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 MÉSTROVIC]
FOOTNOTE:
[12] National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.