Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} In the Service of Life The Story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women's Hospitals by Leah Leneman In the Service of Life: The Story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women's Hospitals by Leah Leneman. Our systems have detected unusual traffic activity from your network. Please complete this reCAPTCHA to demonstrate that it's you making the requests and not a robot. If you are having trouble seeing or completing this challenge, this page may help. If you continue to experience issues, you can contact JSTOR support. Block Reference: #a23ca5b0-c347-11eb-b753-9f8d3b49ff28 VID: #(null) IP: 188.246.226.140 Date and time: Wed, 02 Jun 2021 02:09:59 GMT. Elsie Inglis. Elsie Inglis, the second daughter of John Inglis (1820–1894), who worked for the East India Company, was born at Naini Tal, in India, on 16th August 1864. When her father retired from his job in 1878 the Inglis family returned to Scotland and settled in Edinburgh. In 1878 Elsie began her education at the Edinburgh Institution for the Education of Young Ladies and at eighteen she went to a finishing school in Paris for a year. Elsie Inglis lived a life of leisure until Sophia Jex-Blake opened the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women in 1886. With the support of her father, she began to train as a doctor. When Dr. Jex-Blake, dismissed two students for what Inglis considered to be a trivial offence, she obtained funds from her father and some of his wealthy friends, and established a rival medical school, the Scottish Association for the Medical Education for Women. Subsequently she studied for eighteen months at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. After completing her training she went to work for the New Hospital for Women, opened by Elizabeth Garrett Anderson in 1890. Elsie Inglis supported women's suffrage and had joined the Central Society for Women's Suffrage while a student in Edinburgh. In 1892 she became more active in the campaign and agreed to the suggestion made by Elizabeth Wolstenholme-Elmy to make speeches on women's medical education. She also joined the National Union of Suffrage Societies during this period. In 1894 Inglis returned to Edinburgh and set up in practice with Dr. Jessie MacGregor, who had been a fellow student at the Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women, and in 1898 opened a hall of resistance for women medical students. The following year Inglis was appointed lecturer in gynaecology at the Medical College for Women. She also opened a small hospital for women in George Square. As Elizabeth Crawford, the author of The Suffragette Movement (1999) has pointed out: "In addition to her medical work, from 1900 she was a very active suffrage campaigner in Scotland, speaking at up to four meetings a week, travelling the length and breadth of the country. From 1909 Elsie Inglis, who was already honorary secretary of the Edinburgh National Suffrage Society, became secretary of the newly-formed Federation of Scottish Suffrage Societies." It has been argued by Rebecca Jennings, the author of A Lesbian History of Britain (2007), that Inglis was a lesbian and lived for many years with Flora Murray, who later had a romantic relationship with Louisa Garrett Anderson. Inglis was a strong supporter of the National Union of Suffrage Societies strategy to obtain the vote. She joined with Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Elizabeth Wolstenholme-Elmy in signing the letter published in Votes for Women, on 26th July 1912 that protested against the arson campaign that had been unleashed by the Women Social & Political Union. On the outbreak of the First World War, Inglis applied to Louisa Garrett Anderson for a place in the Women's Hospital Corps, but was told that they already had enough volunteers. Inglis now suggested that women's medical units should be allowed to serve on the Western Front. However, the War Office, rebuffed with the words, "My good lady, go home and sit still." Inglis now took the idea to the Scottish Federation of Women's Suffrage Societies, which agreed to form a hospitals committee. The Common Cause, the journal of the National Union of Suffrage Societies, also published a plea for funds and she was able to establish the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service (SWH). As her biographer, Leah Leneman, has pointed out: "The War Office may have spurned the idea of all-women medical units, but other allies were desperate for help, and both the French and the Serbs accepted the offer. The first unit left for France in November 1914 and a second unit went to Serbia in January 1915. Inglis was torn between her desire to oversee the fund-raising and organizational side of the SWH and her desire to serve in the field, but in mid-April the chief medical officer of the first Serbian unit fell ill, and Inglis went out to replace her. During the summer she set up two further hospital units." By 1915 the Scottish Women's Hospital Unit had established an Auxiliary Hospital with 200 beds in the 13th century Royaumont Abbey. Her team included Evelina Haverfield, Ishobel Ross and Cicely Hamilton. In April 1915 Elsie Inglis took a women's medical unit to Serbia. During an Austrian offensive in the summer of 1915, Inglis was captured but eventually, with the help of American diplomats, the British authorities were able to negotiate the release of Inglis and her medical staff. During the First World War Inglis arranged fourteen medical units to serve in France, Serbia, Corsica, Salonika, Romania, Russia and Malta. In August 1916, the London Suffrage Society financed Inglis and eighty women to support Serbian soldiers fighting for the allies. One government official who saw the doctors and nurses working in Russia remarked that: "No wonder England is a great country if the women are like that." Ishobel Ross recalls visiting the Balkan Front with Ingles in February 1917: "Mrs. Ingles and I went up behind the camp and through the trenches. It was so quiet with just the sound of the wind whistling through the tangles of wire. What a terrible sight it was to see the bodies half buried and all the place strewn with bullets, letter cases, gas masks, empty shells and daggers. We came across a stretch of field telephone too. It took us ages to break up the earth with our spades as the ground was so hard, but we buried as many bodies as we could. We shall have to come back to bury more as it is very tiring work." In March 1917 Inglis had a disagreement with Evelina Haverfield. She later wrote: "I hope the Committee will realize that though Mrs. Haverfield and I differed over the plans for the future, there isn't a particle of ill-feeling between us. Mrs. Haverfield is as generous and open-minded and as ready to face facts as she always was. All we either of us care about is the success of the unit - and our ideas differ. The Committee must decide between us! - Anyhow they may be thoroughly proud of the work the Transport has accomplished." Florence Farmborough was one of those who met her while she was serving in Podgaytsy. "There is an English hospital in Podgaytsy, run by a group of English nurses, under the leadership of an English lady-doctor (Dr. Elsie Inglis). I was very glad to chat with them in my mother-tongue and above all to learn the latest news of the allied front in France. They are very nice women, those English and Scottish nurses. They all have several years of training behind them. I feel distinctly raw in comparison, knowing that a mere six-months' course as a VAD in a military hospital would, in England, never have been considered sufficient to graduate to a Front Line Red Cross Unit." Elsie Inglis was taken ill while in Russia and was forced to travel back to Britain. Inglis, who was suffering from cancer, arrived at Newcastle Upon Tyne on 25th November, 1917, but local doctors were unable to save her and she died the following day. Arthur Balfour, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs commented on her death: "Elsie Inglis was a wonderful compound of enthusiasm, strength of purpose and kindliness. In the history of this World War, alike by what she did and by the heroism, driving power and the simplicity by which she did it, Elsie Inglis has earned an everlasting place of honour." Primary Sources. (1) Elizabeth Crawford, The Suffragette Movement (1999) Elsie Inglis had signed the Declaration in Favour of Women's Suffrage in 1889, but it was when she moved to London to take up position as house-surgeon in 1892 that she became an active suffrage worker. In addition to her medical work, from 1900 she was a very active suffrage campaigner in Scotland, speaking at up to four meetings a week, travelling the length and breadth of the country. From 1909 Elsie Inglis, who was already honorary secretary of the Edinburgh National Suffrage Society, became secretary of the newly-formed Federation of Scottish Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). (2) Dr. I. Hutton described the state of the patients that the women nursed at the Royaumont Abbey Hospital. It was bitterly cold. The patients who were not in a raging fever shivered and tried vainly to adjust their tattered uniforms to gain a little warmth. Their clothing crawled with maggots and bugs and their bodies with lice. Dying men lay huddled so closely together on the floor that they touched each other. Others sat up gasping and blue in the throes of pneumonia. Blood and pus oozed from the wounds. A few of the patients feebly extended their hands but most of them were too ill to care what happened. Seventy-odd soldiers, in the last stages of dysentery lay crouched along the walls, emaciated, dying. They crawled outside from time to time. There were no sanitary arrangements and the grass plot was foul. (3) Government official commenting on the Women's Medical Unit working at Costanza (1917) It is extraordinary how these women endure hardships; they refuse help and carry the wounded themselves. They work like navvies. No wonder England is a great country if the women are like that. (4) In May 1917 Florence Farmborough met Dr. Elsie Inglis and her nurses at a hospital in Podgaytsy. There is an English hospital in Podgaytsy, run by a group of English nurses, under the leadership of an English lady-doctor (Dr. Elsie Inglis). I was very glad to chat with them in my mother-tongue and above all to learn the latest news of the allied front in France. They are very nice women, those English and Scottish nurses. They all have several years of training behind them. I feel distinctly raw in comparison, knowing that a mere six- months' course as a VAD in a military hospital would, in England, never have been considered sufficient to graduate to a Front Line Red Cross Unit. They could not believe that I had experienced all those nightmare months of the Great Retreat of 1915, as well as the Offensive of 1916. "You don't look strong enough to have gone through all that, said the lady-doctor, "and too young," she added, "I don't think I should have chosen you for my team." I secretly rejoiced that I had my training in Russia!" I was surprised and not a little perturbed when I saw that tiny bags, containing pure salt, are sometimes deposited into the open wound and bandaged tightly into place. It is probably a new method; I wonder if it has been tried out on the Allied Front. These bags of salt - small though they are - must inflict excruciating pain; no wonder the soldiers kick and yell; the salt must burn fiercely into the lacerated flesh. It is certainly a purifier, but surely a very harsh one! At an operation, performed by the lady- doctor, at which I was called upon to help, the man had a large open wound in his left thigh. All went well until two tiny bags of salt was placed within it, and then the uproar began. I thought the man's cries would lift the roof off; even the lady doctor looked discomforted. "Silly fellow," she ejaculated. "It's only a momentary pain. Foolish fellow! He doesn't know what is good for him." (5) In her diary Ishobel Ross, a member of the Scottish Women's Hospital Unitrecorded visiting the Balkan Front with Elsie Inglis (15th February, 1917) Mrs. Ingles and I went up behind the camp and through the trenches. It was so quiet with just the sound of the wind whistling through the tangles of wire. What a terrible sight it was to see the bodies half buried and all the place strewn with bullets, letter cases, gas masks, empty shells and daggers. We came across a stretch of field telephone too. It took us ages to break up the earth with our spades as the ground was so hard, but we buried as many bodies as we could. We shall have to come back to bury more as it is very tiring work. (6) Arthur Balfour, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1917) Elsie Inglis was a wonderful compound of enthusiasm, strength of purpose and kindliness. In the history of this World War, alike by what she did and by the heroism, driving power and the simplicity by which she did it, Elsie Inglis has earned an everlasting place of honour. (7) Rebecca Jennings, A Lesbian History of Britain (2007) Other wartime occupations actively encouraged younger unmarried women recruits and a number of women who made a significant contribution to the war effort through their work were in relationships with other women. It is difficult to interpret the precise nature of women's close friendships in the absence of explicit evidence as to how the women themselves viewed them, however. Dr Elsie Inglis, founder of the SWH, had lived with Dr Flora Murray for a number of years in Edinburgh, and Drs Louisa Martindale and Louisa Aldrich-Blake also lived with women. Emily Hamer argues that Evelina Haverfield, founder of a number of women's Voluntary organisations, including the Women's Emergency Corps and the Women's Volunteer Reserves, was a lesbian and lover of the former suffragette Vera 'Jack' Holme. The two women worked closelv with Dr Elsie Inglis in Serbia during the war, and when Haverfield died in 1920, Holme staved in Serbia working as an ambulance and relief lorry driver. LHB8/8A Bruntsfield Hospital and Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital. Reference Code: GB239 LHB8, LHB8A Title: Bruntsfield Hospital and Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital Dates of Creation of Material: 1879-1989 Level of Description: Fonds Extent and Medium of the Unit of Description: 15.4 shelf metres: bound volumes, papers, photographic material. Name of creator(s): Bruntsfield Hospital; Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital Administrative History: Developed from the Edinburgh Provident Dispensary for Women and Children and opened by Sophia Jex-Blake (1840-1912) in 1878 at 73 Grove Street. In 1885 it began to offer a limited number of hospital beds and changed its name to the Edinburgh Hospital and Dispensary for Women and Children. In 1899 the Executive Committee of the Hospital acquired the home of Jex-Blake after she retired, which became known as Bruntsfield Hospital. In 1910, the Hospital amalgamated with the Hospice founded by Elsie Inglis (1864-1917). In 1925 the surplus funds of the Scottish Women's Hospitals set up by Inglis was used to provide a memorial to her work. The Elsie Inglis opened in 1925. With the coming of the NHS, the hospitals became part of the Edinburgh Southern Hospitals under the South Eastern Regional Hospital Board. Bruntsfield Hospital closed in 1989. Elsie Inglis became part of the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Associated Hospitals Unit in 1984 and closed in 1988. Archival History: Records held within the National Health Service prior to transfer Immediate Source of Acquisition or Transfer: Miss Baxter, Nursing Officer, Bruntsfield Hospital November 1982, Miss Harrison, Senior Nursing Officer, Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital November 1982, and Bruntsfield Hospital, 1989. Conditions Governing Access: Public access to these records is governed by UK data protection legislation, the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, and the current Scottish Government Records Management: NHS Code of Practice (Scotland). Conditions Governing Reproduction: Reproduction is subject to closure periods and physical condition Language/Scripts of Material: English. Related Units of Description: Edinburgh Southern Hospitals Board of Management (LHB9) Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and Associated Hospitals Unit (LHB42) Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh Samaritan Society (GD2) South Lothian District, Lothian Health Board (LHB28) Publication Note: Allen, Maggie and Elder, Michael. The walls of Jericho: a novel based on the life of Sophia Jex-Blake London: British Broadcasting Corporation, 1981 Balfour, F. Dr Elsie Inglis London: Hodder and Stoughton, [1918] Bell, E. Moberly. Storming the citadel London: Constable and Co., 1953 Leneman, Leah. Elsie Inglis; founder of battlefield hospitals run entirely by women Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland, 1998 Leneman, Leah. In the service of life: the story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish women’s hospitals Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1994 McLaren, E Shaw. A history of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1919 Roberts, Shirley. Sophia Jex-Blake: a women pioneer in nineteenth-century medical reform London: Routledge, 1993 Tait, H P. Dr Elsie Maud Inglis (1864-1917): a great lady doctor Edinburgh: Bridgend Press, 1964 Todd, Margaret Georgina. The life of Sophia Jex-Blake London: Macmillan, 1918. Archivists' Notes: Compiled by Mike Barfoot and Jenny McDermott using existing handlists Rules or Conventions: Description based on ISAD(G): General International Standard Archival Description International Council on Archives (2nd edition), 2000 Date(s) of Description: May 2000; updated August 2009, January 2011. In the Service of Life: The Story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women's Hospitals by Leah Leneman. Imperial War Museum The following are a selection of books that should prove particuarly useful and are relatively widely available. It is not a complete bibliography. These books are also available to view, by appointment, at the Imperial War Museum (IWM) library. For more information on the Imperial War Museum Department of Printed Books see http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/ref-books.htm. CAHILL, AUDREY FAWCETT Between the lines: diaries and leters from Elsie Inglis's Russian Unit / arranged and edited by Audrey Fawcett Cahill. - Edinburgh : Pentland Press, 1999. - x, 372p.: ill., frontis., maps, ports. ; 24cm. - bibl. p.357-362 - index. ISBN 1-85821-630-3 (pbk.) IWM Classification: 38(41).86 [ Scottish Women's Hospitals]/3-2 IWM Accession No.: 99 / 1454. CORBETT, ELSIE Red Cross in Serbia, 1915-1919: a personal diary of experiences / by Elsie Corbett. - Banbury, Oxon : Cheney, 1964. - xiii, 186p., 18 leaves of plates: ill., frontis., map, ports. ; 23cm. - index. IWM Classification: 23(=41)/3 [ Corbett, Elsie] IWM Accession No.: 51177. CROFTON, EILEEN The women of Royaumont: a Scottish Women's Hospital on the Western Front / Eileen Crofton. - East Linton, East Lothian : Tuckwell Press, 1997. - xx, 347p.: ill., map, ports. ; 25cm. - bibl. p.341-342 - index. ISBN 1-898410-86-0 IWM Classification: 38(41).86 [ Scottish Women's Hospitals]/3 IWM Accession No.: 97 / 87. FITZROY, YVONNE With the Scottish nurses in Roumania / by Yvonne Fitzroy. - London : John Murray, 1918. - xi, 165p., 12 leaves of plates: ill., fold. map, ports. ; 19cm. IWM Classification: 23(=41)/3 [ Fitzroy, Yvonne] IWM Accession No.: 6901. HISTORY OF THE SCOTTISH WOMEN'S HOSPITALS A history of the Scottish Women's Hospitals / edited by Eva Shaw McLaren. - London : Hodder and Stoughton, 1919. - xv, 408p., 30 leaves of plates: ill., frontis., maps, ports. ; 23cm. IWM Classification: 38(41).86 [ Scottish Women's Hospitals]/3 IWM Accession No.: 12791. HUTTON, ISABEL With a woman's unit in Serbia, Salonika and Sebastopol / by I. Emslie Hutton. - London : Williams and Norgate, 1928. - 302p., 12 leaves of plates: ill., frontis., ports. ; 23cm. - index. IWM Classification: 23(=41)/3 [ Hutton, Isabel Emslie] IWM Accession No.: 12777. HUTTON, ISABEL Memories of a doctor in war and peace / by Isabel Hutton. - London : Heinemann, 1960. - 348p.: ill., frontis., port. ; 22cm. IWM Classification: 23(=41)/1 [ Hutton, Isabel Emslie] IWM Accession No.: 63864. KING, OLIVE One woman at war: letters of Olive King 1915-1920 / edited and with an introduction by Hazel King. - Melbourne : Melbourne University Press, 1986. - x, 220p., 8p. of plates: ill., maps, ports. ; 23cm. ISBN 0-522-84316-6 IWM Classification: 23(=94)/3 [ King, Olive May]-2 IWM Accession No.: 87 / 1304. KRIPPNER, MONICA The quality of mercy: women at war, Serbia, 1915-18 / Monica Krippner. - Newton Abbot, Devon : David and Charles, 1980. - 223p., 16p. of plates: ill., maps, ports. ; 25cm. - bibl. p.217-218 - index. ISBN 0-7153-7886-4 IWM Classification: 38(41).86/3 IWM Accession No.: 80 / 3352. LAWRENCE, MARGOT Shadow of swords: a biography of Elsie Inglis / Margot Lawrence. - London : Michael Joseph, 1971. - 320p., 8p. of plates: ill., maps, ports. ; 23cm. - bibl. p.287-289 - index. ISBN 0-7181-0871-X IWM Classification: 22(=41) [ Inglis, Elsie Maud] IWM Accession No.: 65169. LENEMAN, LEAH In the service of life: the story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women's Hospitals / Leah Leneman. - Edinburgh : Mercat Press, 1994. - xiii, 274p.: ill., ports. ; 24cm. - bibl. p.263-267 - index. ISBN 1-873644-26-4 IWM Classification: 38(41).86 [ Scottish Women's Hospitals]/3 IWM Accession No.: 94 / 2077. NAVARRO, ANTONIO DE The Scottish Women's Hospital at the French abbey of Royaumont / by Antonio de Navarro. - London : Allen and Unwin, 1917. - [6], 223p., 15 leaves of plates: ill., plan ; 22cm. IWM Classification: 35(41).22 [ Royaumont]/3 IWM Accession No.: 14420. ROSS, ISHOBEL The little grey partridge: First World War diary of Ishobel Ross, who served with the Scottish Women's Hospitals unit in Serbia / introduced by Jess Dixon. - Aberdeen : Aberdeen University Press, 1988. - xvii, 93p.: ill., frontis., map, ports. ; 23cm. ISBN 0-08-036419-5 (pbk.) IWM Classification: 23(=41)/3 [ Ross, Ishobel]-2 IWM Accession No.: 88 / 2770. STEBBING, E.P. At the Serbian Front in Macedonia / by E.P. Stebbing. - London : John Lane the Bodley Head, 1917. - xi, 245p., 32 leaves of plates (1 fold.): ill., frontis., fold. map, ports. ; 20cm. IWM Classification: 23(=41)/3 [ Stebbing Edward Percy] IWM Accession No.: 3315. WENZEL, MARIAN Auntie Mabel's war: an account of her part in the hostilities of 1914-18 / compiled by Marian Wenzel and John Cornish. - London : Allen Lane, 1980. - 128p.: ill., facsims., ports. ; 19x26cm. ISBN 0-7139-1265-0 IWM Classification: 23(=41)/3 [ Jeffery, Mabel] IWM Accession No.: 80 / 2605. In the service of life: The story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish women's hospitals. Jenkinson J (1996) In the service of life: The story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish women's hospitals. Review of: In the service of life: The story of Elsie Inglis and the Scottish women's hospitals, Leah Leneman, Edinburgh, Mercat Press, 1994, 288 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1873644263. Social History of Medicine , 9 (1), pp. 138-139. Notes Output Type: Book Review. Journal Social History of Medicine: Volume 9, Issue 1.