"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 Réveillé. 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 Réveillé
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.
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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.
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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