Memorial plate to Elizabeth Ross unveiled in Kragujevac

BELGRADE - A memorial plate to Dr Elizabeth Ross and other women of a British mission who aided typhus-stricken Serbian soldiers and then lost their lives to the disease themselves during the First World War in Serbia 100 years ago, was unveiled in the center of the city of Kragujevac in central Serbia on Friday.

The memorial plate was unveiled by Kragujevac Mayor Radomir Nikolic and President of the Red Cross of Serbia Dragan Radovanovic. The ceremony was attended by the ambassadors of the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, officials of the Serbian Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Policy and of health institutions' and numerous volunteers.

Radovanovic said that Dr Ross and her great sacrifice in the First World War was a symbol of the first and most important principle of humanity.

"By unveiling this memorial board, we are making the remembrance of Dr Ross and the other brave women eternal," said Radovanovic, adding that it was an honor for the Red Cross to be able, every year, to organize ceremonies commemorating Dr Ross and the other women from military missions who treated wounded Serbs in the First World War.

An Orthodox mass was celebrated for the repose of the souls of the women at the Varosko Groblje cemetery before the ceremony of unveiling the plate.

British Ambassador to Serbia Denis Keefe said he greatly appreciated the fact that the remembrance of the nurses had been preserved and thanked Kragujevac for keeping the memory of Dr Elizabeth Ross alive.

Dr. Elizabeth Ross passed away on February 14, 1915, the same day she was born.

Photo Tanjug Video, camera operator Milos Milivojevic

Continue reading on: