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Portrait of Dr Elsie Inglis, c. 1915

Elsie Inglis (1864-1917) is of great importance to the history of medical care for women in Edinburgh. She founded a seven bed maternity hospital for poorer women in 1899 which moved to the High Street and became known as the Hospice five years later.

Portrait of Dr Elsie Inglis by A Montefiore Micholls c. 1915 LHSA ref: P042

But it was for her work during the First World War that Inglis became famous. She had the inspiration for the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service and it went on to send hospital units to France, Serbia, Russia, Corsica and Greece. She died in 1917 and after the Scottish Women’s Hospitals disbanded it was decided to use the remaining funds to build a hospital in her name. The Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital opened in 1925.

The portrait above, part of the LHSA object collection (LHSA ref: P042), shows her in her Scottish Women’s Hospitals uniform in a drawing by A Montefiore Micholls.

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