Women and War Work — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Women and War Work
John Stuart Mill · en
The Third Serbian Unit when on its way out was commandeered by Lord
Methuen at Malta for service among our own wounded troops, a service
they were glad to render. Later when the Germans and Austrians overran
Serbia, one of the Units retreated with the Serbian Army, but the
one in which Dr. Inglis was, remained at Kralijevo where she refused
to leave her Serbian wounded, knowing they would die without her
care. She was captured with her staff and, after difficulties and
indignities and discomforts, were released by the Austrians and
returned through Switzerland to England. On her return she urged
the War Office to send her, and her Unit, to Mesopotamia. Rumors had
already reached England of the terrible state of things there from
the medical point of view, which was fully revealed later by the
Mesopotamian Commission. She was refused permission to go, though it
is perfectly clear their assistance would have been invaluable and
ought to have been used. Once more she returned to help the Serbians
and established Units in the Balkans and South Russia. The Serbian
people have shown every token of gratitude and of honor which it
was in their power to bestow upon her. The people in 1916 put up a
fountain in her honor at Mladenovatz, and the Serbian Crown Prince
conferred on her the highest honor Serbia has to give, the First Order
of the White Eagle. Dr. Inglis died, on November 26th, three days
after bringing her Unit safely home from South Russia. Memorial
services were held in her honor at St. Margaret's, Westminster, and
in St. Giles's Cathedral, Edinburgh. Those who were there speak of
it not as a funeral but as a triumph. The streets were thronged; all
Edinburgh turned out to do her homage as she went to her last resting
place. The Scottish Command was represented and lent the gun-carriage
on which the coffin was borne and the Union Jack which covered it.
[Illustration: "SOMEWHERE IN FRANCE"]
In the Cathedral the Rev. Dr. Wallace Williamson, Dean of the Order of
The Thistle, said: "We are assembled this day with sad but proud and
grateful hearts to remember before God a very dear and noble lady,
our beloved sister, Elsie Inglis, who has been called to her rest. We
mourn only for ourselves, not for her. She has died as she lived, in
the clear light of faith and self-forgetfulness, and now her name is
linked forever with the great souls who have led the van of womanly
service for God and man. A wondrous union of strength and tenderness,
of courage and sweetness, she remains for us a bright and noble memory
of high devotion and stainless honor.... Especially today, in the
presence of representatives of the land for which she died, we think
of her as an immortal link between Serbia and Scotland, and as a
symbol of that high courage which will sustain us, please God, till
that stricken land is once again restored, and till the tragedy of
war is eradicated and crowned with God's great gifts of peace and of
righteousness."