John Inglis

John Forbes David Inglis (5 August 1820 – 13 March 1894) was an East India Company civil servant, who became Chief Commissioner of Oudh in North India. His disagreement with Lord Lytton's Afghan policy led to him being passed over for an expected promotion to be Governor of North West Province. He took early retirement and on his return to Edinburgh, he founded, jointly with his daughter Elsie Inglis, the Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women. That association established the Edinburgh Medical College for Women at a time that women were not accepted into British university medical schools.

Early life He was born on 5 August 1820, second youngest son of David Inglis and his wife Martha (née Money). David Inglis had spent most of his life in India as writer, or solicitor, for the East India Company. His father Alexander Inglis, who originated from Kingsmills, Inverness-shire, emigrated to Charleston, South Carolina leaving his son David to be brought up in Scotland by an uncle.

Inglis was tutored by Rev Dr Joseph Niblock, a well known Greek scholar and educator. He then won a place at the East India College at Haileybury, moving to study there in 1839.

From Haileybury College he went to Calcutta where he spent two years learning local languages before being posted as assistant magistrate to Agra. In 1856, Inglis arranged to take the family home to Britain for a period of leave of three years. This proved to be a prolonged journey which took 4 months to reach Bombay and a further 4 moths by sailing ship round Cape Hope to reach England. He was recalled early to India in 1858 because of the Indian Rebellion and returned leaving his family in Southampton. George, Hugh and Herbert were sent to school at Eton, Cecil to Uppingham and Ernest to Rugby, while Amy was looked after by relatives. When Elsie Inglis emerged as the leader of a group of students who rebelled against what they perceived as Jex-Blake's over severe discipline, Inglis with his daughter, formed the Scottish Association for the Medical Education of Women. Supporters included his former colleague Sir William Muir, now returned from India as Principal of the University of Edinburgh. The Association established the Edinburgh Medical College for Women, which opened in 1889. The influence of the Association was such that within two years they were able to endow two wards for the teaching of women medical students at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, which had previously refused to allow the teaching of female students.

Elsie Inglis went on to become a surgeon, a prominent figure in the suffrage movement and founded the Scottish Women's Hospitals which saw service behind front lines in the First World War.