Born in India in 1864, Ingles was brought to Edinburgh as a young child, where, supported by her father, she studied medicine, qualifying as a doctor. She set up a school of medicine for women, assisted by Sophia Jex-Blake, the first woman to graduate in medicine in Edinburgh and who went on to fund her own hospital after the two went their separate ways in 1892. In 1901, after spending time at the Garret Anderson Hospital in London, Inglis set up a hospital in Edinburgh, staffed entirely by women. Disgusted by the legislation that meant that men had the ability to stop any medical treatment on his wife, Inglis founded Scottish Womens Suffragette Federation in 1906. During World War I, Inglis wanted to take a medical unit to the front line. Told by an English official "My good lady, go home and sit still", Inglis made arrangements with the French, going on to serve in Serbia and Russia, setting up hospitals for the wounded soldiers and civilians. Returning to Britain, Inglis took ill and died in Newcastle in 1917.