Journal of Medical Biography 21(4) 257 ! The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0967772013480688 jmb.sagepub.com

On the money

Figure 1. £5 note showing Sir Alexander Fleming.

Figure 2. £50 note showing Elsie Maud Inglis.

Scottish banks are unique in that they print their own banknotes. The current notes of the Clydesdale Bank commemorate famous Scots and two of these feature doctors. The five pound note shows Sir Alexander Fleming (1881–1955) (Figure 1), who is remembered for his part in the discovery of penicillin, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945, along with Florey and Chain. The fifty pound note shows Elsie Maud Inglis (1864– 1917) (Figure 2), a pioneer woman doctor and advocate of women’s suffrage. She graduated in 1892 after studying medicine in Edinburgh and Glasgow. She was resident medical officer in London and Dublin hospitals before returning to Edinburgh, where she started a general practice and founded her own hospital for women and children. She was also active in the women’s suffrage movement, although opposed to the militancy of some of its members. In 1905, she became senior

consultant at Bruntsfield Hospital for Women. On the outbreak off the First World War she offered her services to the War Office, but was turned down. The French and Serbian governments accepted her offer and within six months sufficient money had been raised for hospital units staffed entirely by women in both these countries. She herself went to Serbia where she was captured by the Germans and interned until 1916. She was repatriated to Britain, but soon returned to Serbia and Russia despite suffering from cancer. She finally returned to Britain in 1917 where she died within days of her arrival. C John Scott 35 Ashgrove Road West Aberdeen AB16 5BB Email: [email protected]

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On the money.

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