Elsie Inglis (1864-1917) and the Scottish women’s hospitals in Serbia in the Great War. Part 1

The news about the great victories of the Gallant Little Serbia in the Great War spread far and wide. Following on the appeals from the Serbian legations and the Serbian Red Cross, assistance was arriving from all over the world. First medical missions and medical and other help arrived from Russia. It was followed by the medical missions from Great Britain, France, Greece, The Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, America, etc. Material help and individual volunteers arrived from Poland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Norway, India, Japan, Egypt, South America, and elsewhere. The true friends of Serbia formed various funds under the auspices of the Red Cross Society, and other associations. In September 1914, the Serbian Relief Fund was established in London, while in Scotland the first units of the Scottish Women?s Hospitals for Foreign Service were formed in November of the same year. The aim of this work was to keep the memory of the Scottish Women?s Hospitals in Serbia, and with the Serbs in the Great War. In the history of the Serbian nation during the Great War a special place was held by the Scottish Women?s Hospitals - a unique humanitarian medical mission. It was the initiative of Dr. Elsie Maud Inglis (1864-1917), a physician, surgeon, promoter of equal rights for women, and with the support of the Scottish Federation of Woman?s Suffrage Societies. The SWH Hospitals, which were completely staffed by women, by their participation in the Great War, also contributed to gender and professional equality, especially in medicine. Many of today?s achievements came about thanks to the first generations of women doctors, who fought for equality in choosing to study medicine, and working in the medical field, in time of war and peacetime.