Educated at Tain Royal Academy, Elizabeth went to Glasgow to study medicine at Queen Margaret College in 1896 - two years after the first woman medical graduate, Marion Gilchrist, had received her degree. Elizabeth graduated in 1901 and went to work in Persia – now Iran – as assistant to an Armenian physician, before setting up her own practice. While there she spent time in the Iranian mountains, working with the powerful Bakhtiara tribe, who were so impressed with her they made her a chieftainess. Part of her job during this time was to be a doctor to a harem of women.
After a brief period as a take up an appointment as a ship's surgeon, travelling to the coast of India and Japan, she returned to Persia. She is now widely believed to be the worlds first female ships' surgeon.
At the outbreak of the First World War, Elizabeth responded to an invitation from the Russian government to go and help in Serbia. During the winter of 1914-15 a deadly epidemic of typhus had broken out, killing over 120,000 Serbs, including a third of their doctors.
Elizabeth volunteered to work in a fever hospital in Kragujevac. Conditions were grim, the hospitals were overcrowded; there was insufficient food and heating, wards and patients alike were filthy and there were no trained nurses. She worked day and night to improve the patients' lot but was soon infected herself. She was cared for by members of the Scottish Women’s Hospital who had recently arrived in Kragujevac but died on the 14th February 1915 on her 37th birthday.
A letter from a Miss Helen McDougall tells the brief sequel: "We met Dr. Ross on her way up country at Nish; as one of our doctors knew her well, she spent quite a while with us in the evening while we were there... She used frequently to come over and have tea with our unit and tell us all about her work. We all got so interested and I must say appalled that one after another we went over to see her typhus block. One afternoon another member of the unit and I went and we shall never forget our visit... It would be very difficult to realise the terrible odds against which this brave woman was fighting and I may say her one cry was how little she was able to do. When we went in, she welcomed us warmly but was very loath to show us round. Again and again she said, "Are you sure you are not afraid?" When we were leaving, I turned and said to her, "Oh Dr. Ross, how can you go on here?" She only answered, "Six of the doctors are down and who would look after them if I left?".... A few days after this, we heard that she was down."
Dr Elizabeth Ross died in Kragujevac Serbia of Typhus while nursing victims of the epidemic which killed 300,000 in 1915 and were casualties too of the First World War. She is buried alongside nurses Mabel Dearmer and Lorna Ferriss. Except for a small plaque in Tain’s St Duthus Church, she is almost forgotten. However, this is definately not the case in Serbia. Each year she is commemorated in a ceremony attended by Serbian high ranking dignitaries and many thousands of people.
In 1977, the local Red Cross in Kragujevac was given some money, and decided to use it to restore the grave of Elizabeth Ross. She is buried next to two British nurses who also died in Serbia of typhus - Mabel Dearmer and Lorna Ferriss. Altogether, 22 British women lost their lives to typhus in Serbia during the First World War, attempting to aid wounded soldiers.
Photographs: Dr. Ross at graduation, as a ship's surgeon and the graves of Dr. Elizabeth Ross, Mabel Dearmer and Lorna Ferris
Sources:
https://sheroesofhistory.wordpress.com/2017/08/31/dr-elizabeth-ross/#more-2015
https://www.tainmuseum.org.uk/dr-elizabeth-macbean-ross.asp
https://inspirationalwomenofww1.blogspot.com/search?q=mabel+dearmer
