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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Elsie Inglis, by Eva Shaw McLaren
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Elsie Inglis
+       The Woman with the Torch
+
+Author: Eva Shaw McLaren
+
+Commentator: Lena Ashwell
+
+Release Date: June 7, 2006 [EBook #18530]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ELSIE INGLIS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Lybarger, Brian Janes, Martin Pettit
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE INGLIS
+
+[Illustration: _Photo by Bassano_
+
+ELSIE INGLIS
+
+AFTER HER RETURN FROM SERBIA IN 1916
+
+_Frontispiece_]
+
+
+             PIONEERS OF PROGRESS
+
+                     WOMEN
+
+          EDITED BY ETHEL M. BARTON
+
+
+                 ELSIE INGLIS
+
+           THE WOMAN WITH THE TORCH
+
+
+                      BY
+
+               EVA SHAW McLAREN
+
+
+               WITH A PREFACE BY
+
+                 LENA ASHWELL
+
+
+                    LONDON
+
+             SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
+              CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE
+        NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+                     1920
+
+
+
+     _Great souls who sailed uncharted seas,
+       Battling with hostile winds and tide,
+     Strong hands that forged forbidden keys,
+       And left the door behind them, wide_.
+
+     _Diggers for gold where most had failed,
+       Smiling at deeds that brought them Fame,--
+     Lighters of Lamps that have not failed,--
+       Lend us your oil and share your flame._
+
+
+
+                      TO
+                  AMY SIMSON
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+"To light a path for men to come" is the privilege of the pioneer; and
+the life of a pioneer, the hewer of a new path, is always encouraging,
+whether he who goes before to open the way be a voyager to the Poles or
+the uttermost parts of the earth, in imminent danger of physical death,
+or whether he be an adventurer, cutting a path to a new race
+consciousness, revealing the power of service in new vocations, evoking
+new powers, and living in hourly danger of mental suffocation by
+prejudices and inhibitions of race tradition.
+
+The women's irresistible movement, which has so suddenly flooded all
+departments of work previously considered the monopoly of men, required
+from the leaders indomitable courage, selflessness, and faith, qualities
+of imperishable splendour; and to read the life of Elsie Inglis is to
+recognize instantly that she was one of these ruthless adventurers,
+hewing her way through all perils and difficulties to bring to pass the
+dreams of thousands of women. The world's standard of success may appear
+to give the prize to those who collect things, but in reality the crown
+of victory, the laurel wreath, the tribute beyond all material value, is
+always reserved for those invisible, intangible qualities which are
+evinced in character.
+
+It is wonderful to read how slowly and surely that character was formed
+through twenty years of monotonous routine. The establishing of a
+Hospice for women and children, run entirely by women, was not a popular
+movement, and through long years of dull, arduous work, patient, silent,
+honest, dedicated unconsciously to the service of others, she laid the
+foundations which led to her great achievement, and so, full of courage
+and growing in power, like Nelson she developed a blind eye, to which
+she put her telescope in times of bewilderment; she could never see the
+difficulties which loomed large in her way--sex prejudices and mountains
+of race convictions to be moved--and so she moved them!
+
+In founding The Hospice she gave herself first to the women and children
+round her; later, in the urgent call of the Suffrage movement, she
+devoted herself whole-heartedly to the service of the women of the
+country, and so she was ready when the war came. Her own country refused
+her services; but Providence has a strange way of turning what appears
+to be evil into great good. The refusal of the British Government to
+accept the services of medically trained women caused them to offer
+their services elsewhere; and so she went first to help the French, and
+then to encourage and serve Serbia in her dire need.
+
+And so from the first she was a pioneer: in doing medical work among
+women and children; in achieving the rights of citizenship for women;
+and in the further great adventure of establishing the true League of
+Nations which lies in the will to serve mankind.
+
+                                                 LENA ASHWELL
+                                                 (MRS. HENRY SIMSON)
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+A most interesting _Life_ of Elsie Inglis, written a short time ago by
+the Lady Frances Balfour, has had a wide circulation which has proved
+the appreciation of the public.
+
+This second _Life_ appears at the request of The Society for Promoting
+Christian Knowledge that I should write a short memoir of my sister, to
+be included in the "Pioneers of Progress" Series which it is publishing.
+I undertake the duty with joy.
+
+In accordance with the series in which it appears, the _Life_ is a short
+one, but it has been possible to incorporate in it some fresh material.
+Not the least interesting is what has been taken from the manuscript of
+a novel by Dr. Inglis, found amongst her papers some time after her
+death. It is called _The Story of a Modern Woman_. It was probably
+written between the years 1906 and 1914; the outbreak of the war may
+have prevented its publication. The date given in the first chapter of
+the story is 1904. Very evidently the book expresses Elsie Inglis's
+views on life. Quotations have been made from it, as it gives an insight
+into her own character and experiences.
+
+The endeavour has been made to draw a picture of her as she appeared to
+those who knew her best. She was certainly a fine character, full of
+life and movement, ever growing and developing, ever glorying in new
+adventure. There was no stagnation about Elsie Inglis. Independent,
+strong, keen (if sometimes impatient), and generous, from her childhood
+she was ever a great giver.
+
+Alongside all the energy and force in her character there were great
+depths of tenderness. "Nothing like sitting on the floor for half an
+hour playing with little children to prepare you for a strenuous bit of
+work," was one of her sayings.
+
+Not to many women, perhaps, have other women given such a wealth of
+love as they gave to Elsie Inglis. In innumerable letters received after
+her death is traceable the idea expressed by one woman: "In all your
+sorrow, remember, I loved her too."
+
+Those who worked with her point again and again to a characteristic that
+distinguished her all her life--her complete disregard of the opinion of
+others about herself personally, while she pursued the course her
+conscience dictated, and yet she drew to herself the affectionate regard
+of many who knew her for the first time during the last three years of
+her life.
+
+What her own countrymen thought of her will be found in the pages of
+this book, but the touching testimony of a Serb and a Russian may be
+given here. A Serb orderly expressed his devotion in a way that Dr.
+Inglis used to recall with a smile: "Missis Doctor, I love you better
+than my mother, and my wife, and my family. Missis Doctor, I will never
+leave you."
+
+And a soldier from Russia said of her: "She was loved amongst us as a
+queen, and respected as a saint."
+
+"In her _Life_ you want the testimony of those who saw _her_. Dr.
+Inglis's work before and during the war will find its place in any
+enduring record; what you want to impress on the minds of the succeeding
+generation is _the quality of the woman_ of which that work was the
+final expression."
+
+Something of what that quality was appears, it is hoped, in the pages of
+this memoir. I am grateful to men and women of varied outlook, who knew
+her at different periods of her life, for memories which have been drawn
+upon in this effort to picture Elsie Inglis.
+
+                                                    EVA SHAW McLAREN
+
+
+
+
+SYLLABUS OF CHAPTERS
+
+                                                           PAGES
+PREFACE                                                      vii
+
+INTRODUCTION                                                  ix
+
+                          CHAPTER I
+
+                         ELSIE INGLIS
+
+Tributes from various sources--A woman of solved problems    1-2
+
+                          CHAPTER II
+
+              THE ROCK FROM WHICH SHE WAS HEWN
+
+Elsie Inglis the central figure on the stage--Men and women of
+the past, the people of her race, crowd round her--Their
+influence on her--Their spirit seen in hers                  3-6
+
+                         CHAPTER III
+
+                          1864-1894
+
+Childhood in India--Friendship with her father--Schooldays in
+Edinburgh--Death of her mother--Study of Medicine--Death
+of her father--Practice started in Edinburgh in 1894--Twenty
+years of professional life: interests, friendships--Varied
+Descriptions of Dr. Inglis by Miss S. E. S. Mair and Dr.
+Beatrice Russell                                            7-12
+
+                         CHAPTER IV
+
+                     HER MEDICAL CAREER
+
+Fellow-students' and doctors' reminiscences--The New School of
+Medicine for Women in Edinburgh--The growth of her
+practice--Her sympathy with her poor patients--The founding
+of The Hospice--Some characteristics                       13-19
+
+                         CHAPTER V
+
+                    THE SOLVED PROBLEMS
+
+The problems of the unmarried woman--Dr. Inglis's unpublished
+novel, _The Story of a Modern Woman_--Quotations from the
+novel--Many parts of novel evidently autobiographical--Heroine
+in novel solves the problem of "the lonely woman"          20-24
+
+                        CHAPTER VI
+
+                      "HER CHILDREN"
+
+Dr. Inglis a child-lover--Her writings full of the descriptions
+of children--Quotations from the novel                     25-27
+
+                        CHAPTER VII
+
+                        THE HOSPICE
+
+Founded 1901--Description of premises in the High Street
+amongst the poor of Edinburgh--Dr. Inglis's love for The
+Hospice                                                   28-31
+
+                       CHAPTER VIII
+
+                   THE SUFFRAGE CAMPAIGN
+
+Justice of claim appealed to Dr. Inglis--Worked from
+constitutional point of view--Founding of Scottish Federation of
+Suffrage Societies--Dr. Inglis's activities for the
+cause--Tributes from women who worked with her--Description of
+meeting addressed by her                                   32-41
+
+                        CHAPTER IX
+
+                SCOTTISH WOMEN'S HOSPITALS
+
+Dr. Inglis at the outbreak of war: Full of vigour and
+enthusiasm--Idea mooted at Federation Committee Meeting--Rapid
+growth--Hospitals in the field in December                 42-44
+
+                        CHAPTER X
+
+                          SERBIA
+
+Dreadful condition of country--Arrival of Dr. Soltau and Dr.
+Hutchison and Unit--Dr. Inglis's arrival in May, 1915--Fountain
+at Mladanovatz--Letter from officer who designed
+fountain--Dr. Inglis and her Unit taken prisoners in
+November--Account of work at Krushevatz--Release in
+February, 1916--Tributes from Miss Christitch and Lieut.-Colonel
+Popovitch                                                  45-58
+
+                       CHAPTER XI
+
+                         RUSSIA
+
+Dr. Inglis's start for Russia in August, 1916--Unit attached to
+Serb Division near Odessa--Three weeks' work at
+Medjidia--Retreat to Braila--Order of three retreats--Work at
+Reni--Description of Dr. Inglis by one of her Unit--Account
+of her last Communion                                      59-71
+
+                      CHAPTER XII
+
+          "IF YOU WANT US HOME, GET _THEM_ OUT"
+
+Serb Division in unenviable position--Dr. Inglis's determination
+to save them from wholesale slaughter--Hard work through
+summer months to achieve their safety--Efforts crowned with
+success--Left for England in October, bringing her Unit and
+the Division with her                                      72-74
+
+                     CHAPTER XIII
+
+             "THE NEW WORK" AND MEMORIES
+
+Landed at Newcastle on November 23, 1917--Illness on voyage--Dr.
+Ethel Williams's testimony to her fearlessness in facing
+death--Triumph in passing--Scenes at funeral in
+Edinburgh--Memories                                        75-78
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY                                               79-80
+
+
+
+
+                 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+DR. ELSIE INGLIS IN 1916, AFTER HER RETURN FROM
+SERBIA                                            _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                     FACING PAGE
+
+THE THREE MISS FENDALLS                                        4
+From a picture in the possession of Brigadier-General C. Fendall
+
+ELSIE INGLIS AT THE AGE OF TWO YEARS                           7
+
+JOHN FORBES DAVID INGLIS, ELSIE INGLIS'S FATHER               10
+
+THE HOSPICE, HIGH STREET, EDINBURGH                           28
+
+ELSIE INGLIS, BY IVAN MESTROVICH                              45
+In the Scottish National Gallery
+
+ELSIE INGLIS IN AUGUST, 1916, BEFORE LEAVING FOR RUSSIA       58
+
+THE HIGH STREET, LOOKING TOWARDS ST. GILES'S                  76
+
+
+
+
+ELSIE INGLIS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ELSIE INGLIS
+
+
+The War.
+
+"Elsie Inglis was one of the heroic figures of the war."[1]
+
+
+Suffrage.
+
+"During the whole years of the Suffrage struggle, while the National
+Union of Women's Suffrage Societies was growing and developing, Dr.
+Elsie Inglis stood as a tower of strength, and her unbounded energy and
+unfailing courage helped the cause forward in more ways than she knew.
+To the London Society she stood out as a supporter of wise councils and
+bold measures; time after time, in the decisions of the Union, they
+found themselves by her side, and from England to Scotland they learned
+to look to her as to a staunch friend.
+
+"Later, when the war transformed the work of the Societies of the Union,
+they trusted and followed her still, and it is their comfort now to
+think that in all her time of need it was their privilege to support
+her."[2]
+
+
+Medical.
+
+"We medical women in Scotland will miss her very much, for she was
+indeed a strong rock amongst us all."[3]
+
+
+Scottish Women's Hospitals.
+
+"Those who work in the hospitals she founded and for the Units she
+commanded, and all who witnessed her labours, feel inspired by her
+dauntless example. The character of the Happy Warrior was in some
+measure her character. We reverence her calm fearlessness and forceful
+energies, her genius for overcoming obstacles, her common sense, her
+largeness of mind and purpose, and we rejoice in the splendour of her
+achievements."[4]
+
+
+Home.
+
+"It is not of her great qualities that I think now, but rather that she
+was such a darling."[5]
+
+
+Serbia.
+
+"By her knowledge she cured the physical wounds of the Serb soldiers. By
+her shining face she cured their souls. Silent, busy, smiling--that was
+her method. She strengthened the faith of her patients in _knowledge_
+and in _Christianity_. Scotland hardly could send to Serbia a better
+Christian missionary."[6]
+
+
+As the days pass, bringing the figure of Elsie Inglis into perspective,
+these true and beautiful pictures of her fall quietly into the
+background, and one idea begins slowly to emerge and to expand, and to
+become the most real fact about her. As we follow her outward life and
+read the writings she left behind her, we come to realize that her
+greatness lay not so much in the things she achieved as in the hidden
+power of her spirit. _She was a woman of solved problems._ The
+far-reaching qualities of her mind and character are but the outcome of
+this inward condition.
+
+All men and women have problems; few solve them. The solved problem in
+any life is the expression of genius, and is the cause of strength and
+peace in the character.
+
+
+"It is amazing how sometimes a name begins to shine like a star, and
+then to glow and glow until it fills the firmament. Such a name is Elsie
+Inglis."[7]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] Dr. Seton-Watson.
+
+[2] The London Committee of the N.U.W.S.S.
+
+[3] A medical colleague.
+
+[4] Mrs. Flinders Petrie.
+
+[5] I. A. W., niece.
+
+[6] Bishop Nicolai Velimirovic.
+
+[7] Rev. Norman Maclean, D.D.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE ROCK FROM WHICH SHE WAS HEWN
+
+
+     _"It is not the weariness of mortality, but the Strength of
+     Divinity which we have to recognize in all mighty things."_
+
+
+In the centre stands Elsie Inglis, the "woman of gentle breeding, short
+of stature, alert, and with the eyes of a seer," and "a smile like
+sunshine"; and on either side and behind this central figure the stage
+is crowded with men and women of long ago, the people of her race. One
+by one they catch our eye, and we note their connection with the central
+figure.
+
+Far back in the group (for it is near two hundred years ago) stands Hugh
+Inglis, hailing from Inverness-shire. He was a loyal supporter of Prince
+Charlie, and the owner of a yacht, which he used in gun-running in the
+service of the Prince.
+
+A little nearer are two of Elsie's great-grandfathers, John Fendall and
+Alexander Inglis. John Fendall was Governor of Java at the time when the
+island was restored to the Dutch. The Dutch fleet arrived to take it
+over before Fendall had received his instructions from the Government,
+and he refused to give it up till they reached him--a gesture not
+without a parallel in the later years of the life of his descendant.
+Alexander Inglis, leaving Inverness-shire, emigrated to South Carolina,
+and was there killed in a duel fought on some point of honour. Through
+his wife, Mary Deas, Elsie's descent runs up to Robert the Bruce on the
+one hand, and, on the other, to a family who left France after the
+revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and settled in Scotland.
+
+As we thread our way through the various figures on the stage we are
+attracted by a group of three women. They are the daughters of the
+Governor of Java, "the three Miss Fendalls." One of them, Harriet, is
+Elsie's grandmother. All three married, and their descendants in the
+second generation numbered well over a hundred! Harriet Fendall married
+George Powney Thompson, whose father was at one time secretary to Warren
+Hastings. George Thompson himself was a member of the East India
+Company, and ruled over large provinces in India. One of their nine
+daughters, Harriet Thompson, was Elsie's mother.
+
+On the other side of the stage, in the same generation as the Miss
+Fendalls, is another group of women. These are the three sisters of
+Elsie's grandfather, David Inglis, son of Alexander, who fared forth to
+South Carolina, and counted honour more dear than life.
+
+David was evidently a restless, keen, adventurous man; many years of his
+life were spent in India in the service of the East India Company. Of
+his three sisters--Katherine, painted by Raeburn; Mary, gentle and
+quiet; and Elizabeth--we linger longest near Elizabeth. She never
+married, and was an outstanding personality in the little family. She
+was evidently conversant with all the questions of the day, and
+commented on them in the long, closely written letters which have been
+preserved.
+
+After David's return from India he must have intended at one time to
+stand for Parliament. Elizabeth writes to him from her "far corner" in
+Inverness-shire, giving him stirring advice, and demanding from him an
+uncompromising, high standard. She tells him to "unfurl his banner"; she
+knows "he will carry his religion into his politics." "Separate religion
+from politics!" cries Elizabeth; "as well talk of separating our every
+duty from religion!"
+
+Needless anxiety, one would think, on the part of the good Highland
+lady, for the temptation to leave religion out of any of his activities
+can scarcely have assailed David. We read that when Elsie's grandfather
+had returned from the East to England he used to give missionary
+addresses, not, one would think, a common form of activity in a retired
+servant of the East India Company. One hears this note of genuine
+religion in the lives of those forebears of Elsie's.
+
+[Illustration: Lady D'Oyly   Mrs. Lowis   Mrs. Thompson (Elsie's
+Grandmother)
+
+THE MISSES FENDALL
+
+FROM A DRAWING IN THE POSSESSION OF BRIGADIER-GENERAL C. FENDALL, C.B.,
+C.M.G., D.S.O., ETC.]
+
+"The extraordinary thing in all the letters, whether they were
+written by an Inglis, a Deas, or a Money, is the pervading note of
+strong religious faith. They not only refer to religion, but often, in
+truly Scottish fashion, they enter on long theological dissertations."
+
+David married Martha Money. Close to Martha on the stage stands her
+brother, William Taylor Money, Elsie's great-uncle. We greet him gladly,
+for he was a man of character. He was a friend of Wilberforce, and a
+Member of Parliament when the Anti-Slavery Bill was passed. Afterwards
+"he owned a merchant vessel, and gained great honour by his capture of
+several of the Dutch fleet, who mistook him for a British man-of-war,
+the smart appearance of his vessel with its manned guns deceiving them."
+There is a picture in Trinity House of his vessel bringing in the Dutch
+ships. Later, he was Consul-General at Venice and the north of Italy,
+where he died, in 1834, in his gondola! He had strong religious
+convictions, and would never infringe the sacredness of the Sabbath-day
+by any "secular work." In a short biography of him, written in 1835, the
+weight of his religious beliefs, which made themselves felt both in
+Parliament and when Consul, is dwelt on at length. A son of David and
+Martha Inglis, John Forbes David Inglis, was Elsie's father. John went
+to India in 1840, following his father's footsteps in the service of the
+East India Company. Thirty-six years of his life were spent there, with
+only one short furlough home. He rose to distinction in the service, and
+gained the love and trust of the Indian peoples. After he retired in
+1876 one of his Indian friends addressed a letter to him, "John Inglis,
+England, Tasmania, or wherever else he may be, this shall be delivered
+to him," and through the ingenuity of the British Post Office it was
+delivered in Tasmania.
+
+Elsie's mother, Harriet Thompson, went out to India when she was
+seventeen to her father, George Powney Thompson. She married when she
+was eighteen.
+
+She met her future husband, John Inglis, at a dance in her father's
+house. Her children were often told by their father of the white muslin
+dress, with large purple flowers all over it, worn by her that evening,
+and how he and several of his friends, young men in the district, drove
+fifty miles to have the chance of dancing with her!
+
+"She must have had a steady nerve, for her letters are full of various
+adventures in camp and tiger-haunted jungles, and most of them narrate
+the presence of one of her infants, who was accompanying the parents on
+their routine of Indian official life." In 1858, when John Inglis was
+coming home on his one short furlough, she trekked down from Lahore to
+Calcutta with the six children in country conveyances. The journey took
+four months; then came the voyage round the Cape, another four months.
+Of course she had the help of ayahs and bearers on the journeys, but
+even with such help it was no easy task.
+
+John Inglis saw his family settled in Southampton, and almost
+immediately had to return to India, on the outbreak of the Mutiny. His
+wife stayed at home with the children, until India was again a safe
+place for English women, when she rejoined her husband in 1863.
+
+
+They crowd round Elsie Inglis, these men and women in their quaint and
+attractive costumes of long ago; we feel their influence on her; we see
+their spirit mingling with hers. As we run our eye over the crowded
+stage, we see the dim outline of the rock from which she was hewn, we
+feel the spirit which was hers, and we hail it again as it drives her
+forth to play her part in the great drama of the last three years of her
+life.
+
+The members of every family, every group of blood relations, are held
+together by the unseen spirit of their generations. It matters little
+whether they can trace their descent or not; the peculiar spirit of that
+race which is theirs fashions them for particular purposes and work. And
+what are they all but the varied expressions of the One Divine Mind, of
+the Endless Life of God?
+
+[Illustration: ELSIE INGLIS
+
+AT THE AGE OF 2 YEARS]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+1864-1894
+
+
+Elsie Inglis was born on August 16, 1864, in India. The wide plains of
+India, the "huddled hills" and valleys of the Himalayas, were the
+environment with which Nature surrounded her for the first twelve years
+of her life. Her childhood was a happy one, and the most perfect
+friendship existed between her and her father from her earliest days.
+
+"All our childhood is full of remembrances of father.[8] He never forgot
+our birthdays; however hot it was down in the scorched plains, when the
+day came round, if we were up in the hills, a large parcel would arrive
+from him. His very presence was joy and strength when he came to us at
+Naini Tal. What a remembrance there is of early breakfasts and early
+walks with him--the father and the three children! The table was spread
+in the verandah between six and seven. Father made three cups of cocoa,
+one for each of us, and then the glorious walk! The ponies followed
+behind, each with their attendant grooms, and two or three red-coated
+chaprassies, father stopping all along the road to talk to every native
+who wished to speak to him, while we three ran about, laughing and
+interested in everything. Then, at night, the shouting for him after we
+were in bed, and father's step bounding up the stair in Calcutta, or
+coming along the matted floor of our hill home. All order and quietness
+were flung to the winds while he said good-night to us.
+
+"It was always understood that Elsie and he were special chums, but that
+never made any jealousy. Father was always just. The three cups of cocoa
+were always the same in quantity and quality. We got equal shares of
+his right and his left hand in our walks; but Elsie and he were
+comrades, inseparables from the day of her birth.
+
+"In the background of our lives there was always the quiet, strong
+mother, whose eyes and smile live on through the years. Every morning
+before the breakfast and walk there were five minutes when we sat in
+front of her in a row on little chairs in her room and read the
+Scripture verses in turn, and then knelt in a straight, quiet row and
+repeated the prayers after her. Only once can I remember father being
+angry with any of us, and that was when one of us ventured to hesitate
+in instant obedience to some wish of hers. I still see the room in which
+it happened, and the thunder in his voice is with me still."
+
+There was a constant change of scene during these years in
+India--Allahabad, Naini Tal, Calcutta, Simla, and Lucknow. After her
+father retired, two years in Australia visiting older brothers who had
+settled there, and then in 1878 home to the land of her fathers.
+
+On the voyage home, when Elsie was about fourteen, her mother writes of
+her:
+
+"Elsie has found occupation for herself in helping to nurse sick
+children and look after turbulent boys who trouble everybody on board,
+and a baby of seven months old is an especial favourite with her."
+
+But through the changing scenes there was always growing and deepening
+the beautiful comradeship between father and daughter. The family
+settled in Edinburgh, and Elsie went to school to the Charlotte Square
+Institution, perhaps in those days the best school for girls in
+Edinburgh. In the history class taught by Mr. Hossack she was nearly
+always at the top.
+
+Of her school life in Edinburgh a companion writes:
+
+"I remember quite distinctly when the girls of 23, Charlotte Square were
+told that two girls from Tasmania were coming to the school, and a
+certain feeling of surprise that the said girls were just like ordinary
+mortals, though the big, earnest brows and the hair quaintly parted in
+the middle and done up in plaits fastened up at the back of the head
+were certainly not ordinary.
+
+"A friend has the story of a question going round the class; she thinks
+Clive or Warren Hastings was the subject of the lesson, and the question
+was what one would do if a calumny were spread about one. 'Deny it,' one
+girl answered. 'Fight it,' another. Still the teacher went on asking.
+'Live it down,' said Elsie. 'Right, Miss Inglis.' My friend writes: 'The
+question I cannot remember; it was the bright, confident smile with the
+answer, and Mr. Hossack's delighted wave to the top of the class that
+abides in my memory.'
+
+"I always think a very characteristic story of Elsie is her asking that
+the school might have permission to play in Charlotte Square Gardens. In
+those days no one thought of providing fresh-air exercise for girls
+except by walks, and tennis was just coming in. Elsie had the courage
+(to us schoolgirls it seemed extraordinary courage) to confront the
+three Directors of the school, and ask if we might be allowed to play in
+the gardens of the Square. The three Directors together were to us the
+most formidable and awe-inspiring body, though separately they were
+amiable and estimable men!
+
+"The answer was, we might play in the gardens if the residents of the
+Square would give their consent, and the heroic Elsie, with, I think,
+one other girl, actually went round to each house in the Square and
+asked consent of the owner. In those days the inhabitants of Charlotte
+Square were very select and exclusive indeed, and we all felt it was a
+brave thing to do. Elsie gained her point, and the girls played at
+certain hours in the Square till a regular playing-field was
+arranged.... Elsie's companion or companions in this first adventure to
+influence those in authority have been spoken of as 'her first
+Unit.'"[9]
+
+When she was eighteen she went for a year to Paris with six other girls,
+in charge of Miss Gordon Brown. She came home again shortly before her
+mother's death in January, 1885. Henceforth she was her father's
+constant companion. They took long walks together, talked on every
+subject, and enjoyed many humorous episodes together. On one point only
+they disagreed--Home Rule for Ireland: she for it, he against.
+
+During the nine years from 1885 to her father's death in 1894, she
+began and completed her medical studies with his full approval. The
+great fight for the opening of the door for women to study medicine had
+been fought and won earlier by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, Dr. Garrett
+Anderson, and others. But though the door was open, there was still much
+opposition to be encountered and a certain amount of persecution to be
+borne when the women of Dr. Inglis's time ventured to enter the halls of
+medical learning.
+
+Along the pathway made easy for them by these women of the past,
+hundreds of young women are to-day entering the medical profession. As
+we look at them we realize that in their hands, to a very large extent,
+lies the solving of the acutest problem of our race--the relation of the
+sexes. Will they fail us? Will they be content with a solution along
+lines that can only be called a second best? When we remember the
+clear-brained women in whose steps they follow, who opened the medical
+world for them, and whose spirits will for ever overshadow the women who
+walk in it, we know they will not fail us.
+
+Elsie Inglis pursued her medical studies in Edinburgh and Glasgow. After
+she qualified she was for six months House-Surgeon in the New Hospital
+for Women and Children in London, and then went to the Rotunda in Dublin
+for a few months' special study in midwifery.
+
+She returned home in March, 1894, in time to be with her father during
+his last illness. Daily letters had passed between them whenever she was
+away from home. His outlook on life was so broad and tolerant, his
+judgment on men and affairs so sane and generous, his religion so vital,
+that with perfect truth she could say, as she did, at one of the biggest
+meetings she addressed after her return from Serbia: "If I have been
+able to do anything, I owe it all to my father."
+
+After his death she started practice with Dr. Jessie Macgregor at 8,
+Walker Street, Edinburgh. It was a happy partnership for the few years
+it lasted, until for family reasons Dr. Macgregor left Scotland for
+America. Dr. Inglis stayed on in Walker Street, taking over Dr.
+Macgregor's practice. Then followed years of hard work and interests in
+many directions.
+
+[Illustration: JOHN FORBES DAVID INGLIS
+
+ELSIE INGLIS' FATHER
+
+"If I have been able to do anything--whatever I am, whatever I have
+done--I owe it all to my Father."
+
+_Elsie Inglis, at a meeting held in the Criterion Theatre, London, April
+5th, 1916_]
+
+The Hospice for Women and Children in the High Street of Edinburgh was
+started. Her practice grew, and she became a keen suffragist. During
+these years also she evidently faced and solved her problems.
+
+She was a woman capable of great friendships. During the twenty years of
+her professional life perhaps the three people who stood nearest to her
+were her sister, Mrs. Simson, and the Very Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Wallace
+Williamson. These friendships were a source of great strength and
+comfort to her.
+
+We may fitly close this chapter by quoting descriptions of Dr. Inglis by
+two of her friends--Miss S. E. S. Mair, of Edinburgh, and Dr. Beatrice
+Russell:
+
+"In outward appearance Dr. Inglis was no Amazon, but just a woman of
+gentle breeding, courteous, sweet-voiced, somewhat short of stature,
+alert, and with the eyes of a seer, blue-grey and clear, looking forth
+from under a brow wide and high, with soft brown hair brushed loosely
+back; with lips often parted in a radiant smile, discovering small white
+teeth and regular, but lips which were at times firmly closed with a
+fixity of purpose such as would warn off unwarrantable opposition or
+objections from less bold workers. Those clear eyes had a peculiar power
+of withdrawing on rare occasions, as it were, behind a curtain when
+their owner desired to absent herself from discussion of points on which
+she preferred to give no opinion. It was no mere expression such as
+absent-mindedness might produce, but was, as she herself was aware, a
+voluntary action of withdrawal from all participation in what was going
+on. The discussion over, in a moment the blinds would be up and the soul
+looked forth through its clear windows with steady gaze. Whether the
+aural doors had been closed also there is no knowing."
+
+
+"She was a keen politician--in the pre-war days a staunch supporter of
+the Liberal party, and in the years immediately preceding the war she
+devoted much of her time to work in connection with the Women's Suffrage
+movement. She was instrumental in organizing the Scottish Federation of
+Women's Suffrage Societies, and was Honorary Secretary of the Federation
+up to the time of her death. But the factor which most greatly
+contributed to her influence was the unselfishness of her work. She
+truly 'set the cause above renown' and loved 'the game beyond the
+prize.' She was always above the suspicion of working for ulterior
+motives or grinding a personal axe. It was ever the work, and not her
+own share in it, which concerned her, and no one was more generous in
+recognizing the work of others.
+
+"To her friends Elsie Inglis is a vivid memory, yet it is not easy
+clearly to put in words the many sides of her character. In the care of
+her patients she was sympathetic, strong, and unsparing of herself; in
+public life she was a good speaker and a keen fighter; while as a woman
+and a friend she was a delightful mixture of sound good sense, quick
+temper, and warm-hearted impulsiveness--a combination of qualities which
+won her many devoted friends. A very marked feature of her character was
+an unusual degree of optimism which never failed her. Difficulties never
+existed for Dr. Inglis, and were barely so much as thought of in
+connection with any cause she might have at heart. This, with her clear
+head and strong common sense, made her a real driving power, and any
+scheme which had her interest always owed much to her ability to push
+things through."
+
+
+In the following chapters the principal events in her life during these
+twenty years--1894 to 1914--will be dealt with in detail, before we
+arrive at the story of the last three years and of the "Going Forth."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] From contributions to _Dr. Elsie Inglis_, by Lady Frances Balfour.
+
+[9] _Dr. Elsie Inglis_, by Lady Frances Balfour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HER MEDICAL CAREER
+
+1894-1914
+
+
+During the years from 1894 to 1914 the main stream in Elsie Inglis's
+life was her medical work. This was her profession, her means of
+livelihood; it was also the source from which she drew conclusions in
+various directions, which influenced her conduct in after-years, and it
+supplied the foundation and the scaffolding for the structure of her
+achievements at home and abroad.
+
+The pursuit of her profession for twenty years in Edinburgh brought to
+her many experiences which roused new and wide interests, and which left
+their impress on her mind.
+
+One who was a fellow-student writes of her classmate: "She impressed one
+immediately with her mental and physical sturdiness. She had an
+extremely pleasant face, with a finely moulded forehead, soft, kind,
+fearless, blue eyes, and a smile, when it came, like sunshine; with this
+her mouth and chin were firm and determined."
+
+She was a student of the School of Medicine for Women in Edinburgh of
+which Dr. Jex-Blake was Dean--a fine woman of strong character, to whom,
+and to a small group of fellow-workers in England, women owe the opening
+of the door of the medical profession. As Dean, however, she may have
+erred in attempting an undue control over the students. To Elsie Inglis
+and some of her fellow-students this seemed to prejudice their liberty,
+and to frustrate an aim she always had in view, the recognition by the
+public of an equal footing on all grounds with men students. The
+difficulties became so great that Elsie Inglis at length left the
+Edinburgh school and continued her education at Glasgow, where at St.
+Margaret's College classes in medicine had recently been opened. A
+fellow-student writes: "Never very keenly interested in the purely
+scientific side of the curriculum, she had a masterly grasp of what was
+practical." She took her qualifying medical diploma in 1902.
+
+After her return to Edinburgh she started a scheme and brought it to
+fruition with that fearlessness and ability which at a later period came
+to be expected from her, both by her friends and by the public. With the
+help of sympathetic lecturers and friends of The Women's Movement, she
+succeeded in establishing a second School of Medicine for Women in
+Edinburgh, with its headquarters at Minto House, a building which had
+been associated with the study of medicine since the days of Syme. It
+proved a successful venture. After the close of Dr. Jex-Blake's school a
+few years later, it was the only school for women students in Edinburgh,
+and continued to be so till the University opened its doors to them.
+
+It was mainly due to Dr. Inglis's exertions that The Hospice was opened
+in the High Street of Edinburgh as a nursing home and maternity centre
+staffed by medical women. An account of it and of Dr. Inglis's work in
+connection with it is given in a later chapter.
+
+She was appointed Joint-Surgeon to the Edinburgh Bruntsfield Hospital
+and Dispensary for Women and Children, also staffed by women and one of
+the fruits of Dr. Jex-Blake's exertions. Here, again, Elsie Inglis's
+courage and energy made themselves felt. She desired a larger field for
+the usefulness of the institution, and proposed to enlarge the hospital
+to such an extent that its accommodation for patients should be doubled.
+A colleague writes: "Once again the number must be doubled, always with
+the same idea in view--_i.e._, to insure the possibilities for gaining
+experience for women doctors. Once again the committee was carried along
+on a wave of unprecedented effort to raise money. An eager band of
+volunteers was organized, among them some of her own students. Bazaars
+and entertainments were arranged, special appeals were issued, and the
+necessary money was found, and the alterations carried out. It was
+never part of Dr. Inglis's policy to wait till the money came in. She
+always played a bold game, and took risks which left the average person
+aghast, and in the end she invariably justified her action by
+accomplishing the task which she set herself, and, at times it must be
+owned, which she set an all too unwilling committee! But for that breezy
+and invincible faith and optimism the Scottish Women's Hospitals would
+never have taken shape in 1914."
+
+Dr. Inglis's plea for the Units of the Scottish Women's Hospital was
+always that they might be sent "where the need was greatest." In these
+years of work before the war the same motive, to supply help where it
+was most needed, seems to have guided her private practice, for we read:
+"Dr. Inglis was perhaps seen at her best in her dispensary work, for she
+was truly the friend and the champion of the working woman, and
+especially of the mother in poor circumstances and struggling to bring
+up a large family. Morrison Street Dispensary and St. Anne's Dispensary
+were the centre of this work, and for years to come mothers will be
+found in this district who will relate how Dr. Inglis put at their
+service the best of her professional skill and, more than that, gave
+them unstintedly of her sympathy and understanding."
+
+Dr. Wallace Williamson, of St. Giles's Cathedral, writing of her after
+her death, is conscious also of this impulse always manifesting itself
+in her to work where difficulties abounded. He points out: "Of her
+strictly professional career it may be truly said that her real
+attraction had been to work among the suffering poor.... She was seen at
+her best in hospice and dispensary, and in homes where poverty added
+keenness to pain. There she gave herself without reserve. Questions of
+professional rivalry or status of women slipped away in her large
+sympathy and helpfulness. Like a truly 'good physician,' she gave them
+from her own courage an uplift of spirit even more valuable than
+physical cure. She understood them and was their friend. To her they
+were not merely patients, but fellow-women. It was one of her great
+rewards that the poor folk to whom she gave of her best rose to her
+faith in them, whatever their privations or temptations. Her relations
+with them were remote from mere routine, and so distinctively human and
+real that her name is everywhere spoken with the note of personal loss.
+Had not the wider call come, this side of her work awaited the
+fulfilment of ever nobler dreams."
+
+She was loved and appreciated as a doctor not only by her poorer
+patients, but by those whom she attended in all ranks of society.
+
+Of her work as an operator and lecturer two of her colleagues say:
+
+"It was a pleasure to see Dr. Inglis in the operating-theatre. She was
+quiet, calm, and collected, and never at a loss, skilful in her
+manipulations, and able to cope with any emergency."
+
+"As a lecturer she proved herself clear and concise, and the level of
+her lectures never fell below that of the best established standards.
+Students were often heard to say that they owed to her a clear and a
+practical grasp of a subject which is inevitably one of the most
+important for women doctors."
+
+
+Should it be asked what was the secret of her success in her work, the
+answer would not be difficult to find. A clear brain she had, but she
+had more. She had vision, for her life was based on a profound trust in
+God, and her vision was that of a follower of Christ, the vision of the
+kingdom of heaven upon earth. This was the true source of that
+remarkable optimism which carried her over difficulties deemed by others
+insurmountable. Once started in pursuit of an object, she was most
+reluctant to abandon it, and her gaze was so keenly fixed on the end in
+view that it must be admitted she was found by some to be "ruthless" in
+the way in which she pushed on one side any who seemed to her to be
+delaying or obstructing the fulfilment of her project. There was,
+however, never any selfish motive prompting her; the end was always a
+noble one, for she had an unselfish, generous nature. An intimate
+friend, well qualified to judge, herself at first prejudiced against
+her, writes:
+
+"In everything she did that was always to me her most outstanding
+characteristic, her self-effacing and abounding generosity. Indeed, it
+was so characteristic of her that it was often misunderstood and her
+action was imputed to a desire for self-advertisement. A fellow-doctor
+told me that when she was working in one of the Edinburgh laboratories
+she heard men discussing something Dr. Inglis had undertaken, and,
+evidently finding her action quite incomprehensible, they concluded it
+was dictated by personal ambition. My friend turned on them in the most
+emphatic way: 'You were never more mistaken. The thought of self or
+self-interest never even entered Elsie Inglis's mind in anything she did
+or said.'" Again, another writes: "One recalls her generous appreciation
+of any good work done by other women, especially by younger women. Any
+attempt to strike out in a new line, any attempt to fill a post not
+previously occupied by a woman, received her unstinted admiration and
+warm support."
+
+It was her delight to show hospitality to her friends, many of whom,
+especially women doctors and friends made in the Suffrage movement,
+stayed with her at her house in Walker Street, Edinburgh. But her
+hospitality did not end there. One doctor, whom we have already quoted,
+on arrival on a visit, found that only the day before Dr. Inglis had
+said good-bye to a party of guests, a woman with five children, a
+patient badly in need of rest, who had the misfortune to have an unhappy
+home, and was without any relatives to help her. Dr. Inglis's relations
+with her poor patients have been already referred to. Not only did she
+give them all she could in the way of professional attention and skill,
+but her generosity to them was unbounded. "I had a patient," writes a
+doctor, "very ill with pulmonary tuberculosis. She was to go to a
+sanatorium, and her widowed mother was quite unable to provide the
+rather ample outfit demanded. Dr. Inglis gave me everything for her,
+down to umbrella and goloshes."
+
+Naturally her devotion was returned, though in one case which is
+recorded Dr. Inglis's care met with resentment at first. A woman who was
+expecting a baby--her ninth--applied at a dispensary where Dr. Inglis
+happened to be in charge. Her advice was distasteful to the patient, who
+tried another dispensary, only to meet again with the same advice, again
+from a woman member of the profession. A third dispensary brought her
+the same fortune! Eventually, when the need for professional skill came,
+she was attended by the two latter doctors she had seen, for the case
+proved to be a difficult one. Requiring the aid of greater
+experience--for they were juniors--they sent for Dr. Inglis, with whose
+help the lives of mother and child were saved. Thus the patient was
+attended in the end by all the three women physicians whose advice she
+had scorned. The child was the first boy in the large family, and the
+mother's gratitude and delight after her recovery knew no bounds. It
+found, however, Scotch expression, shall we say? in her tribute, "Weel,
+I've had the hale three o' ye efter a', and ye canna say I hae'na likit
+ye--_at the hinder en' at ony rate_!" "That woman kept us busy with
+patients for many a day," writes one of the three. The bulky
+mother-in-law of one patient expressed her admiration of the doctor and
+her lack of faith in the justice of things by saying: "It's no fair Dr.
+Inglis is a woman; if she'd been a man, she'd ha' been a millionaire!"
+The doctor in whose memory these incidents live says of her friend: "No
+item was too trivial, no trouble too great to take, if she could help a
+human being, or if she could push forward or help a younger doctor."
+
+If Elsie Inglis's intrepidity, determination, and invincible optimism
+were well known to the public, the circle of her friends was warmed by
+the truly loving heart with which they came in contact.
+
+The following incident may show in some degree what a tender heart it
+was. A friend whose brother died, after an operation, in a nursing home
+in Edinburgh was staying at Dr. Inglis's house when the death occurred.
+The body had to be taken to the Highland home in the North. The sister
+writes: "My younger brother called for me in the early morning, as we
+had to leave by the 3 a.m. train to accompany the body to Inverness.
+When Dr. Inglis had said good-bye to us and we drove away in the cab, my
+brother--he is just an ordinary keen business man--turned to me with his
+eyes filled with tears, and said: 'I should have liked to kiss her like
+my mother.' (We had never known our mother.)"
+
+In the fourteenth century, in that wonderful and most lovable woman,
+Catherine of Siena, we find the same union of strength and tenderness
+which was so noticeable in Dr. Inglis. In the _Life_ of St. Catherine it
+is said: "Everybody loves Catherine Benincasa because she was always and
+everywhere a woman in every fibre of her being. By nature and
+temperament she was fitted to be what she succeeded in remaining to the
+end--a strong, noble woman, whose greatest strength lay in her
+tenderness, and whose nobility sprung from her tender femininity."
+
+In her political sagacity, her optimism, and cheerfulness also, she
+reminds us of Elsie Inglis. During St. Catherine's Mission to Tuscany
+the following story is told of her by her biographer: "The other case"
+(of healing) "was that of Messer Matteo, her friend, the Rector of
+Misericordia, who had been one of the most active of the heretic priests
+in Siena. To this good man, lying _in extremis_ after terrible agony,
+Catherine entered, crying cheerfully: 'Rise up, rise up, Ser Matteo!
+This is not the time to be taking your ease in bed!' Immediately the
+disease left him, and he, who could so ill be spared at such a time,
+arose whole and sound to minister to others."[10]
+
+We smile as we read of Catherine's "cheerful" entrance into this
+sick-chamber, and those who knew Dr. Inglis can recall many such a
+breezy entrance into the depressing atmosphere of some of her patients'
+sickrooms.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[10] _Catherine of Siena_, by C. M. Antony.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE SOLVED PROBLEMS
+
+
+     "_It is the solution worked out in the life, not merely in words,
+     that brings home to other lives the fact that the problem is not
+     insoluble_."
+
+
+It may be truly said that special types of problems come before the
+unmarried woman for solution--problems as to her connection with society
+and with the race, which confront her as they do not others. Though few
+signs of a mental struggle were visible on the surface, there is no
+doubt that Elsie Inglis met these problems and settled them in the
+silence of her heart. It is a fact of much interest in connection with
+the subject of this memoir that amongst the papers found after she had
+died is the MS. of a novel written by herself, entitled _The Story of a
+Modern Woman_, and one turns the pages with eager interest to see if
+they furnish a key to the path along which she travelled in solving her
+problems. The expectation is realized, and in reading the pages of the
+novel we find the secret of the assurance and happy courage which
+characterized her. Whether she intended it or not, many parts of the
+book are without doubt autobiographical. In this chapter we propose to
+give some extracts from the novel which we consider justify the belief
+that the authoress is describing her own experiences.
+
+The first extract refers to her "discovery" that she was almost entirely
+without fear. The heroine is Hildeguard Forrest, a woman of
+thirty-seven, a High School teacher. During a boating accident, which
+might have resulted fatally, the fact reveals itself to Hildeguard that
+she does not know what fear is. The story of the accident closes with
+these words:
+
+
+     "Self-revelation is not usually a pleasant process. Not often do we
+     find ourselves better than we expected. Usually the sudden flash
+     that shows us ourselves makes us blush with shame at the sight we
+     see. But very rarely, and for the most part for the people who are
+     not self-conscious, the flash may, in a moment, reveal unknown
+     powers or unsuspected strength.
+
+     "And Hildeguard, sitting back in the boat, suddenly realized she
+     wasn't a coward. She looked back in surprise over her life, and
+     remembered that the terror which as a child would seize her in a
+     sudden emergency was the fear of being parted from her mother, not
+     any personal fear for herself, or her own safety.
+
+     "Such a pleasurable glow swept over her as she sat there in the
+     rocking boat. 'Why, no,' she thought; 'I wasn't frightened.'"
+
+
+A similar accident befell Elsie Inglis when a young woman. Whether the
+absence of fear disclosed itself to her then or not cannot be said, but
+she is known to have said to a friend after her return from Serbia: "It
+was a great day in my life when I discovered that I did not know what
+fear was."
+
+Benjamin Kidd in _The Science of Power_ gives (unintentionally) an
+indication where to look for the secret of the childless woman's feeling
+of loneliness--_she has no link with the future_. He affirms that woman
+because of her very nature has her roots in the future. "To women," he
+says, "the race is always more than the individual; the future greater
+than the present."
+
+As we follow Hildeguard through the pages of the novel, she is shown to
+us as faced with the problem of becoming "a lonely woman," the problem
+that meets the unmarried and the childless woman. And the claims and the
+meaning of religion are confronting her too. The story traces the
+workings of Hildeguard's mind and the events of her life for a year.
+
+Christmas Day in the novel finds Hildeguard a lonely and dissatisfied
+woman with no "sure anchor." She has had a happy childhood, with many
+relations and friends around her. One by one these are taken from
+her--some are dead, others are married--and she sees herself, at the age
+of thirty-seven, a forlorn figure with no great interest in the future,
+and her thoughts dwelling mostly on the joyous past. Two or three of
+Hildeguard's friends are conversing together in her rooms. None of them
+has had a happy day. Each in her own way is feeling the depression of
+the lonely woman. Frances, a little Quaker lady, enters the room, as
+someone remarks on the sadness of Christmas-time.
+
+
+     "'Yes,' at last said the Quaker lady; 'I heard what you said as I
+     came in, dear. Christmas is a hard time with all its memories. _I
+     think I have found out what we lonely women want. It is a future_.
+     Our thoughts are always turning to the past. There is not anything
+     to link us on to the next generation. You see other women with
+     their families--it is the future to which they look. However good
+     the past has been, they expect more to come, for their sons and
+     their daughters. Their life goes on in other lives.' Hildeguard
+     clasped her hands round her knees and stared into the fire."
+
+
+"Their life goes on in other lives"--the thought finds a home in
+Hildeguard's mind. When, soon after, the little Quakeress dies,
+Hildeguard, looking at the quiet face, says to herself: "_Dear little
+woman! So you have got your future._" But in her own case she does not
+wait for death to bring it to her; she faces her problems, and, refusing
+to be swamped by them, makes the currents carry her bark along to the
+free, open sea. She flings herself whole-heartedly into causes whose
+hopes rest in the future. She draws around her children, who need her
+love and care, and makes them her hostages for the future. In all this
+we see Elsie Inglis describing a stage in her own life.
+
+But before the story brings us round again to Christmas, something else
+has helped to change the outlook for Hildeguard; she has found herself
+in relation to God. Her religion is no merely inherited thing--not hers
+at second-hand, this "link with God." It is a real thing to her, found
+for herself, made part of herself, and so her sure foundation. It has
+come to her in a flash, a never-to-be-forgotten illumination of the
+words: "_The Power of an Endless Life_." She faces life now glad and
+free.
+
+In her "den" on that Christmas Eve she is described thus to us by Elsie
+Inglis:
+
+
+     "Ann had put holly berries over the pictures, and the mantelpiece,
+     too, was covered with it. Between the masses of green and the red
+     berries stood the solid, old-fashioned, gilt frames of long ago,
+     the photographs in them becoming yellow with age. Hildeguard turned
+     to them from the portraits on the walls. She stood, her hands
+     resting on the edge of the mantelpiece. Then suddenly it came to
+     her that her whole attitude towards life and death had altered. For
+     long these old photographs had stood to her as symbols of a past
+     glowing with happiness. Though the pain still lingered even after
+     time had dulled the edge, yet the old pictures typified all that
+     was best in life, and the dim mist of the years rose up between the
+     good days and her.
+
+     "But now, as she looked, her thoughts did not turn to the past. In
+     some unexplained way the loves of long ago seemed to be entwined
+     with a future so wonderful and so enticing that her heart bounded
+     as she thought of it.
+
+
+     "'Grow old along with me;
+     The best is yet to be.'
+
+
+     "Only last Christmas those words would have meant nothing to her.
+     Then her bark seemed to be stranded among shallows. She felt that
+     she was an old woman, and 'second bests' her lot in the coming
+     years. There could never be any life equal to the old life, in the
+     back-water into which she had drifted.
+
+     "But to-day how different the outlook! Her ship was flying over a
+     sunlit sea, the good wind bulging out the canvas. She felt the
+     thrill of excitement and adventure in her veins as she stood at the
+     helm and gazed across the dancing water. It seemed to her as if she
+     had been asleep and the "Celestial Surgeon" had come and 'stabbed
+     her spirit broad awake.' Joy had done its work, and sorrow;
+     responsibility had come with its stimulating spur, and the ardent
+     delight of battle in a great crusade. New powers she had discovered
+     in herself, new possibilities in the world around her. She was
+     ready for her 'adventure brave and new.' Rabbi Ben Ezra had waited
+     for death to open the gate to it, but to Hildeguard it seemed that
+     she was in the midst of it now, that 'adventure brave and new' in
+     which death itself was also an adventure.
+
+     "'The Power of an Endless Life'--the words seemed to hover around
+     her, just eluding her grasp, just beyond her comprehension, yet
+     something of their significance she seemed to catch. She remembered
+     the flash of intuition as she stood beside Frances' newly-made
+     grave, but she realized, her eyes on the old pictures, that it
+     would take aeons to understand all it meant, to exhaust all the
+     wonder of the idea. She could only bring to it her undeveloped
+     powers of thought and of imagination, but she knew that stretching
+     away, hid in an inexpressible light, lay depths undreamt of. To her
+     nineteenth-century intellect life could only mean evolution--life
+     ever taking to itself new forms, developing itself in new ways. At
+     the bed-rock of all her thought lay the consciousness of 'the Power
+     not ourselves, which makes for Righteousness.'
+
+     "No mystic she, to whom an ineffable union with the Highest was the
+     goal of all. Never even distantly did she reach to that idea.
+     Rather she was one of God's simple-hearted soldiers, who took her
+     orders and stood to her post. The words thrilled her, not with the
+     prospect of rest, but with the excitement of advance, 'an Endless
+     Life' with ever new possibilities of growth and of achievement,
+     ever greater battles to be fought for the right, and always new
+     hopes of happiness. Doubtingly and hesitatingly she committed
+     herself to the thought, conscious that it had been forming slowly
+     and unregarded in the strenuous months that lay behind her, through
+     the long years, ever since the first seemingly hopeless 'good-bye'
+     had wrung her heart. She began dimly to feel the 'power' of the
+     idea, the life of which she was the holder, only 'part of a greater
+     whole.' Earth itself only a step in a great progression. Ever
+     upward, ever onward, marching towards some 'Divine far-off event,
+     to which the whole creation moves.'"
+
+
+If another pen than Elsie Inglis's had drawn the picture we should have
+said it was one of herself. Surely she was able to weave around her
+heroine, from the depth of her own inner experiences of solved problems,
+the mantle of joy and freedom with which she herself was clothed.
+
+The causes to which Elsie Inglis became a tower of strength; the "nation
+she twice saved from despair"; the many children, not only those in her
+own connection, on whom she lavished love and care, are the witnesses
+to-day of the completeness and the splendour of her power to mould each
+adverse circumstance in her life and make it yield a great advantage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+"HER CHILDREN"
+
+
+"Wonderful courage," "intrepidity of action," "strength of purpose," "no
+weakening pity"--these are terms that are often used in describing Elsie
+Inglis. But there is another side to her character, not so well known,
+from its very nature bound to be less known, which it is the purpose of
+this chapter to discover.
+
+Elsie Inglis was a very loving woman, and she was a child-lover. From
+every source that touched her life, and, touching it, brought her into
+contact with child-life, she, by her interest in children, drew to
+herself this healing link with the future. The children of her poorer
+patients knew well the place they held in her heart. "They would watch
+from the windows, on her dispensary days, for her, and she would wave to
+them across the street. She would often stop them in the street, and ask
+after their mother, and even after she had been to Serbia and had
+returned to Edinburgh she remembered them and their home affairs."[11]
+
+The daily letters to her father, written from Glasgow and London and
+Dublin, are full of stories about the children of her patients. Who but
+a genuine child-lover could have found time to write to a little niece,
+under twelve, letters from Serbia and Russia--one in August, 1915,
+during "The Long, Peaceful Summer," and the other in an ambulance train
+near Odessa?
+
+Her book, _The Story of a Modern Woman_, contains many descriptions
+which reveal a mind to whom the ways of children are of deep interest.
+We draw once more from the pages of the novel, as in no other way can we
+show so well the mother-heart that was hers.
+
+One of Hildeguard's friends, dying in India, leaves three small
+children, whom she commends to her pity. Hildeguard's heart responds at
+once, and the orphans find their home with her. Her first meeting with
+the frightened children and their black nurse is described in detail:
+
+
+     "'Just let's wait a minute or two,' said Hildeguard. 'Let them get
+     used to me. Well, Baby,' she said, turning to the ayah, and holding
+     out her arms.
+
+     "With a great leap and a gurgle Baby precipitated himself towards
+     her, his strong little hands clutching uncertainly at the brooch at
+     her throat. Then the buttons distracted him, and then, after a
+     serious look at her face, his eyes suddenly caught sight of the hat
+     above it, and the irresistible gleam of some ornament on it. With
+     wildly working hands he pulled himself to his feet, and, with one
+     fat little hand on her face, grabbed at the shining jet.
+
+     "Hildeguard, laughing, and submitting herself half resistingly to
+     the onslaught, felt her hat dragged sideways by the uncertain
+     little hand.
+
+     "She held the little one close to her, still laughing, kissing the
+     firm little arms and hands, and talking baby nonsense as if it had
+     been her mother-tongue for years.
+
+     "The brooch again caught Baby's eye, and he made another determined
+     raid on it. He seized it and pricked his finger. Down went the
+     corners of his mouth.
+
+     "'There now,' said Hildeguard, 'I knew you'd do that, you duckie
+     boy,' kissing the pricked hand over and over again. 'And good
+     little sonnie is not to cry. A watch is much safer than a brooch:
+     now let's see if we can get at it,' feeling in her belt.
+
+     "The watch was grabbed at and went straight to his mouth.
+
+     "'Does your watch blow open?' asked Rex.
+
+     "'Come and see,' said Hildeguard.
+
+     "Rex came without a moment's hesitation. Eileen was forgotten in
+     the interest of a new investigation. The watch did blow open. How
+     exceedingly exciting! He leaned both arms on Hildeguard's knee
+     while he defended the watch from Baby's greedy attacks. Then he
+     suddenly remembered something of more importance.
+
+     "'I've got a watch too.' He wriggled wildly with excitement, and
+     pulled out a Waterbury.
+
+     "'Well, you are a lucky boy!' said Hildeguard.
+
+     "Eileen had come forward too, but Hildeguard waited for her to
+     speak before noticing the advance. Rex was standing near to her,
+     pointing out the beauties of the watch, the hands, etc.
+
+     "'And--and--bigger like that'--stretching his arms wide--'bigger
+     like that than your watch.'
+
+     "'Your watch,' said Eileen, 'is little and tiny, like Mummy's
+     watch. But Mummy's watch pins on here,' dabbing at Hildeguard's
+     blouse. Then suddenly she raised swimming eyes to Hildeguard's: 'I
+     do want Mummy,' she said.
+
+     "'Darling,' cried Hildeguard, catching Baby with her right arm, so
+     as to free the other to draw Eileen to her--'Darling, so we all
+     do.'"
+
+
+It is a simple account of the little ways of shy children. Many a mother
+could have written it equally well.
+
+But the interest of Elsie Inglis's descriptions of children lies in the
+fact that they come from the pen of a woman of action, a woman of iron
+nerve, and they give us the other side of her character.
+
+And then--she was a woman whom no child called mother! But thank God the
+instinct is not one that can be dammed up or lost, and in these writings
+we get a glimpse of that motherhood which was hers, and which her life
+showed to be deep enough and wide enough to sweep under its wing the
+human souls, men, women, and children, who, passing near it, and being
+in need, cried out for help, and never cried in vain. To quote a
+fellow-woman:
+
+"The emotions which are the strongest force in a woman must not live in
+the past; they must not be used introspectively, nor for personal
+pleasure and gratification. Used thus, they destroy the woman and weaken
+the race. But _flung forward_, flung into interests outside of the woman
+herself, and thus transmuted into power, they become to her her
+salvation, and to the race a constructive element."
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[11] _Dr. Elsie Inglis_, by Lady Frances Balfour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE HOSPICE
+
+
+During her medical career Dr. Inglis never lost sight of one aim, equal
+opportunity for the woman with the man in all branches of education and
+practical training and responsibility. She recognized that young women
+doctors in Edinburgh suffered under a serious disadvantage in being
+ineligible for the post of resident medical officer in the Royal
+Infirmary and the chief maternity hospital. "But," writes a friend, "it
+was characteristic of her and her inherent inability to visualize
+obstacles except as incentive to greater effort that she set herself to
+remedy this disadvantage instead of accepting it as an insurmountable
+difficulty. _Women doctors must found a maternity hospital of their
+own._ That was her first decision. A committee was formed, and the
+public responded generously to an appeal for funds." Through the
+kindness of Dr. Hugh Barbour, a house in George Square was put at the
+committee's disposal. But Dr. Inglis felt that it must be near the homes
+of the poor women who needed its shelter, and after four years a site
+was chosen in the historic High Street. Three stories in a huge
+"tenement," reached by a narrow winding stair, were adapted, and The
+Hospice opened its doors.
+
+It was opened in 1901 as a hospital for women, with a dispensary and
+out-patient department, admitting cases of accident and general illness
+as well as maternity patients. After nine years, it was decided to draft
+the general cases from the district to the Edinburgh Hospital for Women
+and Children, and The Hospice devoted all its beds to maternity cases.
+
+[Illustration: _Photo by D. Scott_
+
+THE HOSPICE, HIGH STREET, EDINBURGH]
+
+As soon as the admission book showed a steady intake of patients, Dr.
+Inglis applied for and secured recognition as a lecturer for the
+Central Midwifery Board, in order to be in a position to admit resident
+pupils (nurses and students) to The Hospice for practical instruction in
+midwifery. She at the same time applied to the University of Edinburgh
+for recognition as an extramural lecturer on gynaecology. Recognition was
+granted, and for some years she lectured, using The Hospice or the
+Edinburgh Hospital for Women and Children at Bruntsfield Place for her
+practical instruction.
+
+A woman doctor writes: "In thus starting a maternity hospital in the
+heart of this poor district she showed the understanding born of her
+long experience in the High Street and her great sympathy for all women
+in their hour of need. Single-handed she developed a maternity indoor
+and district service, training her nurses herself in anticipation of the
+extension of the Midwives Act to Scotland. Never too tired to turn out
+at night as well as by day, cheerfully taking on the necessary
+lecturing, she always worked to lay such a foundation that a properly
+equipped maternity hospital would be the natural outcome."
+
+Though hampered by lack of money and suitable assistance, she was never
+daunted, and in a characteristic way insisted that all necessary medical
+requirements should be met, whatever the expense. She worked at The
+Hospice with devotion. Though cherishing always her aim of an
+institution which, while serving the poor, should provide a training for
+women doctors, she threw herself heart and soul into the work because
+she loved it for its own sake, and she loved her poor patients.
+
+In 1913 Dr. Inglis went to America, and her letters were full of her
+plans for further development on her return. At Muskegon, Michigan, she
+found a small memorial hospital, of which she wrote enthusiastically as
+the exact thing she wanted for midwifery in Edinburgh.
+
+On returning from America, for a time she was far from well, and one of
+her colleagues, in September, 1913, urged her to forgo her hard work at
+The Hospice, begging her to take things more easily.
+
+Her reply, in a moment of curious concentration and earnestness, was
+characteristic: "Give me one more year; I know there is a future there,
+and someone will be found to take it on." A year later, when it seemed
+inevitable that it must come to an end with her departure for Serbia,
+those interested in The Hospice passed through deep waters in saving it,
+but the unanswerable argument against closing its doors was always that
+big circle of patients, often pleading her name, flocking up its stair,
+certain of help.
+
+"Three things foreseen by Dr. Inglis have happened since her departure:
+
+
+     "1. The extension of the Midwives Act to Scotland, establishing
+     recognized training centres for midwifery nursing.
+
+     "2. The extension of Notification of Births Act, making State
+     co-operation in maternity service possible.
+
+     "3. The admission of women medical students to the University,
+     making an opportunity for midwifery training in Edinburgh of
+     immediate and paramount importance.
+
+
+"The relation of The Hospice to these three events is as follows:
+
+
+     "1. It is now fourth on the list of recognized training centres in
+     Scotland, following the three large maternity hospitals.
+
+     "2. It is incorporated in the Maternity and Child Welfare scheme of
+     Edinburgh, which assists in out-patient work, though not in the
+     provision of beds.
+
+     "3. It has full scope under the Ordinances of the Scottish
+     Universities to train women medical students in Clinical Midwifery
+     if it had a sufficient number of beds.
+
+
+"The Hospice has the distinction of being the only maternity training
+centre run by women in Scotland. From this point of view it is of great
+value to women students, affording them opportunities of study denied to
+them in other maternity hospitals.
+
+"To those of her friends who knew her Edinburgh life intimately, Elsie
+Inglis's love of The Hospice was the love of a mother for her child.
+She was never too tired or too busy to respond to any demand its
+patients made upon her time and energy, always ready to go anywhere in
+crowded close, or remote tenement, if it was to see a mother who had
+once been an in-patient there or a baby born within its walls. True, Dr.
+Inglis saw The Hospice with romantic eyes, with that vision of future
+perfection which is the seal of pure romance in motherhood. Because of
+this she cheerfully accepted those cramped and inconvenient flats,
+reached by the narrow common stair which vanishes past The Hospice door
+in a corkscrew flight to regions under the roof. Inconvenience and
+straitened quarters were as nothing, for was not her Nursing Home
+exactly where she wished it, with the ebb and flow of the High Street at
+its feet? Dr. Inglis always rejoiced greatly in the High Street, in the
+charm of the precincts of St. Giles, that ineffable Heart of Midlothian,
+serenely catholic, brooding upon the motley life that has surged for
+centuries about its doors. Here, where she loved to be, The Hospice is
+finding a new home, an adequate building, modern equipment, and endowed
+beds, and it will stand a living memorial, communicating to all who pass
+in and out of its doors, to women in need, to women strong to help, the
+inspiration of Dr. Elsie Inglis's ideal of service."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE SUFFRAGE CAMPAIGN
+
+
+The question of Woman's Suffrage had always interested Dr. Inglis, for
+the justice of the claim had from the first appealed to her. But it was
+not until after 1900 that the Women's Movement took possession of her.
+From that time onward, till the Scottish Women's Hospitals claimed her
+in the war, the cause of Woman's Suffrage demanded and was granted a
+place in her life beside that occupied by her profession. Indeed, the
+very practice of her profession added fuel to the flame that the longing
+for the Suffrage had kindled in her heart. A doctor sees much of the
+intimate life of her patients, and as Dr. Inglis went from patient to
+patient, conditions amongst both the poor and the rich--intolerable
+conditions--would raise haunting thoughts that followed her about in her
+work, and questions again and again start up to which only the Suffrage
+could give the answer. The Suffrage flame with her, as with many other
+women and men, was really one which religion tended; it was religious
+conviction which mastered her and made her eager and dauntless in the
+fight. She always worked from the constitutional point of view, and was
+an admirer and follower of Mrs. Fawcett throughout the campaign.
+
+
+     "As she threw herself into this new interest she found a gale of
+     fresh air blowing through her life. It was almost as if she had
+     awakened on a new morning. The sunshine flooded every nook and
+     corner of her dwelling, and even old things looked different in the
+     new light. Not the least of these impressions was due to the new
+     friendships; women whose life-work was farthest from her own, whose
+     point of view was diametrically opposite to hers, suddenly drew up
+     beside her in the march as comrades. She felt as if she had got a
+     wider outlook over the world, as if in her upward climb she had
+     reached a spur on the hillside, and a new view of the landscape
+     spread itself at her feet.
+
+     "As she had once said, fate had placed her in the van of a great
+     movement, but she herself clung to old forms and old ways--a new
+     thing she instinctively avoided. It took her long to adjust herself
+     to a new point of view. But here, in this absorbing interest, she
+     forgot everything but the object. Her eyes had suddenly been opened
+     to what it meant to be a citizen of Britain, and in the
+     overpowering sense of responsibility that came with the revelation
+     her timorous clinging to old ways had slackened.
+
+     "Not the least part of the interest of the new life was the feeling
+     of being at the centre of things. People whose names had been
+     household words since babyhood became living entities. She not only
+     saw the men and women who were moulding our generation: she met
+     them at tea, she talked intimately with them at dinners, and she
+     actually argued with them at Council meetings."
+
+
+Thus Elsie Inglis describes in her writings her heroine Hildeguard's
+entrance into "the great crusade." The description may be taken as true
+of her own feelings when caught by the ideal of the movement.
+
+The following words which she puts into the mouth of a Suffrage speaker
+are evidently her own reflections on the subject of the Suffrage:
+
+
+     "'I don't think for a moment that the millennium will come in with
+     the vote,' she smiled, after a little pause. 'But our faces, the
+     faces of the human race, have always been set towards the
+     millennium, haven't they? And this will be one great step towards
+     it. It is always difficult to make a move forward, for it implies
+     criticism of the past, and of the good men and true who have
+     brought the people up to that especial point. However gently the
+     change is made, that element must be there, for there is always a
+     sense of struggle in changing from the old to the new. I do not
+     think we are nearly careful enough to make it quite clear that we
+     do not hold that we women _alone_ could have done a bit
+     better--that we are proud of the great work our men have done. We
+     speak only of the mistakes, not of the great achievements; only I
+     do think the mistakes need not have been there if we had worked at
+     it together!'
+
+     "The salvation of the world was wrapped up in the gospel she
+     preached. Many of the audience were caught in the swirl as she
+     spoke. Love and amity, the common cause of healthier homes and
+     happier people and a stronger Empire, the righting of all wrongs,
+     and the strengthening of all right--all this was wrapped up in the
+     vote."
+
+
+In the early years of this century Suffrage societies were scattered all
+over Scotland, and it began to be felt that much of their work was lost
+from want of co-operation; it was therefore decided in 1906 that all the
+societies should form a federation, to be called the Scottish Federation
+of Women's Suffrage Societies.
+
+During the preliminary work Mrs. James T. Hunter acted as Hon.
+Secretary, but after the headquarters were established in Edinburgh Dr.
+Inglis was asked and consented to be Hon. Secretary, with Miss Lamont as
+Organizing Secretary. There is no doubt that after its formation the
+success of the Federation was largely due to Dr. Inglis's power of
+leadership.
+
+She cheered the faithful--if sometimes despondent--suffragists in widely
+scattered centres; she despised the difficulties of travel in the north,
+and over moor, mountain, and sea she went, till she had planted the
+Suffrage flag in far-off Shetland. In her many journeys all over
+Scotland, speaking for the Suffrage cause, Dr. Inglis herself penetrated
+to the islands of Orkney and Shetland. A very flourishing Society
+existed in the Orkneys.
+
+The following letter from Dr. Inglis to the Honorary Secretary there is
+characteristic, and will recall her vividly to those who knew her. The
+arrival for the meeting by the last train; the early start back next
+morning; the endeavour to see her friend's daughter, who she remembers
+is in Dollar; the light-heartedness over "disasters in the House"
+(evidently the setback to some Suffrage Bill in the House of
+Commons)--these are all like Elsie Inglis. So, too, are her praise of
+the Federation secretaries, her eager looking forward to the procession,
+and the request for the "beautiful banner"!
+
+
+                                                                 1913.
+     "DEAR MRS. CURSITER,
+
+     "Yes, I had remembered your daughter is at Dollar, and I shall
+     certainly look out for her at the meeting. Unfortunately, I never
+     have time to stay in a place, at one of these meetings, and see
+     people. It would often be so pleasant. This time I arrive in Dollar
+     at 6 p.m. and leave about 8 the next morning. I have to leave by
+     these early trains for my work.
+
+     "It was delightful getting your offer of an organizer's salary for
+     some work in Orkney. Our secretaries have been most extraordinarily
+     unconcerned over disasters in the House! Not one of you has
+     suggested depression, and most of you have promptly proposed new
+     work! That is the sort of spirit that wins.
+
+     "I shall let you know definitely about an organizer soon.
+
+     "At the Executive on Saturday it was decided to have a procession
+     in Edinburgh during the Assembly week. We shall want you and your
+     beautiful banner! You'll get full particulars soon.
+
+                                       "Yours very sincerely,
+                                                 "ELSIE MAUD INGLIS."
+
+
+One of the Federation organizers who worked under Dr. Inglis for years
+gives us some indication of her qualities as a leader:
+
+"Though it was not unknown that Dr. Inglis had an extraordinary
+influence over young people, it was amazing to find how many letters
+were received after her death from young women in various parts of the
+kingdom, who wrote to express what they owed to her sympathy and
+encouragement.
+
+"To be a leader one must be able not only to inspire confidence in the
+leader, but to give to those who follow confidence in themselves, and
+this, I think, was one of Dr. Inglis's most outstanding qualities. She
+would select one of her workers, and after unfolding her plans to her,
+would quietly say, 'Now, my dear, I want you to undertake that piece of
+work for me.' As often as not the novice's breath was completely taken
+away; she would demur, and remark that she was afraid she was not quite
+the right person to be entrusted with that special piece of work. Then
+the Chief would give her one of those winning smiles which none could
+resist, and tell her she was quite confident she would not fail. The
+desired result was usually attained, and the young worker gained more
+confidence in herself. If, on the other hand, the worker failed to
+complete her task satisfactorily, Dr. Inglis would discuss the matter
+with her. She might condemn, but never unjustly, and would then arrange
+another opportunity for the worker in a different department of the
+work.
+
+"From those with whom she worked daily she expected great things. She
+was herself an unceasing worker, well-nigh indefatigable. It was no easy
+matter to work under 'the Chief's' direction; the possibility of failure
+never entered into her calculations."
+
+One of the finest speakers in the Suffrage cause, who with her husband
+worked hard in the campaign, frequently stayed with Dr. Inglis. She
+writes thus of her:
+
+"With me it is always most difficult to speak about the things upon
+which I feel the most deeply. Elsie Inglis is a case in point. She was
+dearer to me than she ever knew and than I can make you believe. She is
+one of the most precious memories I possess, the mere thought of her
+and her tireless devotion to her fellows being the strongest inspiration
+to effort and achievement.
+
+"She was the Edinburgh hostess for most of the Woman Suffrage
+propagandists, and we all have the same story to tell. Doubtless you
+have already had it from others. Every comfort she denied herself she
+scrupulously provided for her guests, whom she treated as though they
+were more tired than herself. Usually she was at her medical work till
+within a few minutes of the evening meal, would rush home and eat it
+with us, take us to the meeting afterwards, frequently take a part in
+it, and bring her guests home to the rest she was not always permitted
+to take herself. And through it all there was no variation in her
+wonderful manner--all brightness, affection, and warm energy.
+
+"The last time I saw her was in the Waverley station. She was returning
+shortly to her work abroad, while I was on my way to address a public
+meeting in Dundee on the need for attempting to negotiate peace. It was
+the time when everybody who dared to breathe the word 'peace,' much more
+those who tried to stop the slaughter of men, were denounced as traitors
+and pro-Germans. It was the time when one's nearest and dearest failed
+to understand. But _she_ understood. And she broke into a busy morning's
+work to come down to the train to shake my hand. What we said was very
+little; but the look and the hand-clasp were sufficient. We knew
+ourselves to be serving the same God of Love and Mercy, and that
+knowledge made the bonds between us indissoluble. I never saw nor had
+word with her again.
+
+"It is easy to say, what is true, that the world's women owe to Dr.
+Elsie Inglis a debt of gratitude they can never repay. But I am
+convinced in my own soul that the reward she would have chosen, if
+compelled to make the choice, would have been that all who feel that her
+work was of worth should join hands in an effort to rid the world of
+those evils which make men and women hate and kill one another."
+
+Dr. Inglis did not see with the pacifists of the last five years. But in
+this tribute to her is shown her open-mindedness and tolerance of
+another's views, even on this cleaving difference of opinion.
+
+A woman of great distinction--and not only in the Suffrage
+movement--says:
+
+"When I was working for the Suffrage movement in the years before the
+war, one of the most impressive personalities that I came into touch
+with was that of Dr. Elsie Inglis. She was then the leading spirit in
+our movement in Edinburgh, and when I went to speak there, or in the
+neighbourhood, she always used to put me up. I have never met anyone who
+seemed to me more absolutely single-minded and single-hearted in her
+devotion to a cause which appealed to her. She was eminently a feminist,
+and to her feminism she subordinated everything else. No consideration
+for her health, for her position, for her practice, ever stood in the
+way of any call that came to her. She was untiring, and that at a time
+when our cause was not popular everywhere, and when her position as a
+medical woman might easily have been affected by its unpopularity.
+
+"I remember one night especially, when we were going out in a motor-car
+to some rather remote place, in very stormy weather. It howled and
+rained and was pitch dark. Suddenly we ran, or nearly ran, into a great
+tree which had been blown down across the road. It had brought with it a
+mass of telegraph wire, and altogether afforded an apparently complete
+'barrage.' We were still some six or seven miles from our destination,
+and were wearing evening frocks and thin shoes. We got out and wrestled
+with the obstacle, and when at one time it seemed quite hopeless to get
+the car through, and I suggested that she and I would have to walk, I
+shall never forget the look of approval that she turned on me. As a
+matter of fact, I doubt very much whether I really _could_ have walked.
+I am a little lame, and the circumstances made it almost an
+impossibility. But the determination of Dr. Inglis that somehow we
+_should_ get to our meeting infected me, and, like many others who have
+followed her since, I felt able to achieve the impossible.
+
+"It is true that Dr. Inglis seemed to me--since, after all, she was
+human--to have the faults of her qualities. No consideration of herself
+prevented her complete devotion to her work. I sometimes felt that there
+was an element of relentlessness in this devotion, which would have
+allowed her to sacrifice not only other people, but even perhaps
+considerations which it is not easy to believe ought to be sacrificed.
+It is extraordinarily difficult to judge how far any end may justify any
+given means. It is, of course, a shallow judgment which dismisses this
+dilemma as one easily solved. Rather, I have always felt it exceedingly
+difficult, at any rate to an intellect that is subtle as well as
+powerful. I am reminded, in thinking of Dr. Inglis, of the controversy
+between Kingsley and Newman, from which it appears that Charles Kingsley
+thought it a very easy matter to tell the truth, and Newman found it a
+very difficult one. One's judgment of the two will, of course, vary, but
+I personally have always felt that Newman understood the truth more
+perfectly than Kingsley; understood, for instance, that it takes two
+people to tell it (one to speak and one to hear aright), and that this
+was why he realized its difficulty. So with Dr. Inglis; I do not suppose
+she ever hesitated when once convinced of the goodness of her cause, but
+I confess that I have sometimes wished that she could have hesitated.
+
+"It is a graceless task to suggest spots in so excellent a sun, and we
+feminists who worked with her and loved her can never be glad enough or
+proud enough that the world now knows the greatness of her quality."
+
+Again, an organizer who worked constantly with Dr. Inglis before the
+war, and who later raised large sums for the Scottish Women's Hospitals
+in India and Australia, writes:
+
+"You have asked me for some personal memories of my dear Dr. Elsie
+Inglis, for some of those little incidents that often reveal a character
+more vividly than much description and explanation. And to me, at least,
+it is in some of those little memories that the Dr. Inglis I loved lives
+most vividly. What I mean is that her splendid public work, in medicine,
+in Suffrage, in that magnificent triumph of the Scottish Women's
+Hospitals--they were _her_ hospitals--is there for all the world to see
+and honour. But the things behind all that, the character that
+conquered, the spirit that aspired, the incredible courage, optimism,
+indomitability of that individuality, the very self from which the work
+sprang--all that, it seems to me, had to be gathered in and understood
+from the tiny incident, the word, the glance.
+
+"There stands out in my mind my first meeting with Dr. Inglis. The scene
+was dismal and depressing enough. It was an empty shop in an Edinburgh
+Street turned into a Suffrage committee-room during an election. Outside
+the rain drizzled; inside the meagre fire smoked; there was a general
+air of lifelessness over everything. I wondered, ignorant and
+uninitiated in organizing and election work, when something definite
+would happen. Giving away sodden handbills in the street did not seem a
+very vigorous or practical piece of work.
+
+"Suddenly the doors swung open and Dr. Inglis came into that dull place,
+and with her there came the very feeling of movement, vitality, action.
+She had come to arrange speakers for the various schoolroom election
+meetings to be held that night. The list of meeting-places was arranged;
+then came the choice and disposal of the speakers. Without hesitation,
+Dr. Inglis grouped them; with just one look round at those present, and
+another, well into her own mind, at those not present who could be
+press-ganged! At last she turned to me and said, 'And you will speak
+with Miss X. at ----' I was horrified. 'But I must explain,' I said; 'I
+am quite "new." I don't speak at all. I have never spoken.' I can
+imagine a hundred people answering my very decided utterance in a
+hundred different ways. But I cannot imagine anyone but Dr. Inglis
+answering as she answered. There was just the jolliest, cheeriest laugh
+and, 'Oh, but you _must_ speak.' That was all. And the remarkable thing
+was that, though I had sworn to myself that I would never utter a word
+in public without proper training, I did speak that night. It never
+occurred to me to refuse. Confidence begat confidence. It was during
+this time of work with Dr. Inglis that I began really to understand and
+appreciate that wonderful character.
+
+"Another incident runs into my memory, of desperate, agonizing days in
+Glasgow, when Suffrage was unpopular and the funds in our exchequer were
+very low. How well I remember writing to Dr. Inglis at the ridiculous
+hour of two in the morning, that we must get some money, and that I
+should get certain introductions and do a lecturing tour in New York
+and try to make Suffrage 'fashionable.' The answer came by return of
+post, and was deliciously typical. 'My dear, your idea is so absolutely
+mad that it must be thoroughly sane. Come and talk it over.'
+
+"It was a happiness to work with Dr. Inglis, for her confidence, once
+given, was complete. There were no petty inquiries or pedantic
+regulations. 'Do it your own way,' was the one comment on a plan of
+organization once it was settled.
+
+"Dr. Inglis was one to whom the words 'can't' and 'impossible' really
+and literally had no meaning; and those who worked with her had to
+'unlearn' them, and they did. It did, indeed, seem 'impossible' to leave
+for India at ten days' notice to carry on negotiations for the Scottish
+Women's Hospitals and raise an Indian fund, especially when one had been
+in no way officially or intimately connected with the Hospitals' work.
+And to be told on the telephone, too, that one 'must' go. That was
+adorably Dr. Inglis-ish. I laughed with glee at the very ridiculous,
+fantastic impossibility of the whole thing--and promptly went! And how I
+looked forward to seeing Dr. Inglis on my return! When she saw me off at
+Waterloo in 1916, and, still fearfully ignorant of what awaited one, I
+wailed at the eleventh hour (literally, for we were in the railway
+carriage), 'But where am I to stay and where am I to go?' 'Don't worry,'
+said Dr. Inglis, with that sublime faith and optimism of hers; 'they'll
+put you up and pass you on. Good-bye, my dear. _It will be all right_.'
+And so it was. But one has missed the telling of it all to her; the hard
+things and the good things and the dreadfully funny things. For she
+would have appreciated every bit of it, and entered into every detail."
+
+
+During the years of that great campaign, Dr. Inglis spoke, pleading the
+cause of Suffrage, at hundreds of meetings all over the United Kingdom.
+At one large meeting she had occasion to deal with the problem of the
+"outcast woman." She referred to the statement once made that no woman
+would be safe unless this class existed.
+
+Then she said: "If this were true, the price of safety is too high. I,
+for one, would choose to go down with the minority."
+
+It is difficult to declare which was the more impressive, the
+silence--one that could be felt--which followed the words, or the burst
+of applause which came a moment later. But to one onlooker, from the
+platform, the predominant feeling was wonder at the amazing power of the
+woman. Without raising her voice, or putting into it any emotion beyond
+the involuntary momentary break at the beginning of the sentence, she
+had, by the transparent sincerity of her feeling, conveyed such an
+impression to that large audience as few there would forget. The subtle
+response drawn from those hundreds of women to the woman herself, to the
+personality of the speaker, was for the moment even more real than the
+outward response given to the idea. More than one woman there that day
+could have said in the words of the British Tommy, who had heard for the
+first time the story of Serbia, "It would not be difficult to follow
+her!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE SCOTTISH WOMEN'S HOSPITALS
+
+
+     "_From the first the personality of Dr. Inglis was the main asset
+     in this splendid venture. She continued to be its inspiration to
+     the end._"
+
+
+August, 1914, found many a man and woman unconsciously prepared and
+ready for the testing time ahead. Elsie Inglis was one of these.
+
+It is interesting to note that Dr. Inglis completed her fiftieth year in
+the August that war broke out. She started on her great work of the next
+years with all the vigour and freshness of youth.
+
+In her own words, already quoted, we can describe her at the beginning
+of the war:
+
+"Her ship was flying over a sunlit sea, the good wind bulging out the
+canvas. She felt the thrill and excitement of adventure in her veins as
+she stood at the helm and gazed across the dancing waters.... Joy had
+done its work, and sorrow and responsibility had come with its
+stimulating spur, and the ardent delight of battle in a great
+crusade....
+
+"New powers she had discovered in herself, new responsibilities in the
+life around her.... She was ready for her 'adventure brave and new.'
+Rabbi Ben Ezra waited for death to open the gate to it, but to her it
+seemed that she was in the midst of it now, that 'adventure brave and
+new' _in which death itself was also to be an adventure_.... 'The Power
+of an Endless Life.' The words thrilled her, not with the prospects of
+rest, but with the excitement of advance...."
+
+War was declared on August 4. On the 10th the idea of the Scottish
+Women's Hospitals--hospitals staffed entirely by women--had been mooted
+at the committee meeting of the Scottish Federation of Women's Suffrage
+Societies. Once the idea was given expression to, nothing was able to
+stop its growth. A special Scottish Women's Hospital committee was
+formed out of members of the Federation and Dr. Inglis's personal
+friends. Meetings were organized all over the country; an appeal for
+funds was sent broadcast over Scotland; money began to flow in; the
+scheme was taken up by the whole body of the N.U.W.S.S.[12] Mrs. Fawcett
+wrote approvingly. The Scottish Women's Hospitals Committee at their
+headquarters in Edinburgh divided up into subcommittees: equipment,
+uniforms, cars, personnel, and so on. Offers for service came in every
+day, until soon over 400 names were waiting the choice of the personnel
+committee. The headquarters offices in 2, St. Andrew Square became a
+busy hive. Enthusiasm was written on the face of every worker. By the
+end of November the first fully equipped Unit, under Miss Ivens of
+Liverpool was on its way to the old Abbey of Royaumont in France. Dr.
+Alice Hutchison with ten nurses was in Calais working under the Belgian
+surgeon, Dr. de Page. A second Unit as well equipped as the first was
+almost ready to start for Serbia. It sailed in the beginning of January,
+under Dr. Eleanor Soltau, Dr. Inglis herself following in the April of
+1915.
+
+But even with all this dispatch, the S.W.H. were not the first Women's
+Hospital in the field. As early as September, 1914, Dr. Flora Murray and
+Dr. Louisa Garrett Anderson had taken a Unit, staffed entirely by women,
+to Paris, where they did excellent work.
+
+Until Dr. Inglis's departure for Serbia, her whole time and strength and
+boundless energy had been thrown into the building up of the
+organization of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. She addressed countless
+meetings all over the Kingdom, making the scheme known and appealing for
+money, and at the same time her insight and enthusiasm never ceased to
+be the mainspring of the activity at the office in Edinburgh, where the
+heart of the Scottish Women's Hospitals was to be found. Miss Mair
+describes Dr. Inglis during these months thus:
+
+"A certain stir of feeling might be perceptible in the busy hive at the
+office of organization when a specially energetic visit of the Chief had
+been paid. Had the impossible been accomplished? If not, why? Who had
+failed in performance? Take the task from her; give it to another. No
+excuses in war-time, no weakness to be tolerated--onward, ever onward.
+
+"To those inclined to hesitate, or at least to draw breath occasionally
+in the course of their heavy work of organizing, raising money,
+gathering equipment, securing transport, passports, and attending to the
+other innumerable secretarial affairs connected with so big a task, she
+showed no weakening pity; the one invariable goad applied was ever, 'it
+is war-time.' No one must pause, no one must waver; things must simply
+be done, whether possible or not, and somehow by her inspiration they
+generally were done. In these days of agonizing stress she appeared as
+in herself the very embodiment of wireless telegraphy, aeronautic
+locomotion, with telepathy and divination thrown in--neither time nor
+space was of account. Puck alone could quite have reached her standard
+with his engirdling of the earth in forty minutes. Poor limited mortals
+could but do their best with the terrestrial means at their disposal.
+Possibly at times their make-weight steadied the brilliant work of their
+leader."
+
+In a letter to Mrs. Fawcett dated October 4, 1914, she says:
+
+
+     "I can think of nothing except those Units just now; and when one
+     hears of the awful need, one can hardly sit still till they are
+     ready."
+
+
+[Illustration: ELSIE INGLIS
+
+FROM A BUST BY THE SERBIAN SCULPTOR IVAN MESTROVIC]
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[12] National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+SERBIA
+
+
+Serbia in January, 1915, was in a pitiable condition. Three wars
+following in quick succession had devastated the land. The Austrians,
+after their defeat at the Battle of the Ridges in October, 1914, had
+retreated out of the country, leaving behind them filthy hospitals
+crowded with wounded, Austrian and Serb alike. The whole land has been
+spoken of as one vast hospital. From this condition of things sprang the
+scourge of typhus which started in January, 1915, and swept the land.
+Dr. Soltau and her Unit, arriving in the early part of January, were
+able to take their place in the battle against this scourge. Their work
+lay in Kraguevatz, in the north of Serbia, where Dr. Soltau soon had
+three hospitals under her command.
+
+In April Dr. Soltau contracted diphtheria. Dr. Inglis was wired for, and
+left for Serbia in the end of April, 1915. She went gaily. There seems
+no other word to describe her attitude of mind--she was so glad to go.
+The sufferings of the wounded and dying touched her keenly. It was not
+want of sympathy with all the awful misery on every hand that made her
+go with such joy of heart, but rather she was glad from the sense that
+at last she, personally, would be "where the need was greatest." This
+had always been her objective.
+
+
+                                              THE AEGEAN SEA,
+                                                     "_May 2nd, 1915._
+     "DEAREST EVA,
+     "We have had a perfectly glorious voyage from Brindisi to Athens,
+     all yesterday between the coast and the Greek Islands, and then in
+     the Gulf of Corinth. I never remember such a day--all day the
+     sunshine and the beautiful hills, with the clouds capping them, or
+     lying on their slopes, and the blue sky above, and blue sea all
+     round. Then came the most glorious sunset, and when we came up from
+     dinner the sky blazing with stars. We put our chairs back to the
+     last notches, and lay looking at them, till a great yellow moon
+     came up and flooded the place with light and put the stars out. It
+     was glorious....
+
+                                             "Your loving sister,
+                                                       "ELSIE INGLIS."
+
+
+She landed in Serbia when the epidemic of fever had been almost
+overcome, and with the long, peaceful summer ahead of her. It is a joy
+to think of Dr. Inglis all that summer. Her letters are full of buoyancy
+of spirit. She was keen about everything. She had left behind her a
+magnificent organization, enthusiastic women in every department, the
+money flowing in, and the scheme meeting with more and more approval
+throughout the country. In Serbia she was to find her power of
+organizing given full scope. She had splendid material in the personnel
+of the Scottish Women's Hospitals Units under her command. She made many
+friends--Sir Ralph Paget, Colonel Hunter, Dr. Curcin, Colonel Gentitch,
+and many others. She was in close touch with, was herself part of, big
+schemes, a fact which was exhilarating to her. Everything combined to
+make her happy.
+
+The scheme that eventually took shape was Colonel Hunter's. His idea was
+to have three "blocking hospitals" in the north of Serbia, which, when
+the planned autumn offensive of the Serbs took place, would keep all
+infectious diseases from spreading throughout the country. Innumerable
+journeys up and down Serbia were taken by Dr. Inglis before the three
+Scottish Women's Hospitals which were to form this blocking line had
+been settled, and were working at Valjevo, Lazaravatz, and Mladanovatz.
+Dr. Alice Hutchison and her Unit, with "the finest canvas hospital ever
+sent to the Balkans," arrived in Serbia shortly after Dr. Inglis. Dr.
+Hutchison was sent to Valjevo; Lazaravatz and Mladanovatz were
+respectively under Dr. Hollway and Dr. McGregor. Dr. Inglis herself took
+over charge of the fever hospitals in Kraguevatz, working them as one,
+so that soon there were four efficient Scottish Women's Hospitals in
+Serbia. The Serbian Government gave Dr. Inglis a free pass over all the
+railways. She calls herself "extraordinarily lucky" in getting this
+pass, and writes how greatly she enjoys these journeys, how much of the
+country she sees during them, and of the interesting people she meets.
+For the first time in her life she had work to do that needed almost the
+full stretch of her powers. And deep at the heart of her joy at this
+time lay her growing love of the Serbs. Something in them appealed to
+her, something in their heroic weakness satisfied the yearning of her
+strength to help and protect. She writes glowingly of their soldiers
+streaming past the Scottish Women's Hospitals at Mladanovatz, massing on
+the Danube, "their heads held high." Every letter is full of enthusiasm
+of the country and the people. "God bless her," writes a friend; "it was
+the last really joyous time she knew."
+
+Later on the Serbs erected a fountain at Mladanovatz in memory of the
+work done by the Scottish Women's Hospitals in Serbia, and in particular
+by Dr. Inglis. The opening ceremony took place in the beginning of
+September. Many people, English and Serbs, were present, and a long
+letter by Dr. Inglis describes the dedication service.
+
+
+     "A table covered with a white cloth stood in front of the fountain,
+     and on it a silver crucifix, a bowl of water, a long brown candle
+     lighted and stuck in a tumbler full of sand, and two bunches of
+     basil, one fresh and one dried."
+
+
+At the end of the service the priest gave the bunches of basil to Dr.
+Inglis. "These are some of the few things," she writes, "which I shall
+certainly keep always."
+
+The Serbian officer who designed the fountain has contributed to this
+_Life_ the following account of his impressions of Dr. Inglis:
+
+"Already five sad and painful years have gone by since the time that I
+had the chance and honour of knowing Dr. Elsie Inglis. It is already
+five years since we erected to her--still in the plenitude of life--a
+monument. What a prediction! Whence came the inspiration of the great
+soul who was founder of this monument?
+
+"Oh, great and noble soul, there is yet another monument created in the
+hearts of the soldiers and Serbian people! And if the pitiless wheel of
+time crushes the first, the second will survive all that is visible and
+material.
+
+"One did not need to be long with Dr. Elsie Inglis to see all the
+grandeur of her soul, her long vision, and her attachment to the Serbs.
+I was not among those who chanced to pass some months in her company,
+but even in a few days I soon learnt to recognize her divine nature, and
+to see her relief in all colours.
+
+"After the second big offensive of Germano-Austrian forces against
+Serbia in the autumn of 1914, Dr. Elsie Inglis took a great part in
+working against the various epidemics spread by the invasion in Western
+Serbia. The significance and tenacity of this time of epidemic was such
+that only those who witnessed it can understand the great usefulness,
+devotion, and attachment of its co-workers. A great number of Dr.
+Inglis's personnel were occupied in coping with it, and with what
+results!
+
+"The Serbian counter-offensive terminated, provisional peace reigned in
+Serbia. Six months went by before the last soldier of the enemy left our
+sacred soil; the second enemy--the great epidemic--has also been
+arrested and vanquished. The terrors that these two allies brought in
+their train gradually disappeared, and the sun shone once again for the
+Little Armed People. Men breathed again, and tired bodies slept. One had
+the time to think of the great soldiers of the front, as well as those
+who worked behind the lines. And, indeed, in those great days we knew
+not who were the more courageous, the more daring, the greater heroes.
+
+"General Headquarters decided to give a tangible recognition to all
+those who had taken part in this epoch. Among the first thus
+distinguished were Dr. Elsie Inglis and her hospitals.
+
+"On the proposal of the Director of Sanitation, it was decided to erect
+a monumental fountain to the memory of Dr. Elsie Inglis and her Scottish
+Women's Hospitals. This was to be at Mladanovatz, quite close to one of
+these hospitals, at a few yards' distance from the main railway-line
+running from Belgrade to Nish, in sight of all the travellers who passed
+through Serbia.
+
+"It was erected, and bears the inscription:
+
+
+     "IN MEMORY OF THE SCOTTISH WOMEN'S HOSPITALS AND THEIR FOUNDER, DR.
+     ELSIE INGLIS."
+
+
+"The object of my letter is not to make known what I have told you; what
+follows is more important.
+
+"Dr. Inglis was present in person at the unveiling and benediction of
+the fountain. The idea was to give her a proof of the people's gratitude
+by erecting an original monument which, in recalling those strenuous
+days, would combine a value practical and real, solving the question of
+a pure drinking-water, and cutting off the danger of an epidemic at the
+root; and also, the impression that she had after visiting a number of
+fountains in the environs of Mladanovatz and its villages left her no
+rest (as she said later), and produced in her an idea, long thought
+over, and eventually expressed in the following conversation:
+
+"'Look here, Captain P----, I have a scheme which absorbs me more and
+more, and becomes in me a fixed idea. You suffer in Serbia, and are
+often subject to epidemics, through nothing else but bad water. I have
+been thinking it over, and would like to ameliorate as much as possible
+this deplorable state of affairs. I have the intention of addressing an
+appeal to the people of Great Britain, and asking them to inaugurate a
+fund which would create the opportunity of constructing in each Serbian
+village a fountain of good drinking-water. And then, I should return to
+Serbia, and with you--I hope that you are willing, since you have
+already built so many of these fountains round about--should go from
+village to village erecting these fountains. It will be, after the war,
+my unique and greatest desire to do this for the Serbs.'
+
+"Oh, great friend of Serbia! Thy clear-sighted spirit was to have but a
+glimpse of one of the most essential necessities of the Serbian people.
+Thy frail and fragile body has not permitted thee to enjoy the pleasure
+to which thou hast devoted so much love. For the well-being of this dear
+people thou hast given thyself entirely, even thy noble life. What a
+misfortune indeed for us!
+
+"May Heaven send thee eternal peace, so much merited, and so much
+desired by all those who knew thee, and above all and especially by all
+those Serbian hearts who have found in thee a great human friend."
+
+Dr. Inglis wrote every week to the committee. In the letters written
+towards the end of September we are aware of the anxiety about the
+future which is beginning to make itself felt.
+
+
+     "Last week Austrian aeroplanes were 'announced,' and the
+     authorities evidently believed the report; for the Arsenal was
+     emptied of workmen--and they don't stop work willingly just now.
+     So--as a Serbian officer said to me yesterday--'Serbia is exactly
+     where she was a year ago.' It does seem hard lines on our little
+     Ally....
+
+     "Well, as to how this affects us. Sir Ralph was talking about the
+     various possibilities. _As long as the Serbians fight we'll stick
+     to them--retreat if necessary, burning all our stores._ If they are
+     overwhelmed we must escape, probably via Montenegro. Don't worry
+     about us. We won't do anything rash or foolish; and if you will
+     trust us to decide, as we must know most about the situation out
+     here, we'll act rationally."
+
+
+At last, in November, 1915, the storm broke. Serbia was overrun by
+Germans, Austrians, and Bulgarians. All her big Allies failed her, "so
+when her bitter hour of trial came, Serbia stood alone."
+
+The Scottish Women's Hospitals at Mladanovatz, Lazaravatz, and Valjevo
+had to be evacuated in an incredibly short time. The women from
+Mladanovatz and Lazaravatz came down to Kraguevatz, where Dr. Inglis
+was. After a few days they had again to move further south to
+Krushevatz. From here they broke into two parties, some joining the
+great retreat and coming home through Albania. The rest stayed behind
+with Dr. Inglis and Dr. Hollway to nurse the Serbian wounded and
+prisoners in Krushevatz.
+
+
+     "If the committee could have seen Colonel Gentitch's face when I
+     said to him that we were not going to move again, but that they
+     could count on us just where we stood, I think they would have been
+     touched."
+
+
+writes Dr. Inglis.
+
+At Krushevatz both Units, Dr. Inglis's and Dr. Hollway's, worked
+together at the Czar Lazar Hospital under the Serbian Director, Major
+Nicolitch. It was here they were taken prisoners by the Germans in
+November.
+
+
+     "These months at Krushevatz were a strange mixture of sorrow and
+     happiness. Was the country really so very beautiful, or was it the
+     contrast to all the misery that made it evident? There was a
+     curious exhilaration in working for those grateful, patient men,
+     and in helping the Director, so loyal to his country and so
+     conscientious in his work, to bring order out of chaos; and yet the
+     unhappiness in the Serbian houses, and the physical wretchedness of
+     those cold, hungry prisoners, lay always like a dead weight on our
+     spirits. Never shall we forget the beauty of the sunrises or the
+     glory of the sunsets, with clear, cold, sunlit days between, and
+     the wonderful starlit nights. But we shall never forget 'the
+     Zoo,'[13] either, or the groans outside when we hid our heads in
+     the blankets to shut out the sound. Nor shall we ever forget the
+     cheeriness or trustfulness of all that hospital, and especially of
+     the officers' ward. We got no news, and we made it a point of
+     honour not to believe a word of the German telegrams posted up in
+     the town. So we lived on rumour--and what rumour! The English at
+     Skoplje, the Italians at Poshega, and the Russians over the
+     Carpathians--we could not believe that Serbia had been sacrificed
+     for nothing. We were convinced it was some deep-laid scheme for
+     weakening the other fronts, and so it was quite natural to hear
+     that the British had taken Belgium and the French were in Metz!"
+
+
+During this time in Krushevatz Dr. Inglis and the women in her Unit
+lived and slept in one room. One night an excited message was brought to
+the door that enemy aircraft was expected soon; everyone was taking
+refuge in places that were considered safe; would they not come too? For
+a moment there was a feeling of panic in the room; then Dr. Inglis said,
+without raising her head from her pillow: "Everyone will do as they
+like, of course; _I_ shall not go anywhere. I am very tired, and bed is
+a comfortable place to die in." The suspicion of panic subsided; every
+woman lay down and slept quietly till morning.
+
+The Hon. Mrs. Haverfield was one of the "Scottish women" who stayed
+behind at Krushevatz. She gives us some memories of Dr. Inglis.
+
+"I think the most abiding recollection I have of our dear Doctor is the
+expression in her face in the middle of a heavy bombardment by German
+guns of our hospital at Krushevatz during the autumn of 1915. I was
+coming across some swampy ground which separated our building from the
+large barracks called after the good and gentle Czar Lazar of
+Kosovofanee, when a shell flew over our heads, and burst close by with a
+deafening roar. The Doctor was coming from the opposite direction; we
+stood a moment to comment upon the perilous position we were all in. She
+looked up into my face, and with that smile that nobody who ever knew
+her could forget, and such a quizzical expression in her blue eyes,
+said: 'Eve, we are having some experiences now, aren't we?' She and I
+had often compared notes, and said how we would like to be in the thick
+of everything--at last we were. I have never seen anyone with greater
+courage, or anyone who was more unmoved under all circumstances.
+
+"Under our little Doctor bricks had to be made, whether there was straw
+or not!
+
+"In this same hospital at Krushevatz she had ordered me to get up
+bathing arrangements for the sick and wounded. There was not a corner in
+which to make a bath-room, or a can, and only a broken pump 150 yards
+away across mud and swamp. There was no wood to heat the water, and
+nothing to heat it in even if we had the wood. I admit I could not
+achieve the desired arrangement. Elsie took the matter in hand herself,
+finding I was no use, and in one day had a regular supply of hot water,
+and baths for the big Magazine, where lay our sick, screened off with
+sheets, and regular baths were the order of the day from that time
+forth.
+
+"One never ceased to admire the tireless energy, the resourcefulness,
+and the complete unselfishness of that little woman who spent herself
+until the last moment, always in the service of others."
+
+
+     "At last, on the 9th of February, our hospital was emptied.[14] The
+     chronic invalids had been 'put on commission' and sent to their
+     homes. The vast majority of the men had been removed to Hungary,
+     and the few remaining, badly wounded men who would not be fit for
+     months, taken over to the Austrian hospitals.
+
+     "On the 11th we were sent north under an Austrian guard with fixed
+     bayonets. Great care was taken that we should not communicate with
+     anyone _en route_. At Belgrade, however, we were put into a
+     waiting-room for the night, and after we had crept into our
+     sleeping-bags we were suddenly roused to speak to a Serbian woman.
+     The kindly Austrian officer in charge of us said she was the wife
+     of a Serbian officer in Krushevatz, and that if we would use only
+     German we might speak to her. She wanted news of her husband. We
+     were able to reassure her. He was getting better--he was in the
+     Gymnasium. 'Vrylo dobra' ('Very well'), she said, holding both our
+     hands. 'Vrylo, vrylo dobra,' we said, looking apprehensively at the
+     officer. But he only laughed. Probably his Serbian, too, was equal
+     to that. That was the last Serbian we spoke to in Serbia, and we
+     left her a little happier. And thus we came to Vienna, where the
+     American Embassy took us over.... When we reached Zurich and found
+     everything much the same as when we disappeared into the silence,
+     our hearts were sick for the people we had left behind us, still
+     waiting and trusting."
+
+
+Referring to this year of work done for Serbia, Mr. Seton-Watson wrote
+of Dr. Inglis:
+
+"History will record the name of Elsie Inglis, like that of Lady Paget,
+as pre-eminent among that band of women who have redeemed for all time
+the honour of Britain in the Balkans."
+
+We close this chapter on her work in Serbia with tributes to her memory
+from two of her Serbian friends, Miss Christitch, a well-known
+journalist, and Lieutenant-Colonel D. C. Popovitch, Professor at the
+Military Academy in Belgrade.
+
+"Through Dr. Inglis Serbia has come to know Scotland, for I must confess
+that formerly it was not recognized by our people as a distinctive part
+of the British Isles. Her name, as that of the Serbian mother from
+Scotland (Srpska majka iz 'Skotske'), has become legendary throughout
+the land, and it is not excluded that at a future date popular opinion
+will claim her as of Serbian descent, although born on foreign soil.
+
+"What appealed to all those with whom Elsie Inglis came in contact in
+Serbia was her extraordinary sympathy and understanding for the people
+whose language she could not speak and whose ways and customs must
+certainly have seemed strange to her. Yet there is no record of
+misunderstanding between any Serb and Dr. Inglis. Everyone loved her,
+from the tired peasant women who tramped miles to ask the 'Scottish
+Doctoress' for advice about their babies to the wounded soldiers whose
+pain she had alleviated.
+
+"Here I must mention that Dr. Inglis won universal respect in the
+Serbian medical profession for her skill as a surgeon. During a great
+number of years past we have had women physicians, and very capable they
+are too; but, for some reason or other, Serbian women had never
+specialized in surgery. Hence it was not without scepticism that the
+male members of the profession received the news that the organizer of
+the Scottish hospitals was a skilled surgeon. Until Dr. Inglis actually
+reached Serbia and had performed successfully in their presence, they
+refused to believe this 'amiable fable,' but from the moment that they
+had seen her work they altered their opinion, and, to the great joy of
+our Serbian women, they no longer proclaimed the fact that surgery was
+not a woman's sphere. This is but one of the services Dr. Inglis has
+rendered our woman movement in Serbia. To-day we have several active
+societies working for the enfranchisement of women, and there is no
+doubt that the record of the Scottish Women's Hospital, organized and
+equipped by a Suffrage society and entirely run by women, is helping us
+greatly towards the realization of our goal. It was a cause of delight
+to our women and of no small surprise to our men that the Scottish Units
+that came out never had male administrators.
+
+"It is very difficult to say all one would wish about Dr. Inglis's
+beneficial influence in Serbia in the few lines which I am asked to
+write. But before I conclude I may be allowed to give my own impression
+of that remarkable woman. What struck me most in her was her grip of
+facts in Serbia. I had a long conversation with her at Valjevo in the
+summer of 1915, before the disaster of the triple enemy onslaught, and
+while we still believed that the land was safe from a fresh invasion.
+She spoke of her hopes and plans for the future of Serbia. 'When the war
+is over,' she said, 'I want to do something lasting for your country. I
+want to help the women and children; so little has been done for them,
+and they need so much. I should like to see Serbian qualified nurses and
+up-to-date women's and children's hospitals. When you will have won your
+victories you will require all this in order to have a really great and
+prosperous Serbia.' She certainly meant to return and help us in our
+reconstruction.
+
+"I saw Dr. Inglis once again several weeks later, at Krushevatz, where
+she had remained with her Unit to care for the Serbian wounded,
+notwithstanding the invitation issued her by Army Headquarters to
+abandon her hospital and return to England. But Dr. Inglis never knew a
+higher authority than her own conscience. The fact that she remained to
+face the enemy, although she had no duty to this, her adopted country,
+was both an inspiration and a consolation to those numerous families who
+could not leave, and to those of us who, being Serbian, had a duty to
+remain.
+
+"She left in the spring of 1916, and we never heard of her again in
+Serbia until the year 1917, when we, in occupied territory, learnt from
+a German paper that she had died in harness working for the people of
+her adoption. There was a short and appreciative obituary telling of her
+movements since she had left us.
+
+"For Serbian women she will remain a model of devotion and
+self-sacrifice for all time, and we feel that the highest tribute we can
+pay her is to endeavour, however humbly, to follow in the footsteps of
+this unassuming, valiant woman."
+
+
+"MY RECOLLECTIONS OF DR. ELSIE INGLIS.
+
+"I made her acquaintance towards the close of October, 1915, when, as a
+heavily wounded patient in the Military Hospital of Krushevatz, I became
+a prisoner, first of the Germans and then of the Austrians.
+
+"The Scottish Women's Hospital Mission, with Dr. Inglis as Head and Mrs.
+Haverfield as Administrator, had voluntarily become prisoners of the
+Austrians and Germans, rather than abandon the Serbian sick and wounded
+they had hitherto cared for. The Mission undertook a most difficult
+task--that is, the healing of and ministration to the typhus patients,
+which had already cost the lives of many doctors. But the Scottish
+women, whose spirit was typified in their leader, Miss Inglis, did not
+restrict themselves to this department, hastening to assist whenever
+they could in other departments. In particular, Dr. Elsie Inglis gave
+help in the surgical ward, and undertook single-handed the charge of a
+great number of wounded, among whom I was included, and to her devoted
+sisterly care I am a grateful debtor for my life. She visited me hourly,
+and not only performed a doctor's duties, but those of a simple nurse,
+without the slightest reluctance.
+
+"The conditions of Serbian hospitals under the Austrians rendered
+provisioning one of the most difficult tasks. At the withdrawal of the
+Serbian Army only the barest necessaries were left behind, and the
+Austrians gave hardly anything beyond bread, and at times a little meat.
+The typhus patients were thus dependent almost entirely on the aliments
+which the Scottish Mission could furnish out of their own means. It was
+edifying to see how they solved the problem. Every day, their Chief, Dr.
+Inglis, and Mrs. Haverfield at the head, the nurses off duty, with empty
+sacks and baskets slung over their shoulders, tramped for miles to the
+villages around Krushevatz, and after several hours' march through the
+narrow, muddy paths, returned loaded with cabbages, potatoes, or other
+vegetables in baskets and sacks, their pockets filled with eggs and
+apples. Instead of fatigue, joy and satisfaction were evident in their
+faces, because they were able to do something for their Serbian
+brothers. I am ever in admiration of these rare women, and never can I
+forget their watchword: 'Not one of our patients is to be without at
+least one egg a day, however far we may have to tramp for it.' Such
+labour, such love towards an almost totally strange nation, is something
+more than mere humanity; it is the summit of understanding, and the
+application of real and solid Christian teaching.
+
+"Dr. Inglis cured not only the physical but the moral ills of her
+wounded patients. Every word she spoke was about the return of our army,
+and she assured us of final victory. She did not speak thus merely to
+soothe, for one felt the fire of her indignation against the oppressor,
+and her love for us and her confidence that our just cause would
+triumph. I could mention a host of great and small facts in connection
+with her, enough to fill a book; but, in one word, every move, every
+thought of the late Dr. Inglis and the members of her Mission breathed
+affection towards the Serbian soldier and the Serbian nation. The
+Serbian soldier himself is the best witness to this. One has only to
+inquire about the Scottish Women's Mission in order to get a short and
+eloquent comment, which resumes all, and expresses astonishment that he
+should be asked: 'Of course I know of our sisters from Scotland.' ...
+
+"But the enemy could not succeed in shaking these noble women in their
+determination and their love for us Serbians. They at last obtained
+their release, and reached their own country, but, without taking time
+to rest properly, they at once started to collect fresh stores, and
+hastened to the assistance of the Serbian Volunteer Corps in the
+Dobrudja. They returned with the same corps to the Macedonian front, and
+thence to Serbia once more at the close of last year, in order to come
+to the aid of the impoverished Serbian people. The fact that Dr. Inglis
+lost her life after the retreat from Russia is a fresh proof of her
+devotion to Serbia. The Serbian soldiers mourn her death as that of a
+mother or sister. The memory of her goodness, self-sacrifice, and
+unbounded charity, will never leave them as long as they live, and will
+be handed down as a sacred heritage to their children. The entire
+Serbian Army and the entire Serbian people weep over the dear departed
+Dr. Inglis, while erecting a memorial to her in their hearts greater
+than any of the world's monuments. Glory be to her and the land that
+gave her birth!
+
+                        "(_Signed_) LIEUT.-COL. DRAG. C. POPOVITCH,
+                            "_Professor at the Military Academy._
+"BELGRADE.
+    "_December 24th, 1919._"
+
+
+Dr. Inglis was at home from February to August, 1916. Besides her work
+as chairman of the committee for Kossovo Day, she was occupied in many
+other ways. She paid a visit of inspection for the Scottish Women's
+Hospitals Committee to their Unit in Corsica, reporting in person to
+them on her return in her usual clear and masterly way on the work being
+done there. She worked hard to get permission for the Scottish Women's
+Hospitals to send a Unit to Mesopotamia, where certainly the need was
+great. It has been said of her that, "like Douglas of old, she flung
+herself where the battle raged most fiercely, always claiming and at
+last obtaining permission to set up her hospitals where the obstacles
+were greatest and the dangers most acute."
+
+It was not the fault of the Scottish Women's Hospitals that their
+standard was not found flying in Mesopotamia.
+
+During the time she was at home, in the intervals of her other
+activities, she spoke at many meetings, telling of the work of the
+Scottish Women's Hospitals. At these meetings she would speak for an
+hour or more of the year's work in Serbia without mentioning herself.
+She had the delightful power of telling a story without bringing in the
+personal note. Often at the end of a meeting her friends would be asked
+by members of the audience if Dr. Inglis had not been in Serbia herself.
+On being assured that she had, they would reply incredulously, "But she
+never mentioned herself at all!"
+
+The Honorary Secretary of the Clapham High School Old Girls' Society
+wrote, after Dr. Inglis's death, describing one of these meetings:
+
+"In June, 1916, Dr. Inglis came to our annual commemoration meeting and
+spoke to us of Serbia. None of those who were present will, I think,
+ever forget that afternoon, and the almost magical inspiration of her
+personality. Behind her simple narrative (from which her own part in the
+great deeds of which she told seemed so small that to many of us it was
+a revelation to learn later what that part had been) lay a spiritual
+force which left no one in the audience untouched. We feel that we
+should like to express our gratitude for that afternoon in our lives, as
+well as our admiration of her gallant life and death."
+
+The door to Mesopotamia being still kept closed, Dr. Inglis, in August,
+1916, went to Russia as C.M.O. of a magnificently equipped Unit which
+was being sent to the help of the Jugo-Slavs by the Scottish Women's
+Hospitals.
+
+A few days before she left Dr. Inglis went to Leven, on the Fifeshire
+coast of Scotland, where many of her relatives were gathered, to say
+farewell. The photograph given here was taken at this time.
+
+[Illustration: ELSIE INGLIS
+
+TAKEN IN AUGUST, 1916, JUST BEFORE SHE LEFT FOR RUSSIA]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[13] The name the nurses gave the huge building they had converted into
+a hospital.
+
+[14] Dr. Inglis's report.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+RUSSIA
+
+
+"For a clear understanding and appreciation of subsequent events
+affecting the relations between Dr. Inglis and the Serb division, a
+brief account of its genesis may be given here.
+
+"The division consisted mainly of Serbo-Croats and Slovenes--namely,
+Serbs who, as subjects of Austria-Hungary, were obliged to serve in the
+Austrian Army. Nearly all of these men had been taken prisoners by the
+Russians, or, perhaps more correctly, had voluntarily surrendered to the
+Russians rather than fight for the enemies of their co-nationals. In
+May, 1915, a considerable number of these Austro-Serbs volunteered for
+service with the Serbian Army, and by arrangement with the Russian
+Government, who gave them their freedom, they were transported to
+Serbia. After the entry of Bulgaria into the war it was no longer
+possible to send them to Serbia, and 2,000 were left behind at Odessa.
+The number of these volunteers increased, however, to such an extent
+that, by permission of the Serbian Government, Serbian officers from
+Corfu were sent over to organize them into a military unit for service
+with the Russian Army. By May, 1916, a first division was formed under
+the command of the Serb Colonel, Colonel Hadjitch, and later a second
+division under General Zivkovitch. It was to the first division that the
+Scottish Women's Hospitals and Transport were to be attached.
+
+"The Unit mustered at Liverpool on August 29, and left for Archangel on
+the following day. It consisted of a personnel of seventy-five and three
+doctors, with Dr. Elsie Inglis C.M.O."[15]
+
+A member of the staff describes the journey:
+
+"Our Unit left Liverpool for Russia on August 31, 1916; like the
+Israelites of old, we went out not knowing exactly where we were bound
+for. We knew only that we had to join the Serbian division of the
+Russian Army, but where that Division was or how we were to get there we
+could not tell. We were seventy-five all told, with 50 tons of equipment
+and sixteen automobiles. We had a special transport, and after nine days
+over the North Sea we arrived at Archangel.
+
+"From Archangel we were entrained for Russia, and sent down via Moscow
+to Odessa, receiving there further instructions to proceed to the
+Roumanian front, where our Serbs were in action.
+
+"We were fourteen days altogether in the train. I remember Dr. Inglis,
+during those long days on the journey, playing patience, calm and
+serene, or losing her own patience when the train was stopped and
+_would_ not go on. Out she would go, and address the Russian officials
+in strenuous, nervous British--it was often effective. One of our
+interpreters heard one stationmaster saying: 'There is a great row going
+on here, and there will be trouble to-morrow if this train isn't got
+through.'
+
+"At Reni we were embarked on a steamer and barges, and sent down the
+Danube to a place called Cernavoda, where once more we were disembarked,
+and proceeded by train and motor to Medjidia, where our first hospital
+was established in a large barracks on the top of a hill above the town,
+an excellent mark for enemy aeroplanes. The hospital was ready for
+wounded two days after our arrival; until then it was a dirty empty
+building, yet the wounded were received in it some forty-eight hours
+after our arrival. It was a notable achievement, but for Dr. Inglis
+obstacles and difficulties were placed in her path for the purpose of
+being overcome; if the mountains of Mahomet _would_ not move, she
+_removed_ them!
+
+"In connection with the establishment of these field hospitals I have
+vivid recollections of her. The great empty upper floor of the barracks
+at Medjidia, seventy-five of us all in the one room. The lines of camp
+beds. Dr. Inglis and her officers in one corner; and how quietly in all
+the noise and hubbub she went to bed and slept. I remember how I had to
+waken her when certain officials came on the night of our arrival to ask
+when we would be ready for the wounded. 'Say to-morrow,' she said, and
+slept again!
+
+"'It's a wonder she did not say _now_,' one of my fellow-officers
+remarked!
+
+"We were equipped for two field hospitals of 100 beds each, and our
+second hospital was established close to the firing-line at Bulbulmic.
+We were at Bulbulmic and Medjidia only some three weeks when we had to
+retreat."
+
+Three weeks of strenuous work at these two places ended in a sudden
+evacuation and retreat--Hospital B and the Transport got separated from
+Hospital A. We can only, of course, follow the fortunes of Hospital A,
+which was directly under Dr. Inglis.
+
+The night of the retreat is made vivid for us by Dr. Inglis:
+
+
+     "The station was a curious sight that night. The flight was
+     beginning. A crowd of people was collected at one end with boxes
+     and bundles and children. One little boy was lying on a doorstep
+     asleep, and against the wall farther on lay a row of soldiers. On
+     the bench to the right, under the light, was a doctor in his white
+     overall, stretched out sound asleep between the two rushes of work
+     at the station dressing-room; and a Roumanian officer talked to me
+     of Glasgow, where he had once been invited out to dinner, so he had
+     seen the British 'custims.' It was good to feel those British
+     customs were still going quietly on, whatever was happening
+     here--breakfasts coming regularly, hot water for baths, and
+     everything as it should be. It was probably absurd, but it came
+     like a great wave of comfort to feel that Britain was there, quiet,
+     strong, and invincible, behind everything and everybody."
+
+
+A member of the Unit also gives us details:[16]
+
+"I went twice down to the station with baggage in the evening, a
+perilous journey in rickety carts through pitch darkness over roads (?)
+crammed with troops and refugees, which were lit up periodically by the
+most amazing green lightning I have ever seen, and the roar and flash of
+the guns was incessant. At the station no lights were allowed because of
+enemy aircraft, but the place was illuminated here and there by the camp
+fires of a new Siberian division which had just arrived. Picked troops
+these, and magnificent men.
+
+"We wrestled with the baggage until 2 a.m., and went back to the
+hospital in one of our own cars. Our orderly came in almost in tears.
+Her cart had twice turned over completely on its way to the station; so
+on arrival she had hastened to Dr. Inglis with a tale of woe and a
+scratched face. Dr. Inglis said: 'That's right, dear child, that's
+right, _stick_ to the equipment,' which may very well be described as
+the motto of the Unit these days!...
+
+"The majority of the Unit are to go to Galatz by train with Dr. Corbett;
+the rest (self included) are to go by road with Dr. Inglis, and work
+with the army as a clearing station.
+
+"On the morning of October 22 the train party got off as quick as
+possible, and about 4 p.m. a big lorry came for our equipment. We loaded
+it, seven of us mounted on the top, and the rest went in two of our own
+cars. The scene was really intensely comic. Seven Scottish women
+balanced precariously on the pile of luggage; a Serbian doctor with whom
+Dr. Inglis is to travel standing alongside in an hysterical condition,
+imploring us to hurry, telling us the Bulgarians were as good as in the
+town already; Dr. Inglis, quite unmoved, demanding the whereabouts of
+the Ludgate boiler; somebody arriving at the last minute with a huge
+open barrel of treacle, which, of course, could not possibly be left to
+a German. Oh dear! how we laughed!"
+
+Dr. Inglis would never allow the Sunday service to be missed if it was
+at all possible to hold it.[17] Miss Onslow tells us how she seized a
+seeming opportunity even on this Sunday of so many dangers to make ready
+for the service.
+
+"_Medjidia._--Sunday was the day on which we began our retreat from the
+Dobrudja. We spent most of the morning going to and from the station--a
+place almost impossible to enter or leave on account of the refugees,
+their carts and animals, and the army, which was on the move, blocking
+all the approaches--transporting sick members of the Unit and some
+equipment which had still to be put on the train, and only my touring
+car and one ambulance with which to do the work. Dr. Inglis had been at
+the station until the early hours of the morning, but nevertheless
+superintended everything that was being done both at the train and up at
+the hospital.
+
+"Towards noon a Serbian officer brought in a report that things were not
+as bad for the moment as they expected. Whereupon the Doctor immediately
+gave orders to prepare the room for service at 4 o'clock that afternoon!
+And she began revolving plans for immediate work in Medjidia. But, alas!
+the good news was a false report--the enemy was rushing onwards. The
+Russian lorry came for the personal baggage and any remaining equipment
+which had not gone by train; and it, piled high with luggage and some of
+the staff, left at 3, the remainder of us going in the ambulance and my
+car. Dr. Inglis came in my car, and I had the honour of driving our dear
+Doctor nearly all the time, and am the only member of the Unit who was
+with her the whole time of the retreat from Medjidia until we reached
+the Danube at Harshova."
+
+The four days of the Dobrudja retreat from October 22nd to 26th were
+days of horror for all who took part in it, not least for Dr. Inglis and
+the members of her Units. "At first we passed a few carts, then at some
+distance more and more, till we found ourselves in an unending
+procession of peasants with all their worldly goods piled on those
+vehicles.... This procession seemed difficult to pass, but as time went
+on, added to it, came the Roumanian army retreating--hundreds of guns,
+cavalry, infantry, ambulances, Red Cross carts, motor-kitchens, and
+wounded on foot--a most extraordinary scene. The night was inky black;
+the only lights were our own head-lights and those of the ambulance
+behind us, but they revealed a sad and never-to-be-forgotten picture.
+Our driver was quite wonderful; she sat unmoved, often for half an hour
+at a time. There was a block, and we had to wait while the yelling,
+frantic mob did what they could to get into some sort of order; then we
+would move on for ten minutes, and then stop again; it was like a dream
+or a play; it certainly was a tragedy. No one spoke; we just waited and
+watched it all; to us it was a spectacle, to these poor homeless people
+it was a terrible reality."[18]
+
+At 11.30 that Sunday night Dr. Inglis and the party with her arrived at
+Caramarat. The straw beds and the fairytale dinner, and the cheery voice
+of Dr. Inglis calling them to partake of it, will never be forgotten by
+these Scottish women.
+
+On arrival at Caramarat Dr. Inglis had asked for a room for her Unit and
+"a good meat meal." She was told a room was waiting for them, but a good
+meal was an impossibility; the town had been evacuated; there had been
+no food to be got for days.
+
+"Though it was only a bare room with straw in heaps on the floor and
+green blankets to wrap ourselves in, to cold, shivering beings like
+ourselves it seemed all that heart could desire.... Never shall I forget
+the delight of lying down on the straw, the dry warm blanket rolled
+round me. Then a most wonderful thing happened--the door opened and
+several soldiers entered with the most beautiful meal I ever ate. It was
+like a fairytale. Where did it come from? The lovely soup--the real
+Russian _borsh_--and roast turkey and plenty of bread and _chi_. We ate
+like wolves, and I can remember so distinctly sitting up in my straw
+nest, with my blanket round me, and hearing Dr. Inglis's cheery voice
+saying, 'Isn't this better than having to start and cook a meal?' She
+was the most extraordinary person; when she said she must have a thing,
+she got it, and it was never for herself, always for others."[19]
+
+They started again early on Monday morning, and after another day of
+adventures slept that night in the open air beside a river.
+
+"Cushions were brought from the cars and all the rugs we could find, and
+soon we were sitting round the fire waiting for the water to boil for
+our tea, and a more delightful merry meal could not be imagined. We all
+told our experiences of the day, and Dr. Inglis said: 'But this is the
+best of all; it is just like a fairytale.' And so it was; for as we
+looked there were groups of soldiers holding their horses, standing
+motionless, staring at us; we saw them only through the wood-smoke. The
+fire attracted them, and they came to see what it could mean. Seeing
+nine women laughing and chatting, alone and within earshot of the guns,
+the distant sky-line red with the enemy's doings, was more than they
+could understand. They did not speak, but quietly went away as they had
+come.... Rolled in our blankets, with the warmth of the fire making us
+feel drowsy, our chatter gradually ceased, and we slept as only a day in
+the open air can make one sleep."
+
+Another two days of continued retreat, and the different parties of
+Scottish women arrived at places of safety.
+
+"Thus we all came through the Dobrudja retreat. We had only been one
+month in Roumania, but we seemed to have lived a lifetime between the
+22nd and 26th of October, 1916." In a letter to the Committee Dr. Inglis
+says of the Unit: "They worked magnificently at Medjidia, and took the
+retreat in a very joyous, indomitable way. One cannot say they were
+plucky, because I don't think it ever entered their heads to be afraid."
+
+Finally the scattered members of the Unit joined forces again at Braila,
+where Dr. Inglis opened a hospital.
+
+During the time at Braila Dr. Inglis wrote to her relations. The letter
+is dated Reni, where she had gone for a few days.
+
+
+                                                         "RENI,
+                                                "_October 28th, 1916._
+     "DEAREST AMY,
+     "Just a line to say I am all right. Four weeks to-morrow since we
+     reached Medjidia and began our hospital. We evacuated it in three
+     weeks, and here we are all back on the frontier.... Such a time it
+     has been, Amy dear; you cannot imagine what war is just behind the
+     lines. And in a retreat....
+
+     "Our second retreat--and almost to the same day. We evacuated
+     Kraguevatz on the 25th of October last year. We evacuated Medjidia
+     on the 22nd this year. On the 25th this year we were working in a
+     Russian dressing-station at Harshova, and were moved on in the
+     evening. We arrived at Braila to find 11,000 wounded and seven
+     doctors, only one of them a surgeon.
+
+     "Boat come--must stop--am going back to Braila to do surgery. Have
+     sent every trained person there.
+
+                                   "Ever, you dear, dear people,
+                                               "Your loving sister,
+                                                              "ELSIE.
+
+     "We have had lots of exciting things too--and amusing things--and
+     _good_ things."
+
+
+Two further retreats had, however, to be experienced by Dr. Inglis and
+her Unit before they could settle down to steady work. The three
+retreats took place in the following order:
+
+_Sunday, October 22nd._--Retreated from Medjidia.
+
+_October 25th._--Arrived at Braila. Worked there till December 3rd.
+
+_December 3rd._--Retreated to Galatz, where very strenuous work awaited
+them.
+
+_January 4th._--Retreated to Reni.
+
+_August, 1917._--Left Reni, and rejoined the Serb division at Hadji
+Abdul.
+
+The work during the above period, from October 25th, 1916, to August,
+1917, was done for the Russians and Roumanians. As soon as it was
+possible, Dr. Inglis joined the Serb division in the end of August,
+1917.
+
+"Dr. Inglis was still working in Reni when the Russian Revolution broke
+out in March.[20] The spirit of unrest and indiscipline, which
+manifested itself among the troops, spread also to the hospitals, and a
+Russian doctor reported that in the other hospitals the patients had
+their own committees, which fixed the hours for meals and doctors'
+visits and made hospital discipline impossible. But there was no sign of
+this under Dr. Inglis's kindly but firm rule. Without relaxing
+disciplinary measures, she did all in her power to keep the patients
+happy and contented; and as the Russian Easter drew near, she bought
+four ikons to be put up in the wards, that the men might feel more at
+home. The result of this kindly thought was a charming Easter letter
+written by the patients--
+
+
+"_To the Much-honoured Elsie Maud, the Daughter of John._
+
+"The wounded and sick soldiers from all parts of the army and fleet of
+great free Russia, who are now for healing in the hospital which you
+command, penetrated with a feeling of sincere respect, feel it their
+much-desired duty, to-day, on the day of the feast of Holy Easter, to
+express to you our deep reverence to you, the doctor warmly loved by
+all, and also to your honoured personnel of women. We wish also to
+express our sincere gratitude for all the care and attention bestowed on
+us, and we bow low before the tireless and wonderful work of yourself
+and your personnel, which we see every day directed towards the good of
+the soldiers allied to your country.... May England live!
+
+                         "(_Signed_) THE RUSSIAN CITIZEN SOLDIERS."
+
+
+We cannot be too grateful to one member of the Unit who, in her
+impressions of Dr. Inglis, has given us a picture of her during these
+months in Russia that will live:
+
+"I think so much stress has been laid, by those who worked under her, on
+the leader who said there was no such word as 'can't' in the dictionary,
+that the extraordinarily lovable personality that lay at the root of her
+leadership is in danger of being obscured. I do not mean by this that we
+all had a romantic affection for her. Her influence was of a much finer
+quality just because she never dragged in the personal element. She was
+the embodiment of so much, and achieved more in her subordinates, just
+because she had never to depend for their loyalty on the limits of an
+admired personality.
+
+"There is no one I should less like to hear described as 'popular.' No
+one had less an easy power of endearing herself at first sight to those
+with whom she came in contact--at least, in the relations of the Unit.
+The first impression, as has been repeated over and over again, was
+always one of great strength and singleness of purpose, but all those
+fine qualities with which the general public is, quite rightly, ready to
+credit her had their roots in a serenity and gentleness of spirit which
+that same public has had all too little opportunity to realize. Her Unit
+itself realized it slowly enough. They obeyed at first because she was
+stronger than they, only later because she was finer and better.
+
+"You know it was not, at least, an easy job to win the best kind of
+service from a mixed lot of women, the trained members of which had
+never worked under a woman before, and were ready with their very narrow
+outlook to seize on any and every opportunity for criticism. There was
+much opposition, more or less grumblingly expressed at first. No one
+hesitated to do what she was told--impossible with Dr. Inglis as a
+chief--but it was grudgingly done. In the end it was all for the best.
+If she had been the kind of person who took trouble to rouse an easy
+personal enthusiasm, the whole thing would have fallen to pieces at the
+first stress of work; on the other hand, if she had never inspired more
+than respect, she would never have won the quality of service she
+succeeded in winning. The really mean-spirited were loyal just so long
+as she was present because she daunted them, and Dr. Inglis's
+disapproval was most certainly a thing to be avoided. But the great
+majority, whatever their personal views, were quickly ready to recognize
+her authority as springing from no hasty impulse, but from a finely
+consistent discipline of thought.
+
+"We were really lucky in having the retreat at the beginning of the
+work. It helped the Unit to realize how complete was the radical
+confidence they felt in her. I think her extraordinary love of justice
+was next impressed upon them. It took the sting out of every personal
+grievance, and was so almost passionately sincere it hardly seemed to
+matter if the verdict went against you. Her selflessness was an example,
+and often enough a reproach, to every one of us, and to go to her in any
+personal difficulty was such a revelation of sympathy and understanding
+as shed a light on those less obvious qualities that really made all she
+achieved possible.
+
+"People have often come to me and said casually, 'Oh yes, Dr. Inglis was
+a very charming woman, wasn't she?' And I have felt sorely tempted to
+say rather snappishly, 'No, she wasn't.' Only they wouldn't have
+understood. It is because their 'charming' goes into the same category
+as my 'popular.'
+
+"I am afraid you will hardly have anticipated such an outburst; the
+difficulty is, indeed, to know where to stop. For what could I not say
+of the way her patients adored her--the countless little unerring things
+she did and said which just kept us going, when things were unusually
+depressing, or the Unit unusually weary and homesick; the really good
+moments when one won the generous appreciation that was so well worth
+the winning; and last--if I may strike this note--her endless personal
+kindness to me."
+
+The following letter to her sister, Mrs. Simson, reveals something of
+the lovable personality of Elsie Inglis. The nephew to whom it refers
+was wounded in the eye at the battle of Gaza, and died a fortnight
+before she did.
+
+
+                                                        "ODESSA,
+                                                     "_June 24th, 1917._
+
+     "DEAREST, DEAREST AMY,
+     "Eve's letter came yesterday about Jim, and though I start at seven
+     to-morrow morning for Reni, I must write to you, dear, before I go.
+     Though what one can say I don't know. One sees these awful doings
+     all round one, but it strikes right home when one thinks of _Jim_.
+     Thank God he is still with us. The dear, dear boy! I suppose he is
+     home by now. And anyhow he won't be going out again for some time.
+     We are all learning much from this war, and I know ---- will say it
+     is all our own faults, but I am not sure that the theory that it is
+     part of the long struggle between good and evil does not appeal
+     more to my mind. We are just here in it, and whatever we suffer and
+     whatever we lose, it is for the right we are standing.... It is all
+     terrible and awful, and I don't believe we can disentangle it all
+     in our minds just now. The only thing is just to go on doing one's
+     bit.... Miss Henderson is taking home with her to-day a Serb
+     officer, quite blind, shot right through behind his eyes, to place
+     him somewhere where he can be trained. I heard of him just after I
+     had read Eve's letter, and I nearly cried. He wasn't just a case at
+     that minute, with my thoughts full of Jim. Dear old Jim! Give him
+     my love, and tell him I'm _proud of him_. And how splendidly the
+     regiment did, and how they suffered!
+
+                                       "Ever your loving sister,
+                                                   "ELSIE MAUD INGLIS."
+
+
+Another of her Unit, who worked with Dr. Inglis not only during the year
+in Russia, but through much of the strenuous campaign for the Suffrage,
+gives us these remembrances:
+
+
+"OUR LAST COMMUNION.
+
+
+     "'He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide
+     under the shadow of the Almighty.'
+
+
+"Dearer to me even than the memory of those outstanding qualities of
+great-hearted initiative, courage, and determination which helped to
+make Dr. Elsie Inglis one of the great personalities of her age is the
+remembrance of certain moments when, in the intimacy of close
+fellowship during my term of office with her on active service, I caught
+glimpses of that simple, sublime faith by which she lived and in which
+she died.
+
+"One of my most precious possessions is the Bible Dr. Inglis read from
+when conducting the service held on Sunday in the saloon of the
+transport which took our Unit out to Archangel. The whole scene comes
+back so vividly! The silent, listening lines of the girls on either
+hand--Hospital grey and Transport khaki; in the centre, standing before
+the Union Jack-covered desk, the figure of our dear Chief, and her
+clear, calm voice--'He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most
+High.' One felt that such a 'secret place' was indeed the abode of her
+serene spirit, and that there she found that steadfastness of purpose
+which never wavered, and the strength by which she exercised, not only
+the gracious qualities of love, but those sterner ones of ruthlessness
+and implacability which are among the essentials of leadership.
+
+"Dr. Inglis was a philosopher in the calm way in which she took the
+vicissitudes of life. It was only when her judgment, in regard to the
+work she was engaged in, was crossed that you became aware of her
+ruthlessness--her _wonderful_ ruthlessness! I can find no better
+adjective. This quality of hers, perhaps more than any other, drew out
+my admiration and respect. Slowly it was borne in on those who worked
+with her that under no circumstances whatever would she fail the cause
+for which she was working, or those who had chosen to follow her.
+
+"Another remembrance! By the banks of the Danube at Reni, where at night
+the searchlight of the enemy used to play upon our camp, in the tent
+erected by the girls for the service, with the little altar simply and
+beautifully decorated by the nurses' loving hands, I see her kneeling
+beside me wrapt in a deep meditation, from which I ventured to rouse
+her, as the Chaplain came towards her with the sacred Bread and Wine.
+Looking back, it seems to me that even then her soul was reaching out
+beyond this present consciousness:
+
+
+     "'Here in the body pent,
+     Absent from Him I roam.'
+
+
+The look on her face was the look of those who hold high Communion. So
+'in remembrance' we ate and drank of the same Bread and the same Cup.
+Even as I write these words remembrance comes again, and I know that,
+although her bodily presence is removed, her spirit is in communion
+still."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[15] _A History of the Scottish Women's Hospitals._ Hodder and
+Stoughton. 7s. 6d.
+
+[16] _With the Scottish Nurses in Roumania_, by Yvonne Fitzroy.
+
+[17] We recall her great-uncle William Money's strict observance of the
+Sabbath.
+
+[18] "The Dobrudja Retreat," _Blackwood_, March, 1918.
+
+[19] _Blackwood_, March, 1918.
+
+[20] _A History of the Scottish Women's Hospitals._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+"IF YOU WANT US HOME, GET _THEM_ OUT"
+
+
+Through the summer months of 1917 Dr. Inglis had been working to get the
+Serbian division to which her Unit was attached out of Russia. They were
+in an unenviable position. The disorganization of the Russian Army made
+the authorities anxious to keep the Serbian division there "to stiffen
+the Russians." The Serb Command realized, on the other hand, that no
+effective stand at that time would be made by the Russians, and that to
+send the Serbs into action would be to expose them to another disaster
+such as had overtaken them in the Dobrudja. In the battle of the
+Dobrudja the Serb division had gone into the fight 14,000 strong; they
+were in the centre, with the Roumanians on the left and the Russians on
+the right. The Roumanians and Russians broke, and the Serbs, who had
+fought for twenty-four hours on two fronts, came out with only 4,000
+men. Further slaughter such as this would have been the fate of the
+Serbian division if left in Russia.
+
+"The men want to fight," said General Zivkovitch to Dr. Inglis; "they
+are not cowards, but it goes to my heart to send them to their death
+like this."
+
+In July there had seemed to be a hope of the division being liberated
+and sent via Archangel to another front; however, later the decision of
+the Russian Headquarters was definitely stated. The Serbs were to be
+kept on the Roumanian front. "The Serb Staff were powerless in the
+matter, and entirely dependent on the good offices of the British
+Government for effecting their release."
+
+Into this difficult situation Dr. Inglis descended, and brought to bear
+on it all the force of which she was capable. The whole story of her
+achievement is told in _A History of the Scottish Women's Hospitals_, in
+those chapters that are written by Miss Edith Palliser. Here we can
+only refer to the message Dr. Inglis sent to the Foreign Office through
+Sir George Buchanan, British Ambassador at Petrograd, giving her own
+clear views on the position and affirming that "In any event the
+Scottish Women's Hospitals will stand by the Serbian division, and will
+accompany them if they go to Roumania."
+
+At the end of the month of August the Unit, leaving Reni, rejoined the
+Serb division at Hadji-Abdul, a little village midway between Reni and
+Belgrade.
+
+Dr. Inglis described it as a
+
+
+     "lovely place ... and we have a perfectly lovely camping-ground
+     among the trees. The division is hidden away wonderfully under the
+     trees, and at first they were very loath to let us pitch our big
+     tents, that could not be so thoroughly hidden; but I was quite bent
+     on letting them see what a nice hospital you had sent out, so I
+     managed to get it pitched, and they are so pleased with us. They
+     bring everybody--Russian Generals, Roumanian Military Attaches and
+     Ministers--to see it, and they are quite content because our
+     painted canvas looks like the roofs of ordinary houses."
+
+
+"There was a constant rumour of a 'grand offensive' to be undertaken on
+the Roumanian front, which Dr. Inglis, though extremely sceptical of any
+offensive on a large scale, made every preparation to meet.
+
+"The London Committee had cabled to Dr. Inglis in the month of August
+advising the withdrawal of the Unit, but leaving the decision in her
+hands, to which she replied:
+
+
+     "'I am grateful to you for leaving decision in my hands. I will
+     come with the division.'
+
+
+"Following upon this cable came a letter, in which she emphasized her
+reasons for remaining:
+
+
+     "'If there were a disaster we should none of us ever forgive
+     ourselves if we had left. We _must_ stand by. If you want us home,
+     get _them_ out.'"
+
+
+Orders and counter-orders for the release of the division were
+incessant, and on their release depended, as we have seen, the
+home-coming of the Unit.
+
+"The London Units Committee had feared greatly for the fate of the Unit
+if, as seemed probable, the Serb division was not able to leave Russia,
+and on November 9 approached the Hon. H. Nicholson at the War Department
+of the Foreign Office, who assured them that the Unit would be quite
+safe with the Serbs, who were well disciplined and devoted to Dr.
+Inglis. At that moment he thought it would be most unsafe for the Unit
+to leave the Serbs and to try to come home overland.
+
+"Mr. Nicholson expressed the opinion that the Committee would never
+persuade Dr. Inglis to leave her Serbs, and added: 'I cannot express to
+you our admiration here for Dr. Inglis and the work your Units have
+done.'"[21]
+
+At last the release of the division was effected, and on November 14 a
+cable was received by the Committee from Dr. Inglis from Archangel
+announcing her departure:
+
+
+     "On our way home. Everything satisfactory, and all well except me."
+
+
+This was the first intimation the London Committee had received that Dr.
+Inglis was ill.
+
+She arrived at Newcastle on Friday, November 23, bringing her Unit and
+the Serbian division with her. A great gale was blowing in the river,
+and they were unable to land until Sunday. Dr. Inglis had been very ill
+during the whole voyage, but on the Sunday afternoon she came on deck,
+and stood for half an hour whilst the officers of the Serbian division
+took leave of her.
+
+"It was a wonderful example of her courage and fortitude. She stood
+unsupported--a splendid figure of quiet dignity, her face ashen and
+drawn like a mask, dressed in her worn uniform coat, with the faded
+ribbons, that had seen such good service. As the officers kissed her
+hand, she said to each of them a few words, accompanied with her
+wonderful smile."
+
+She had stood through the summer months in Russia, an indomitable little
+figure, refusing to leave, until she had got ships for the remnant of
+the Serbian division, and then, with her Serbs and her Unit around her,
+she landed on the shores of England, to die.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[21] _A History of The Scottish Women's Hospitals._
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+"THE NEW WORK" AND MEMORIES
+
+
+     "Never knew I a braver going
+     Never read I of one....
+
+
+     "You faced the shadow with all tenderest words of love for all of
+     us, but with not one selfish syllable on your lips."[22]
+
+
+Dr. Inglis was brought on shore on Sunday evening, and a room was taken
+for her in the Station Hotel at Newcastle.
+
+"The victory over Death has begun when the fear of death is destroyed."
+
+She had been dying by inches for months. She had fought Death in Russia;
+she had fought him through all the long voyage. It was a strange
+warfare. For he was not to be stayed. Irresistible, majestic, wonderful,
+he took his toll--and yet she remained untouched by him! With unclouded
+vision, undimmed faith, and undaunted courage, serene and triumphant, in
+the last, _she passed him by_.
+
+There was no fear in that room on the evening that Elsie Inglis "went
+forth."
+
+Dr. Ethel Williams writes of her in November, 1919: "The demonstration
+of serenity of spirit and courage during Dr. Inglis's last illness was
+so wonderful that it has dwelt with me ever since. At first one felt
+that she did not in the least grasp the seriousness of her condition,
+but very soon one realized that she was just meeting fresh events with
+the same fearlessness and serenity of spirit as she had met the
+uncertainties and difficulties of life."
+
+One of her nieces was with her the whole of that last day. After Dr.
+Ethel Williams's visit, when for the first time Elsie Inglis realized
+that the last circle of her work on earth was complete, she said to her
+niece, "It is grand to think of beginning a new work over there!"
+
+By the evening her sisters were with her. To the very last her mind was
+clear, her spirit dominant. Her confident "I know," in response to every
+thought and word of comfort offered to her, was the outward expression
+of her inward State of Faith.
+
+What made her passing so mighty and full of triumph? Surely it was the
+"Power of an Endless Life," that idea to which she had committed herself
+years ago as she had stood at the open grave where the first seemingly
+hopeless good-bye had been said. The Power of that Endless Life, the
+Life of Christ, carried her forward on its mighty current into the New
+Region shut out from our view, but where the Life is still the same.
+
+We have watched through these pages the widening circles of Elsie
+Inglis's life. Her medical profession, The Hospice, the Women's
+Movement, the Scottish Women's Hospitals, Serbia, her achievements in
+Russia--these we know of; the work which has been given to her now is
+beyond our knowledge; but "we look after her with love and admiration,
+and know that somewhere, just out of sight, she is still working in her
+own keen way," circle after circle of service widening out in endless
+joyousness.
+
+On Thursday, November 29, St. Giles's Cathedral in Edinburgh was filled
+with a great congregation, assembled to do honour to the memory of Elsie
+Inglis. She was buried with military honours. At the end of the service
+the Hallelujah Chorus was played, and after the Last Post the buglers of
+the Royal Scots rang out the Reveille. From the door of the Cathedral to
+the Dean Cemetery the streets were lined with people waiting to see her
+pass. "Dr. Inglis was buried with marks of respect and recognition which
+make that passing stand alone in the history of the last rites of any of
+her fellow-citizens." It was not a funeral, but a triumph. "What a
+triumphal home-coming she had!" said one friend. And another wrote: "How
+glorious the service was yesterday! I don't know if you intended it, but
+one impression was uppermost in my mind, which became more distinct
+after I left, until by evening it stood out clear and strong. The note
+of _Victory_. I had a curious impression that her spirit was there, just
+before it passed on to larger spheres, and that it was glad. I felt I
+must tell you. I wonder if you felt it too. The note of Victory was
+bigger than the war. The Soul triumphant passing on. The Reveille
+expressed it."
+
+[Illustration: _Photo by D. Scott_
+
+THE HIGH STREET, EDINBURGH, LOOKING TOWARDS ST. GILES]
+
+In the two Memorial Services held to commemorate Dr. Inglis, one in St.
+Giles's Cathedral and the other in St. Margaret's, Westminster, a week
+later, the whole nation and all the interests of her life were
+represented.
+
+Royalty was represented, the Foreign Office, the War Office, the
+Admiralty, different bodies of women workers, the Suffrage cause, the
+Medical world, the Serbians, and--the children.
+
+Scores of "her children" were in St. Giles's, scattered through the
+congregation; in the crowds who lined the streets, they were seen
+hanging on to their mothers' skirts; and they were round the open grave
+in the Dean Cemetery. These were the children of the wynds and closes of
+the High Street, some of them bearing her name, "Elsie Maud," to whom
+she had never been too tired or too busy to respond when they needed her
+medical help or when "they waved to her across the street."
+
+
+"The estimate of a life of such throbbing energy, the summing up of
+achievement and influence in due proportion--these belong to a future
+day. But we are wholly justified in doing honour to the memory of a
+woman whose personality won the heart of an entire brave nation, and of
+whom one of the gallant Serbian officers who bore her body to the grave
+said, with simple earnestness: 'We would almost rather have lost a
+battle than lost her!'"[23]
+
+"Alongside the wider public loss, the full and noble public recognition,
+there stands in the shadow the unspoken sorrow of her Unit. The price
+has been paid, and paid as Dr. Inglis herself would have wished it, on
+the high completion of a chapter in her work, but we stand bowed before
+the knowledge of how profound and how selfless was that surrender.
+Month after month her courage and her endurance never flagged. Daily and
+hourly, in the very agony of suffering and death, she gave her life by
+inches. Sad and more difficult though the road must seem to us now, our
+privilege has been a proud one: to have served and worked with her, to
+have known the unfailing support of her strength and sympathy, and, best
+of all, to be permitted to preserve through life the memory and the
+stimulus of a supreme ideal."[24]
+
+"So passes the soul of a very gallant woman. Living, she spent herself
+lavishly for humanity. Dying, she joins the great unseen army of Happy
+Warriors, who as they pass on fling to the ranks behind a torch which,
+pray God, may never become a cold and lifeless thing."[25]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[22] In a letter written to his son after his death: see _Life beyond
+Death_, by Minot Judson Savage.
+
+[23] The Very Rev. Wallace Williamson.
+
+[24] Miss Yvonne Fitzroy in _With the Scottish Nurses in Roumania_.
+
+[25] A writer in the _Sunday Times_.
+
+
+
+
+BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+[The following books will be found of value by those whose interest may
+have been awakened by these pages to desire to know more of the career
+chosen by Elsie Inglis, and to gain an entrance into the lives of other
+men and women who have followed the medical profession both at home and
+abroad.--ED.]
+
+
+     The Problem of Creation. By J. E. Mercer, Bp. S.P.C.K.
+
+     Pioneers of Progress (Men of Science). Edited by S. Chapman, M.A.,
+     D.Sc. S.P.C.K.
+
+     God and the World. By Canon A. W. Robinson. S.P.C.K.
+
+     The Natural and Supernatural in Science and Religion. By J. M.
+     Wilson. S.P.C.K.
+
+     The Mystery of Life. By J. E. Mercer, Bp. S.P.C.K.
+
+     Where Science and Religion Meet. By Scott Palmer. S.P.C.K.
+
+     The Natural Law in the Spiritual World. By Henry Drummond. Hodder
+     and Stoughton.
+
+     Introduction to Science. By Prof. J. A. Thomson. Williams and
+     Norgate.
+
+     The Warder of Life. By Prof. J. A. Thomson. Melrose and Sons.
+
+     Secrets of Animal Life. By Prof. J. A. Thomson. Melrose and Sons.
+
+     Darwinism and Human Life. By Prof. J. A. Thomson. Melrose and Sons.
+
+     A History of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. By Eva Shaw McLaren.
+     Hodder and Stoughton.
+
+     Vikings of To-day. By W. T. Grenfell. Marshall Bros.
+
+     Father Damien. By Edward Clifford. Macmillan.
+
+     The Life of David Livingstone. By W. G. Blakie, D.D., LL.D. John
+     Murray.
+
+     Among the Wild Tribes of the Afghan Frontier. By Dr. Pennell.
+     Seeley, Service.
+
+     Pennell of the Afghan Frontier. By A. M. Pennell. Seeley, Service.
+
+     Memoirs and Letters of Sir James Paget. By Stephen Paget. Longmans,
+     Green.
+
+     Lord Lister: His Life and Work. By G. T. Wrench. Longmans, Green.
+
+     The Life of Pasteur. By Rene Vallery-Radot. Constable.
+
+     A Woman Doctor--Mary Murdoch of Hull. By Hope Malleson. Sidgwick
+     and Jackson.
+
+     The Life of Sophia Jex-Blake. By Margaret Todd. Macmillan.
+
+     Sir Victor Horsley. By Stephen Paget. Constable.
+
+     At Work: Letters of Maria Elizabeth Hayes, M.D. Edited by Mrs.
+     Hayes. S.P.G.
+
+     Pioneer Work for Women (see Bibliography, page xiv.). By Dr.
+     Elizabeth Blackwell. Dent.
+
+     Dr. Jackson of Manchuria. By Rev. A. J. Costain, B.A. Hodder and
+     Stoughton.
+
+     Dr. Isabel Mitchell of Manchuria. By Rev. F. W. S. O'Neill. J.
+     Clarke.
+
+     The Way of the Good Physician. By Henry Hodgkin. L.M.S.
+
+     The Claim of Suffering. By Elma Paget. S.P.G.
+
+     Companions of My Solitude. By Sir A. Helps. George Routledge.
+
+     Friends in Council (2 vols.). By Sir A. Helps. John Murray.
+
+     Confessio Medici. Macmillan.
+
+     I Wonder. By Stephen Paget. Macmillan.
+
+     I Sometimes Think. By Stephen Paget. Macmillan.
+
+     The Corner of Harley Street: Being Some Familiar Correspondence of
+     Peter Harding, M.D. Constable.
+
+     Living Water. By Harold Begbie. Headley Bros.
+
+     Essays on Vocation. Edited by Basil Mathews. (A second series is in
+     course of preparation.) Oxford University Press.
+
+     Body and Soul. By Dr. Dearmer. Isaac Pitman.
+
+     Common Sense. By Dr. Jane Walker. Privately printed.
+
+
+BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Elsie Inglis, by Eva Shaw McLaren
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