Partner Jane Walker
Queer Places:
St. Mary the Virgin Churchyard, Colchester CO6 4LX, United Kingdom
Dr. Eleanor Soltau (1877 - December 30, 1962) was a pioneering English physician, medical administrator, and wartime hospital leader best known for
directing the first Scottish Women's Hospitals unit in Serbia during the First World War and for her decades-long research and work in treating
tuberculosis.
Born in late 1877 in Romford, Essex, Eleanor Soltau was raised in a large, devout, and socially active Nonconformist family. Her father, George Soltau, served as a Nonconformist minister in Barnstaple, while her mother, Grace Elizabeth Soltau (née Tapson), was a prominent suffragist and the founding president of the Tasmanian Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Eleanor was one of nine children born to the couple between 1876 and 1890.
In the 1880s, the Soltau family relocated to Launceston, Tasmania, where George Soltau led a mission church. During this time, Grace Soltau established Hope Cottage in 1887, a pioneering refuge and lying-in facility for unmarried mothers. Eleanor received her early education at Launceston Ladies' College and successfully passed the matriculation examination for Melbourne University in 1893.
Returning to England for her medical training, Soltau enrolled at the London School of Medicine for Women. After completing her studies and clinical training at Ilford, she passed her final medical examinations in February 1902. She subsequently gained medical experience working in a hospital in India and served at the Royal Free Hospital in London prior to the outbreak of the First World War.
The primary focus of Soltau's civilian medical career was centered in Stoke-by-Nayland, Suffolk, at the tuberculosis sanatorium complex founded by Dr. Jane Walker. Soltau served as the assistant medical superintendent alongside Walker, who was the medical superintendent. Following Walker’s death in 1938, Soltau succeeded her as medical superintendent.
The Stoke-by-Nayland complex comprised three separate facilities: The East Anglian Sanatorium: Established in 1901 for private patients. The Maltings Farm Sanatorium: Opened in 1904 for working-class patients, which predominantly cared for ex-servicemen during and after the First World War. The East Anglian Children's Sanatorium: Founded between 1912 and 1916 for pediatric patients aged 3 to 16.
Soltau specialized in pediatric tuberculosis cases and was an early pioneer in the development and application of artificial pneumothorax—a form of lung collapse therapy controlled by X-ray imaging. In 1913, Walker and Soltau co-authored research on artificial pneumothorax in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Soltau demonstrated the efficacy of this treatment on advanced phthisis cases before the Association of Registered Medical Women in 1914, and later published a comprehensive report in the BMJ in 1934 analyzing 46 pediatric cases treated at Nayland dating back to 1912. The sanatoriums under their direction also served as a critical training ground for newly qualified female medical professionals.
With the onset of World War I, Soltau volunteered for service under the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service (SWH), an all-female medical organization formed to support Allied troops. In January 1915, Soltau led the SWH's second official overseas unit to Serbia, arriving at Kragujevac on January 5, 1915.
Upon arrival, Soltau's unit encountered an overwhelming humanitarian crisis. Retreating Austrian forces had left behind unsanitary, overcrowded medical facilities, precipitating a devastating typhus epidemic that infected two-thirds of Serbian doctors and killed over a quarter of them. Soltau organized medical operations by converting a local school and five inns into functional hospitals, eventually taking command of three major facilities: a surgical hospital, No. 6 Reserve Hospital for typhus patients, and No. 7 Reserve Hospital for general medical cases.
Despite severe shortages of supplies, equipment, and trained personnel, Soltau managed heavy casualties, including soldiers suffering from severe gangrenous wounds arriving from Valjevo. Her unit operated under extreme strain for months; during the deployment, nine staff members fell ill and three died, including Scottish nurse Louisa Jordan. In April 1915, Soltau contracted diphtheria and was invalided back to Britain, with Dr. Elsie Inglis assuming leadership of the Serbian unit.
In recognition of her wartime medical leadership, the King of Serbia conferred upon Soltau the Order of St. Sava (3rd Class) and the Serbian Red Cross Order. In February 1918, King George V granted her formal permission to wear the decorations in the United Kingdom. On November 17, 1917, Soltau was appointed medical controller in the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (QMAAC).
Throughout her career, Soltau shared a close personal and professional partnership with Dr. Jane Walker (1859–1938), a founder of the Medical Women's Federation and a pioneer in tuberculosis treatment. For over twenty-five years, the two women lived and worked together in Stoke-by-Nayland, establishing a collaborative medical practice, co-authoring pioneering scientific papers, and expanding access to healthcare for women, children, and working-class patients.
Their partnership reflected a broader historical network of early female physicians who built cohabitating life partnerships, professional alliances, and shared domestic households within the early modern medical movement.
Following her retirement from medical practice, Soltau moved to London, residing at De Vere Gardens in Kensington. She also cared for her mother in her mother's later years.
Soltau died on December 30, 1962, at Arranmore in Bushey, Hertfordshire, at the age of 85. She was buried beside her lifelong partner, Dr. Jane Walker, in the churchyard of St. Mary the Virgin in Wissington, Suffolk.
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