Medical pioneer Elsie Inglis - approval expected for a statue of the medical pioneer

On Wednesday it is expected that councillors will approve the planning permission for a new statue of Dr Elsie Inglis to be placed on the Royal Mile opposite number 144 High Street.

The statue will be important as it will be the first of a woman erected on the Royal Mile just across the street from where, as a pioneering doctor, Dr Inglis set up a hospice for women at 219 High Street where there is a plaque.

She also created war hospitals in Europe during the First World War. She had been told in 1914 by an official in the War Office to “go home and sit still” and there was nothing that she could do to help. She is recognised as a suffragist and a supporter of women’s education. She raised around £50 million (in today’s money) to fund the Scottish Women’s Hospitals for Foreign Service fo