Elsie Inglis: The Woman with the Torch

he Himalayas, were the environment with which Nature surrounded her for the first twelve years of her life. Her ch

nd 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

always just. The three cups of cocoa were always the same in quantity and quality. We got equal shares of his

n 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 bein

Calcutta, Simla, and Lucknow. After her father retired, two years in Australia visiting

Elsie was about fourteen,

ildren and look after turbulent boys who trouble everybody on board

ghter. The family settled in Edinburgh, and Elsie went to school to the Charlotte Square Institution, perhaps in those

e in Edinburgh a

school, and a certain feeling of surprise that the said girls were just like ordinary mortals, though the big, earnest brows a

lumny 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

ercise 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

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

ore her mother's death in January, 1885. Henceforth she was her father's constant companion. They took long walks together, talked on ev

e 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 st

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 w

she was for six months House-Surgeon in the New Hospital for Women and Children in Lond

. 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 coul

p for the few years it lasted, until for family reasons Dr. Macgregor left Scotland for America. Dr. Inglis stayed on in

BES DAVI

INGLIS

do anything-whatever I a

all to my

a meeting held

ondon, Apr

was started. Her practice grew, and she became a keen suffragist. D

haps the three people who stood nearest to her were her sister, Mrs. Simson, and the Very Rev. Dr.

tions of Dr. Inglis by two of her friends-Miss S.

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

ottish 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

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 exist

se twenty years-1894 to 1914-will be dealt with in detail, before we

TNO

to Dr. Elsie Inglis,

nglis, by Lady