Dr Elizabeth Macbean Ross
There is a brass plaque in the St Duthus Church which bears the following inscription, "To the glory of God and in undying memory of Dr. Elizabeth Ness Macbean Ross who voluntarily gave her life during the European War, to help the typhus stricken Serbian soldiers and died in the Military Hospital, Krasgujevtz, Serbia, 14th February, 1915. 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."
Elizabeth Macbean Ross qualified as MB and Ch.B at Glasgow University in 1901. Not content with being one of the few qualified women doctors of her day, this remarkable woman had a varied, albeit fairly short, career much of it pursued under her own steam. As well as practicing for one and a half years in the East Ham area of London, she was Medical Officer in Colonsay for some months before going to Persia as an assistant to an Armenian physician. While there she spent some time among the Bakhtiara, a powerful tribe inhabiting an area of mountains and upland valleys, and afterwards she wrote a history of the tribe.
 
After returning from Persia, she later travelled to Japan as a ship's surgeon before returning to Persia, remaining there until the outbreak of WW1 when she went to Serbia under the auspices of the Russian government and worked there against great odds, soon succumbing to Typhus Fever.
The photo shows Dr Elizabeth Ness Macbean Ross in Bakhtiari costume circa 1909. Who was she and why such a way out garb?
A woman of intellect (apart from her book "A Lady Doctor in Bakhtiari Land", she published a number of interesting medical papers) and courage, inspite of a frail and delicate physique she chose an unconventional and difficult path in order to help others and paid with her life. Elizabeth died at the age of 37. Her demise was rightly seen as a huge loss and elicited numerous tributes in newspapers and journals around the world
Dr Ross's father was manager of the London branch of the Commercial Bank of Scotland but for most of her life her home was based in Tain, at a house called Craigdarroch in Scotsburn Road (later sold to become the Free Church Manse).
One of a fairly large and gifted family of brothers and sisters, she was the sister of Edith Ross's mother Helen, thus Edith's aunt. Edith is well known to most Tain residents and is understandably proud of her relative. She was the source of most of the information in this article.
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