She was the pioneering First World War physician and suffragist who defied male voices to “sit down”, and became a figurehead for Scottish feminism.

Now however, plans to honour Dr Elsie Inglis with a bronze statue in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile have been engulfed in a furious row over a sudden decision to scrap a call for artists to submit ideas, in favour of appointing a man to do the job.

The move to engage the Royal Family’s official sculptor in Scotland, Alexander Stoddart to create the bronze statue – the first of a woman on the historic street - took campaign supporters and artists who have spent months working on their submissions, by surprise.

It immediately sparked fury with some branding the unexpected decision to appoint an establish male sculptor with royal links as an anti-feminist move, in opposition to the core beliefs of Dr Inglis, who devoted her life to improving women’s rights.

It led to calls for the statue committee to stand down, and for the process to be re-launched with the statue design and artist decided by public vote.

One artist who was developing her submission to be considered, said the move to close the competition in favour of Mr Stoddard – whose bronze classic-style statues of David Hume and Adam Smith already feature on the Royal Mile – was “soul destroying”.

Natasha Ingram-Phoenix, an East Lothian sculptor and ceramicist who says she has spent more than 600 hours and thousands of pounds working on her idea, said it echoed the infamous War Office comment to Dr Inglis that she should “go home and sit still” after she offered to set up frontline medical facilities for the First World War casualties.

Dr Inglis went on to establish war hospitals in France, Belgium, Serbia and Russia where her all-female staff treated the sick and dying.

Ms Ingram-Phoenix added: “Elsie Inglis would be turning in her grave – this is not what she would have wanted.

“She was all about feminism, training young women who had nothing, doing things with women and changing the world.

“The board committed to an open call for artists and then they withdrew it, leaving all these artists having worked for nothing, with no apologies and no communication.

“There should be transparency and if the process then chooses Sandy Stoddart – or a man or a woman - then that’s fine.

“But as it stands, they have undervalued the efforts of women artists and said to me ‘you will not be good enough, you’re not as good as this man, you’ll never make anything of the quality of this man’.

“I feel that I was deceived, It’s like a mockery of her name.”

Efforts began five years ago to establish a statue to Dr Inglis in recognition of her pioneering work in women’s healthcare and her role as one of Scotland’s leading suffragettes.

The statue campaign has gone on to raise £60,000 from public donations and contributions from Edinburgh University and Edinburgh World Heritage.

The campaign has been backed by Edinburgh's Lord Provost Robert Aldridge, and Edinburgh City Council has agreed it would be sited outside the original hospital founded in 1904 by Dr Inglis for the city’s poorest women and babies, at 219 High Street.

The planned date for its unveiling is 2024, exactly 120 years after the Royal Mile Hospice opened its doors.

Edinburgh City Council declined to comment on the row.

The committee behind the sculpture had called for emerging artists as well as experienced artists to submit entries for consideration, stating they would work with them to help achieve a sculpture that would “embody Elsie’s achievements for posterity in bronze.”

Artists were invited to submit sketches and a tenth size figurative sculpture of Elsie as an adult, with some said to have made several models as they perfected their work before the competition deadline.

They were told a shortlist of three would be revealed in November, and the winning design announced next April.

However, news of Mr Stoddart’s appointment came in a Facebook post on Monday stating the board of trustees had reconsidered their position after watching the late Queen’s coffin make its way down the Royal Mile.

It added: “We realised that our original call was sub optimal and we had to reposition our original plans.

“We recognised the statue needed to meet with the historical consciousness of the Royal Mile. It was further confirmed we needed to rethink our approach as we watched the queen’s coffin and the cortege make its way to St Giles' Cathedral for a service of remembrance.”

The Dr Inglis statue was being seen as a positive move which would help to address the lack of statues in recognition of women’s achievements in Edinburgh and across Scotland.

Mr Stoddart, 63, studied at Glasgow School of Art and is known for his bronze statues of Enlightenment figures, in neo-classical style: his statue of David Hume in the Royal Mile depicts him in philosopher’s toga.

Following his appointment, he said: “There is something of a dearth of commemorative statuary of historical figures from the last century, owing to the decline, during the postwar period, of the understanding of the noble art of sculpture.

"The figure of Dr Elsie Inglis is to be the first statue of a woman on the Royal Mile. This is of great interest, no doubt, but I’m most concerned that something distinguished arises to honour this estimable person.”