Dr Elsie Inglis wasn't forgotten, but the time is now for her Royal Mile statue

Soon people will no doubt stand in front of the new Elise Inglis statue on the Royal Mile for a selfie with the medical trailblazer, whose sculpture has just been commissioned, and might wonder why she is the first woman to be memorialised on the hallowed Capital street.

The sculpture will tell not just the story of a remarkable figure, a pioneer of medical education for women who created volunteer field hospitals, run by women across Europe, the Balkans and Russia during the First World War – but also who and what we want remembered in 2022.

The selfie-takers will capture not just this fearless and cheery woman, who famously defied War Office advice to ‘go home and sit down still’, but also a strong public desire to set the achievements of more women in stone and bronze among the men who have long dominated the tone of our streets.

The Inglis statue will be created by Royal sculptor Alexander Stoddart and will neighbour his earlier works of David Hume and Adam Smith. His William Playfair is in Chambers Street and all have been completed within the past 27 years, the recent timeframe weakening the idea the lack of female statues is a legacy of male-heavy status building of the past.

Stoddart gave interesting insight into his latest commission when he said there was “something of a dearth” of statues of historical figures from the last century given the post-war decline in the understanding of the “noble art of sculpture”. Others believe women weren’t searching for glory, their diaries never archived, their work just done.

While Inglis was not recognised with a statue at home, a bust of the doctor was presented to Scotland by Serbia in gratitude for her war work and stands in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Importantly, she lived on with the Elsie Inglis Memorial Maternity Hospital, which opened in Edinburgh in 1925 using the last coffers of the Scottish Women’s Hospitals, which Inglis led as part of the wider work of the suffragette movement.

The hospital, which served for 60 years, was perhaps the ultimate living, breathing tribute to Inglis. But there is no doubt the time for her to take her place on the Royal Mile is now.