How trailblazing Doctor Elsie Inglis and the Scottish Women's Hospitals revolutionized frontline medicine
Their story is little-known, but during the First World War, a group of Scottish women helped treat an estimated 200,000 Allied soldiers and served as pioneers for the role of women in frontline medicine.
100 years on, the work of the Scottish Women's Hospitals and its leader, Doctor Elsie Inglis, is reaching a wider audience.
Female doctors, nurses and medics are essential to frontline medicine today, working in exactly the same roles as men.
But a century ago things were very different; women were actively discouraged from accompanying fighting troops.
Dr Inglis was a well-known doctor and active suffragette in Edinburgh, founding several hospitals.
On the outbreak of war in 1914, she wrote to the War Office offering her services as a doctor to the frontline.
Their response infuriated her.
"'My good lady', they told her. 'Go home and sit still.'"
In response, Dr Inglis decided that, given the backing of the suffrage societies, she would set up her own female hospital units.
Very quickly, the Belgians, the French and particularly the Serbs accepted their help.
Dr Inglis was taken as a prisoner of war in Serbia and had to endure the Serbian retreat after the country was invaded.
It was dangerous but revolutionary work.
The hospital units were staffed entirely by women – from surgeons, doctors and nurses to cooks, drivers and clerks.
Dr Inglis' unfailing support for the people of Serbia led her to become the first woman awarded the Order of the White Eagle, the country's highest honour.
It is kept in Surgeon's Hall Museum in Edinburgh.
The Scottish Women's Hospitals coped with the worst typhus epidemic in history, with 150,000 killed, as well as typhoid, cholera and the catastrophic injuries of trench warfare.
Elsie died of cancer in 1917. She never got to vote or see the end of the war but the Serbs treasure her memory.
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