Dr. Elsie Maud Inglis (b. 16 August 1864, Naini Tal, India – d. 26 November 1917, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK), was a Scottish surgeon, teacher and suffragist. She was born and educated in India, her father being an East India Company civil servant, before moving to Edinburgh with her parents at age 12. She was the founder of the Scottish Women’s Suffrage Federation, of the Scottish Women’s Hospital, and the first woman to be awarded the Serbian Order of the White Eagle. As a doctor, she was interested in women’s health and maternity, this is also what led her to be politically engaged for the rights of women. Her fame especially comes from her efforts during World War I.
With the support of Milicent Garrett Fawcett’s National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, Inglis established the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service Committee. During her efforts to improve women’s health, she also travelled to Serbia with the team she sent there in 1915 in order to improve hygiene and reduce epidemics. She was shortly captured by the enemies and later led another team to Russia.
She has been commemorated in many ways: on banknotes, the British residence in Belgrave called Elsie Inglis’s House, and her name and picture (and those of 58 other women’s suffrage supporters) are engraved on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London.
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