Elizabeth Ross

Elizabeth Ness MacBean Ross (14 February 1878 14 February 1915) was a Scottish physician who worked in Persia (presently Iran) among the Bakhtiari people. With training and a post-graduate qualification in tropical medicine, she responded to an appeal for doctors by the Serbian government in 1915 and treated Serbian casualties, most of whom were victims of typhus. Ross's life and work is commemorated by a plaque in her home town of Tain and her death anniversary is commemorated by ceremonies in Serbia, on 14 February.

Early life and family Elizabeth Ness MacBean Ross was born in Hampstead, London, to Scottish parents.

When her father died, they moved to her mother's family in Tain, where she attended Tain Royal Academy. She went on to study medicine at Queen Margaret College, Glasgow, in 1896. This was some two years after Marion Gilchrist, the first woman to qualify in medicine from a university in Scotland, had graduated. Ross graduated with an MB ChB in 1901. / After graduating was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine.

Lucy, one of Ross's sisters, also graduated in medicine and became a doctor in York. James Ness MacBean Ross, her brother, became a naval doctor and was awarded the Military Cross and bar and the Croix de Guerre during the First World War.

Early career

Adopting their customs and their dress, she became integrated to such an extent that she was made an honorary chief of the Bakhtiari.

In 1913, she successfully applied for a job as a ship's surgeon on the SS Nigaristan to work her way home. She subsequently became ship's surgeon on the Glasgow Line SS Glenlogan,

Elizabeth Ross arrived in January 1915 and volunteered to work in Kragujevac, the city worst affected by the epidemic, accounting for almost 10 percent of all cases in Serbia. The large military hospital where she worked was overcrowded with typhus victims.

Death and legacy

Ross died from typhus on her 37th birthday, 14 February 1915, three weeks after arriving in Kragujevac.

There is a plaque in her memory in St Duthac's Church, Tain. which includes the words "This tablet has been erected and hospital beds endowed in Serbia by public subscription in remembrance of the noble life and sacrifice of one whose home was for many years in Tain."

Ross was the first woman to be commemorated on Glasgow University's World War One Roll of Honour. A service was held in the Universirty Chapel on the centenary of her death.

The local Red Cross youth branch in Kragujevac is named the Dr Elizabeth Ross Society. At the annual commemoration ceremony they wear t-shirts bearing Ross's graduation photograph. Elizabeth Ross Street in Kragujevac is named after her. A street in the town is named in her honour. On 14 February, her birth and death date, memorial ceremonies are held each year in Kragujevac and at other locations in Serbia to commemorate her work for the people of Serbia.