy of Alexandra Tomic)

On February 22nd in the church of St. Sava in London, after All Souls’ Day, a commemoration in the honor of women is held, women who helped Serbian people in the international medical missions during the First World War - Dr. Elizabeth Ross, Mabel Dearmer and Lorana Ferriss gave their lives in 1915 and were all buried in Kragujevac (12). In memory of heroism, compassion with the Serbian people and the sacrifices that she submitted for them, the youth field unit of the Red Cross (established in 1986), as well as one street in the centre of Kragujevac city, bear the name of Dr. Elizabeth Ross.

Traditionally, on each 14th February, on the day of her death, the representatives of the city of Kragujevac, the British Embassy, the Red Cross and other organizations and associations, lay wreaths at her grave and thus hold commemorative speech, by which the 6

courageous British humanitarian workers are deeply rooted in our historical and cultural tradition (13). On the centenary of her death, on 14th February 2015, her memorial plaque was uncovered in the courtyard of the Red Cross (14). Today, even after 105 years, her grave is visited by patriots and the youth of Kragujevac, who, with love and pride, cherish the memory of the brave and dedicated heroine of medicine, shown in the Figure 4. Figure 4. The youth of Kragujevac at the memorial - for Heroines of the First World War in Serbia

Foto: www.srpskilegat.rs, riznicasrpska.net

Her human, professional contribution to the Serbian history and medicine is immense, and her life’s struggle and life's work contribution is for even greater admiration (15, 16). The ambassador of Great Britain in Serbia, Sian MacLeod, in the City cemetery in Kragujevac, laid flowers on the grave of a British humanitarian worker Elizabeth Ross, who died while healing the wounded and the typhus suffering citizens of Kragujevac in the First World War (By Z. R. 14. 02. 2020.) In conclusion: In the desire to preserve the memory of Dr. Elisabeth Ross, not to forget that this heroine of medicine - Gave a heart to the Serbian people and died treating Serbs for typhus. References

1. Litvinjenko S. How the epidemics of typhus and relapsing fever were stopped in Serbia in 1915 year. Srp Arh Celok Lek 1995; 123(11-12): 328-330. 2. Gavrilović V. Žene lekari u ratovima 1876-1945 na tlu Jugoslavije, Beograd, 1976. 3. Stanojević V, saradnici. Pegavi tifus u Kragujevačkoj I rezervnoj vojnoj bolnici 1914- 15/Prof Dr Antić D; Istorija srpskog vojnog saniteta (L'historie du service de santé de

l'armée Serbe); Naše ratno sanitetsko iskustvo (Notre expérience du service de santé pendant la guerre), Beograd, 1925, str. 314-328. 4. Mikić D, Nedok A, Popović B, Todorović V, Kojić M. Epidemije zaraznih bolesti i rad srpskog vojnog saniteta na njihovoj prevenciji i lečenju u Prvom stevtskom ratu. U: Nedok A, Popović B, Todorović V. Srpski vojni sanitet u Prvom svetskom ratu, Medija centar „Odbrana“, Beograd, 2014, str. 269-309. 5. Huittinen VM. Finnish language in medicine on history, ideology and practice. Duodecim 2002; 118(9): 958-962. 6. Mikić Želimir, Lešić Aleksandar. dr. Elizabeth Ross: Heroine and victim of the World War I in Serbia. Srpski arhiv za celokupno lekarstvo 2012; 140(7-8): 537-542. 7. ."University of Glasgow: Story: Biography of Doctor Elizabeth Ness MacBean Ross". universitystory.gla.ac.uk. Retrieved 21 January, 2019. 8. Nedok A. Srpski vojni sanitet na početku rata i u velikim bitkama 1914.godine. U: Nedok A, Popović B. Srpski vojni sanitet 1914-1915. godine. Ministarstvo odbrane Republike Srbije Uprava za vojno zdravstvo, Akademija medicinskih nauka Srpskog lekarskog društva, Beograd, 2010, str. 25-76. 9. Popović-Filipović S. Za hrabrost i humanost For Courage and Humanity: bolnice škotskih žena u Srbiji, i sa Srbima u vreme Prvog svetskog rata 1914-1918: istorija humanosti i humanost u srpskoj istoriji, Beograd, 2007, str. 186. 10. Mikić Z. Scottish Women's Hospitals-the 90th anniversary of their work in Serbia. Med Pregl 2005; 58(11-12): 597-608. 11. "Dr Elizabeth Ross – the Scottish saint of Serbia". www.scotsman.com. Retrieved 21 January, 2019. 12. Obituary notice (13 March, 1915). "Dr. Elizabeth Ness MacBean Ross". Br Med J 1 (2828): 491. doi:10.1136/bmj.1.2828.491-b. ISSN 0007-1447. PMC 2301916 13. "Dr Elizabeth Ness MacBean Ross". Ross and Cromarty Heritage. Archived from the original on 24 January, 2019. 14. "Plaque to Dr Elizabeth Ross|Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland". womenofscotland.org.uk. Retrieved 22 January, 2019. 15. "Serbian stamps honour WW1 heroines". BBC News Scotland. 8 December, 2015. Retrieved 21 January, 2019. 16. "Dr Elizabeth Mac Bean Ross". Tain Through Time. Retrieved 22 January, 2019.

Received on April 10, 2020. Revised on May 8, 2020. Accepted May 11, 2020. Online First May, 2020.