On July 5^th 2021, London Road Community Hospital in Derby was renamed Florence Nightingale Community Hospital. In addition to the renaming, the current and former chairs of the hospital, respectively Dr Kathy McLean and John Rivers CBE, unveiled a new statue of Florence Nightingale.

In his talk at the event, Mr Rivers highlighted how Florence Nightingale spent much of her time living in Derbyshire and inspired so many major developments in healthcare, from nurse training and hospital design to advancing approaches to civilian and military sanitation.

Professor Paul Crawford, who attended as one of 30 invited guests, comments: ‘This is a fitting tribute to the legacy of Florence Nightingale at a time when the NHS has battled through the pandemic. The new statue becomes a sister piece to the one by Lady Feodora Gleichen erected further along London Road in 1914. John has been wonderfully supportive with our AHRC-funded project ‘Florence Nightingale Comes Home’, serving on its Advisory Board.’

The project led by Professor Paul Crawford, with Professor Anna Greenwood, Dr Richard Bates and Dr Jonathan Memel, resulted in an acclaimed new history of her life and work Florence Nightingale at Home (Palgrave, 2020). The book has since been longlisted for the B.S. Hughes Prize.

The project has also marked the bicentenary of Florence Nightingale birth in 1820 in a new exhibition ‘Florence Nightingale Comes Home’ at Lakeside Arts, Nottingham, curated by Hayley Cotterill from Manuscripts and Special Collections, which is open until 5 September 2021.

Further information and resources from the project can be found at www.florencenightingale.org.

Our book, Florence Nightingale at Home, is available here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Florence-Nightingale-Home-Paul-Crawford/dp/3030465330

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On 12 February, I gave a talk to the Derby Archaelogical Society about our book, Florence Nightingale at Home.

You can watch the talk at the following link:

Richard’s talk to the DAS

The post Book talk – Richard on Florence Nightingale at Home appeared first on Florence Nightingale Comes Home for 2020.

John Smedley Ltd is one of the oldest textile businesses in the world, having been first established at Lea in Derbyshire in 1784 by Peter Nightingale – Florence’s great-great-uncle. I recently interviewed Ian Maclean, its current managing director, about the company’s historical legacy, links with Nightingale, and its work during the pandemic, for which Ian has been awarded an MBE.  

The John Smedley textile factory is one of the longest-standing in the world, having been in operation for 235 years. Founded by one of Florence Nightingale’s ancestors, it played a significant role in her life story, especially in developing her social consciousness by making her aware of the working and living conditions of industrial workers in her neighbourhood – the family had a house at nearby Lea Hurst. As a young woman Nightingale developed long-standing relationships with a number of mill families, and continued to look out for their welfare into her old age.

For Nightingale’s bicentenary in May 2020, John Smedley Ltd produced a limited-edition collection of garment designs in her honour, making use of Nightingale’s signature on the deed that transferred ownership of Lea Mills from the Nightingales to the Smedleys.

In May and June 2020, part of the workforce was redeployed to make PPE for local hospitals, GP surgeries and care homes. The firm produced 1000 sets of reusable medical scrubs and also provided support to the national Emergency Design Network to assist in the further manufacturing of PPE by individuals and small firms around the country.

RB: John Smedley is one of the oldest textile manufacturers in the UK. What does this legacy mean to the firm? What complications/challenges (if any) does it present?  

IM: The history of the company and all its associated stories are really the foundation of who we are, and the brand as the consumer perceives it. In one sense, it provides a focal point for any number of conversations about why we don’t have so much manufacturing in Britain any more, how much we value manufacturing jobs, and (for the positive among us!) what this means for anyone who wants to devote their lives to rebuilding textiles in this country. We know we can’t re-create the old industry, but this doesn’t mean we can’t build an entirely new industry founded on a more sustainable mode of development. And several are trying. There are plenty of complications in being “the last of our kind”, not least the fact that we lack many of the services and ancillary industries and skills that were once abundant, and abundantly useful in keeping our factory operating at a level of fitness. This leaves us with a reliance on ourselves, and to a degree, a resultant amateurishness of approach. Nobody in our industry has cracked the problems of automation (as has been the case in engineering, for example), so we have become more a craft maker than a true manufacturer, with all the attendant costs. The good news is, I’m not disheartened by this as I feel there is enough ingenuity and graft around to get things moving in the right direction.

RB: How does the firm try to acknowledge, preserve and work with its historical legacy?  

IM: Three years ago we decided to do exactly this by creating the John Smedley Archive Charitable Trust (“JSACT”) as the vehicle for doing so. JSACT now occupies the same site as John Smedley Ltd, and we have gifted all of our archive assets to it. The goal of the charity is to preserve knitwear artifacts, to research them and to tell the stories of John Smedley, the Company, the Family and all the staff who have ever work for us. This is quite an ambition, but the treasure trove of stories is wide and deep, thank goodness! Our Archivist and a group of volunteers have so far catalogued over 14,000 items in total, including the largest archive of knitwear garments in Europe, comprising around 9,000 pieces. They have also published five books to date, including histories of the staff who fought in World War I, diaries of travels to Australia in search of merino wool, and the links between the company and the Nightingale family. The archive has also starred in several TV programmes, including Who Do You Think You Are?, with the actor Charles Dance, who is distantly related to the Smedleys.

RB: What does the connection to the Nightingale family, and to Florence in particular, mean to the company? 

IM: The link between the Company and the Nightingale family is relatively new news to me! It was only a couple of years ago when searching for an old written contract, that I learned the Company had purchased the freehold of its Lea Mills factory site from the Nightingales in 1894, and that Florence Nightingale herself had signed the contract on behalf of her family. This discovery, and the links with your research team, have led to a large body of work being done to reveal more of the story of the Nightingales when they lived at Lea Hurst, the family home that is only a very short distance from the Mill. Everything we have learned since is truly exciting: we can now see that Florence gained a lot of her earliest knowledge of how best to care for the sick and poor by visiting families living in the villages around her home (and our factory). We are indeed proud of the association and will continue to both research and tell the stories that arise over time.

The 1894 deed of transfer of Lea Mill from the Nightingales to the Smedleys, bearing Florence Nightingale’s signature

RB: Why did John Smedley seek to get involved with the response to the Covid-19 pandemic?  

IM: We closed our factory at Lea Mills in March and April in response to a worsening sickness problem among our staff, and extensive supply chain disruption. During the closure period we made great efforts to make the working environment safe for people to return, and when we re-opened in May, it just seemed right at the time to attempt scrubs production because we knew shortages were happening in the NHS. Thankfully, a team of 10 volunteers was not difficult to assemble (they were all very willing) and were off and running!

A John Smedley worker making medical scrubs, 2020

RB: How much of a challenge was it to redirect the company’s efforts?    

IM: Through our extensive industry contacts, we had a good idea of who was attempting to make scrubs in other parts of the country. The makers of fabric, of course, were inundated with orders, but we were able to secure a supply of fabric. We then received a very kind offer from a fabric cutting company in Nottingham to cut the required patterns for free – which was amazing. Finally, we had to undertake quite a bit of self-education and training to get the team into the swing of sewing and finishing the garments to the best standard (it’s John Smedley after all!). We also had to service and repair several sewing machines to make them operational. In the end, and all credit to the scrubs team, we turned out a very respectable 1,000 sets of garments in short order that were distributed for free to hospitals, GP practices and care home staff across Derbyshire.

Smedley scrubs being worn by an NHS worker

RB: Beyond the PPE effort in May-June, how else has the pandemic affected the factory and the company? 

IM: – I remember reading early on in March that some of the top strategy consulting firms were predicting that companies in the fashion clothing sector would likely lose 30%-40% of their sales turnover in 2020, and not believing it. Well, they were almost spot on, and our sales turnover will be impacted to that magnitude. I cannot think that there has been such a sudden and extreme effect on John Smedley’s sales during its entire 236 year existence. We are really operating in new territory – and I must commend my colleagues for bearing up well in the circumstances. We immediately prioritised the cash position of the company and did everything we could to preserve cash at a time when predicting sales was impossible (all our London stores for example were closed for nearly 3 months). Many plans that we had to invest have been put on hold, and around 9% of the workforce have sadly had to be let go. Since the general economic “re-opening” in July, we have been monitoring sales from all markets very closely and trying to build a profitable business model for the next 2-3 years. The task is not yet done.

RB: What does the future look like for UK textile manufacturing?  

IM: I truly believe that new innovators will build a new textile industry for the future, based on regenerative organic farming, zero CO2 emissions, circular business models and entirely new materials, to great effect. Where this leaves dinosaurs like us, I’m not sure – it’s adapt or die, I suppose.

Many thanks to Ian for taking part in this interview.

If you’d like to know more about the connections between Nightingale and John Smedley Jr, who ran the mill for much of Nightingale’s lifetime, see this piece by Steven Schmidt on our project blog.

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Our exhibition, ‘Florence Nightingale Comes Home’, which was originally scheduled to open in the spring, finally opened on Thursday 29 October 2020 – only to have to re-close again on the 30th because of new Covid-19 restrictions.

In the first instance the closure lasts for 28 days. We are hoping to film a virtual guided tour and organise a couple of online events in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, you can see a taster of the materials on view at the Manuscripts and Special Collections website.

More information is available on the Lakeside Arts exhibitions page.

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The recently-announced Queen’s Birthday honours list celebrates more than 50 nurses, with particular attention paid to those working in emergency care, infection prevention and control, public health, research and the military.

The awards include two new damehoods, notably including Anne-Marie Rafferty, who is part of our Nightingale project’s advisory board. the honours list acknowledges her as a “world-leading” academic, clinician and leader in nursing. The project team would like to extend its congratulations to Anne-Marie and to all of the nurses honoured.

For more details on the awards see the write-ups in the Nursing Times and the Guardian.

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The post Louise Page 1955-2020 appeared first on Florence Nightingale Comes Home for 2020.

Our latest guest post comes from David Stewart OBE, a former head teacher and champion of the Nottingham arts scene and local history.

This post discusses the Crimean War experience of Ann Milne, an army wife from Nottingham. Along with previous posts by Darcie Mawby on nurses and Sarah Topliss on Dr Edward Wrench, it forms part of a developing series of blogs describing the experiences of Crimean War participants connected to the East Midlands.

“Few women have seen so much of the horrors of war”

On Monday 30 March 1908, Mrs Ann Milne – the only female member of the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Indian Mutiny and Crimean Veterans Association – was buried with full military honours in the Nottingham General Cemetery.

The Nottingham Evening Post recorded that this was the first occasion on which military honours had been paid at a woman’s funeral. “Crowds of people thronged the cemetery and lined the streets from 21, Westwood Road, Sneinton to the place of internment,” it wrote. “Non-commissioned officers of the Robin Hood Rifles bore the coffin, which was covered with the Union Jack. The coffin was carried by Col. Sergeant Foster, Armour-sergeant Skinner, Sergt. Stanley and Sergt. Johnson and on top of it there rested wreaths from the Nottingham Association and from neighbours…” Around 70 surviving local veterans attended wearing their medals. A local veterans association sent a magnificent wreath, as did the 8^th King’s Royal Irish Hussars, Colchester. “There was hardly a dry eye in the multitude assembled,” the Post reported. The funeral was also reported in national and regional newspapers.

“Few women have seen so much of the horrors of war as Mrs Ann Milne of Nottingham” 

– Westminster Gazette, 1 April 1908

So who was Ann Milne?

Originally from Loughborough, she was born in 1830 as Ann Dent, daughter of  Thomas Dent, a lace hand, and his wife, Ruth. Ann’s mother died when she was three, and her father quickly remarried a single mother, Mary Cramp. Tragedy struck the family in 1846 when in the space of a month, Ann’s three young half brothers all succumbed to smallpox, which was rife in their part of Loughborough. The 1851 census shows Ann working in an Angola Hosiery warehouse. This was the firm of Cartwright and Warner, famous for its Angola yarn and Merino hosiery. The firm presented shirts at the Great Exhibition of 1851.

In 1852 the 8^th Hussars were stationed at the Loughborough Barracks, with other parts of the regiment and the regimental band in Nottingham. This explains how Ann met, and the following year married Charles Milne, a private with the 8^th Hussars, at All Saints Parish Church in Loughborough.

Charles Milne was born around 1821 in Rochdale, Lancashire, the son of an insurance agent. His grandfather, Richard Milne, was a lawyer who was often in debt and to the chagrin of Mrs Byron seriously mismanaged the Rochdale estates of her son Lord Byron.  Charles started his working life as a butcher, but joined the 8^th Hussars in 1841. He had a mixed career as a private and corporal, being promoted and demoted at different times. According to Ann, he was an orderly to Lord Seaton, possibly at the great military camp at Chobham in 1853.

Ann’s time in the Crimea

Our knowledge for Ann’s time in the Crimea comes from newspaper reports – which were syndicated to national newspapers – in 1906 when she was on parade in Derby, and of her 1908 funeral. However, it can be difficult to separate out the truth from the journalese in these reports, which are generally light on historical specifics.

Though some of the reports suggest that she was a nurse, Ann was not part of any formal nursing venture. Rather, she was part of an older tradition of soldiers’ wives accompanying their husbands on foreign ventures, at a rate of four wives per hundred men. The Crimean War was the last in which this practice was permitted. According to historian Helen Rappaport, somewhere between 750 and 1200 women went to the Crimean War in this capacity – compared to fewer than 250 who served in the formal nursing arrangements led by Florence Nightingale. Only childless women were allowed to travel (some of those who went would later give birth during the war).  Those who went were considered lucky, since the government offered no financial support to those who stayed behind (the Royal Patriotic Fund was set up for this purpose in October 1854). Yet such were the horrors of the Crimean War that Rappaport estimates that “a good three quarters of the army wives never returned.”

Departure

When Britain declared war on Russia in March 1854, Charles Milne’s regiment, the 8^th Hussars, was mobilised. According to Rappaport, thirteen wives of the 8^th Hussars travelled out, including Ann Milne. Rather than travel via France as originally planned, in April 1854 the regiment sailed directly from Portsmouth to Koulali, Turkey on four ships: the Echunga, the Mary Ann, the Shooting Star and the Medora. Almost immediately, they re-embarked with all the horses for Varna in Bulgaria, where the British and French armies were stationed. The Hussars arrived in Varna in early June.

On arrival, the soldiers’ wives were afforded no status or support. Some women were employed as washerwomen, but a reporter from the Morning Chronicle noted the concerns of the men of the 8^th Hussars for their womenfolk. “They get no quarters, and no measures are taken to enable them to keep up with the march of the light cavalry … Fancy the burning sun of Bulgaria, and a number of these poor creatures trudging behind the horses of the troop … No tents were allowed them; they were not quartered on the inhabitants of the village; they must shift for themselves, as best they may….” In a letter from an officer in Varna, widely reported in the British press, the Turks were said to “have it that the soldiers’ wives at our camps belong to the harems of our Generals” – though Rappaport writes that to the locals in Varna, the British army wives appeared “worn down, hardened and sexless”.

In mid-July, cholera struck the camps, decimating the troops and their wives. They were dying so fast that they were buried in blankets. When the Hussars moved inland to Jeni-bazzar at the end of July, disease followed them. Fanny Duberly, a soldier’s wife who kept a journal of her experience, wrote that “the burning, blistering sun glares upon heads already delirious with fever.” Many of the doctors were ill and there were scant supplies. Charles Milne himself fell ill with (an unspecified) fever; Ann nursed him back to health. Ann says that her husband was promoted around this time to hospital sergeant – but his records note that he was promoted sergeant on 24 October 1854, by which time the army was in the Crimea (possibly this was the date on which the promotion was confirmed). At the end of August, the Hussars moved back to Varna to begin crossing to the Crimea.

According to The Daily Telegraph, Ann “witnessed the horrors of Inkerman and the field of Balaclava, after the charges of the light and heavy brigades.” However, Charles’s medal had no clasps for Alma, Inkerman or Balaklava, suggesting that he was probably not in the Crimea during these battles. It seems likely that Charles, remaining too sick to fight, had been transferred to the army’s base hospital in Scutari, Turkey – and that rather than the battles themselves, Ann witnessed the thousands of wounded and very sick men being brought into the hospital in the winter of 1854-55. This is consistent with the newspapers’ reporting that Ann “assisted in the hospital work before even Florence Nightingale came on the scene” and witnessed Nightingale’s arrival at Scutari on 4 November 1854.

It is not clear what Ann was able to do at Scutari. She would not have been able formally to nurse the men, as the medical authorities did not permit female nursing prior to Nightingale’s arrival (and then only reluctantly). According to Rappaport, some 260 army wives ended up in the hospital, many of them by this stage widows, and often in a desolate state since no provision had been made for them. In January 1855, Nightingale assigned Lady Alicia Blackwood, an aristocratic volunteer, to establish an infirmary and lying in hospital for the army wives and their infants. Blackwood later recalled that she was able to hire “several of the respectable and industrious women [i.e. army wives], employing them both as nurses to the sick and as washerwomen to the house.” They were paid from private funds

According to the newspaper reports, Ann “remembers her husband being on the staff of Lord Raglan on the heights of Inkerman. “She witnessed the siege and fall of Sevastopol.” The reports also state that she was “with the wounded at Balaclava and in the trenches before Sebastopol.” This would suggest that before 1 February 1855, when Charles was promoted to troop sergeant major, he had recovered from his illness and returned to the Crimea – and that Ann had managed to accompany him (no mean feat, as the army sought to keep women out of the Crimea). In late January 1855, some 4000 English troops were on the Heights of Inkerman. The long and protracted siege, life in army camps and the prevalence of disease must have made life tough for Ann and the other wives, but we have no details as to what she was doing during this time.

With the fall of Sevastopol in September 1855, troops were dispersed. The 8^th Hussars wintered at Izmit, in Turkey, which the Inverness Courier described as a “wretched rickety conglomeration of wooden houses”. Here Charles Milne came down with fever a second time. He was again sent to Scutari, and then invalided home. He returned to Ireland, where the regiment was based, and discharged in October 1856 as unfit for further service, owing to his enlarged spleen and general bad health. (An enlarged spleen is a complication of typhoid fever.) Ann later reported that she met Queen Victoria and the Prince of Wales when the regiment returned, and that the Prince had shaken her hand. This would have been on 12 May 1856, when Queen Victoria travelled from Osborne to inspect the 8^th Hussars at Portsmouth before their removal to Kingstown in Ireland. The Morning Chronicle noted that amongst the troops there were four soldiers’ wives, so Ann could well have been one of these. There were also 150 walking invalids, four omnibuses of those unable to walk, and litters of those being taken to UK hospitals.

For his service, Charles was awarded the Crimean Medal with the clasp for the siege of Sevastopol, and the Turkish War Medal.

Later life

Ann and Charles had no children. After the Crimean War they appear to have led something of an itinerant life. The 1861 Census recorded them living in North End Street, in the central Derbyshire town of Wirksworth; Charles’s occupation was given as Lock Up Keeper. In 1862 the terrible news came that Charles’s brother, William Lewis Milne had slit his throat on a train to Birmingham, leaving a young son.

Charles became a publican, running the Red Lion at Kegworth from 1868. In 1871 the Milnes took on the Black Horse Inn in Aylestone in Leicestershire, which they ran until 1877. This was an old public house, which apart from parlours and five bedrooms had a large clubroom, which could seat 100 diners. By 1881, Charles was retired, and the couple were back living in Nottingham, at 3 Rye Hill Terrace in The Meadows. The 1891 census shows them living in Manchester, with Charles working as a caretaker, but they must have returned to Nottingham, as Charles died there at 27 Victoria Place in 1893. In his will he left £126.1s.

In 1894, Ann remarried, to Edward Jacques, a widowed insurance agent aged 71. But by the census of 1901 the couple were living apart in Nottingham. Ann was staying with Emma Hickling at 68 Flewitt Street in St Ann’s. Emma’s stepfather was William Cramp, the brother of Mary Cramp, Ann’s stepmother. Edward Jacques died in 1903.

Ann Milne being presented to King Edward VII, 1906. London Illustrated News, 7 July 1906, p. 12.

Ann reverted to being called Ann Milne, and embraced her association with the Crimean War. On 28 June 1906 veterans from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire met in Derby in the presence of King Edward. The King noticed Mrs Milne sitting amongst the veterans and asked who she was. He was told she had been a nurse first at Varna and then at Scutari before the arrival of Florence Nightingale. The King asked for her to be presented, and Ann presented him with a rose, which he wore for the rest of his visit.

The Nottingham and Notts Crimean & Indian Mutiny Association

That we know anything about Ann Milne is entirely due to the establishment of the Nottingham and Notts Crimean & Indian Mutiny Association in 1900. Seventy-two Crimean and Indian Mutiny pensioners registered in the first year. By 1906, 131 had appeared on the books. The Association originated in a campaign to raise money to give a Crimean War veteran a proper funeral. It was soon apparent that many other veterans were destitute, on poor pensions and with the prospect of a pauper burial. In 1900 a dinner was held at the Mikado Café, on the 46^th anniversary of the Battle of Balaclava, for three men who took part in the Charge. The Association, mainly led by Mr Henry Seelby Whitby, a future Lord Mayor of Nottingham, aimed to ensure proper military burials for veterans, campaign for increased pensions, provide uniforms, and replace medals which some veterans had been forced to sell. Annual dinners were arranged including one in October 1904 at the Arboretum Rooms to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Balaclava. Sir Jesse Boot, later Lord Trent, provided the “Dorothy Boot” Homes at Wilford. In 1904 the association had secured at plot at the General Cemetery for the internment of veterans.

It was to this Association that Ann turned to for support. In 1906 they arranged for her to receive a pension of 7s a week from the Royal Patriotic Fund. In 1907 Ann joined a group of veterans at a fundraising matinee at the Theatre Royal and the Nottingham Express noted the presence of “Mrs Milne, who was a nurse in the Crimea.” The Association folded in 1937, but the year before it had arranged for a memorial window to be erected in St Mary’s Church, Nottingham.

The Veterans Ground in the General Cemetery, Nottingham. Photo: David Stewart

In search of Ann’s grave

With all the pomp and ceremony around her funeral, one might imagine that Ann’s grave at Nottingham General Cemetery would be easy to find. Yet when I began looking, I could find nothing. It was only after researching her life more thoroughly that I found she had remarried and was actually buried as Ann Jacques. Not only is there no headstone, but also the burial records do not indicate a place of burial.  Her grave number is given as 15110, but locating graves in the Cemetery is not easy. The Nottinghamshire Family History Society transcribed the headstones in the Cemetery in 2003, but did not plot on them on a usable grid. The City Council has entered into deal with the Deceasedonline website, which charges £5 a time to locate a grave on a map which is not easy to navigate! But for Ann Milne/Jacques, no location is given. From discussion with the City Council’s memorial technician, we know that the grave is in S16 section. All that we know for sure is that she is buried with Charles Milne, her first husband and Lucy Ratcliffe, her elder sister. Also in the grave is Clara Clarke, aged 81 who was a friend of Ann’s, and Harriet Lufkin, aged 9, who was born in Essex but for whom I have not been able to establish a link to Ann Milne.

The Veterans plot at the General Cemetery, near the Waverley Street entrance. Photo: David Stewart

Further Reading

The records of the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Crimean and Indian Mutiny Association are held in Nottinghamshire Archives.

The lead image is from the Daily Mirror, 31st March 1908, page 9.

—

Blackwood Lady Alicia. (1881). A Narrative of a Residence on the Bosphorus throughout the Crimean War. London: Hatchard.

Kelly, Christine (ed.) (2007) Mrs Duberly’s War. Oxford: OUP.

Moore, Doris Langley. (1974). Lord Byron Accounts Rendered. London: John Murray.

Rappaport, Helen. (2007). No Place for Ladies: The Untold Story of Women in the Crimean War. London: Arum.

The post Ann Milne – A Nottingham Army Wife who Nursed in the Crimean War appeared first on Florence Nightingale Comes Home for 2020.

This guest post comes from Dr Gemma Stacey, Director of Academy, Florence Nightingale Foundation. For more information on Nightingale Frontline please visit https://florence-nightingale-foundation.org.uk/nightingale-frontline-nhs-leadership-support-service/ 

The Florence Nightingale Foundation was created to continue Florence’s legacy by providing leadership development for nurses and midwives. We have achieved this for many years by providing scholarships which enable nurses and midwives to develop their presence, impact and influence. The scholarships are extremely competitive and many of our current high profile nursing and midwifery leaders wear their Florence Nightingale Foundation Alumni pin with pride.  

In the wake of the Covid–19 pandemic we knew that support for our leaders at all levels of the organisation would be essential to their wellbeing and their professional development. As a result, we refocused all our resource and activity on providing a remote leadership support service which we named “Nightingale Frontline”. The service offers nurses and midwives, from newly registered to senior executive level, the opportunity to share, reflect and problem solve some of the conflicts and dilemmas they have encountered. The groups of six are facilitated by our leadership development consultants and alumni. The group is guided through a structured process known as co-consulting which combines peer coaching with action learning.   

Nightingale Frontline poster

Each week the facilitators meet to debrief on their experience of delivering the service. This enables us to understand and reflect upon the key themes that are emerging in relation to the challenges Covid–19 has posed. By providing the service to all levels of nurses and midwives, we are in the privileged position of gaining a holistic insight into the issues. For example, we have heard about the implications of a perceived requirement to return to a “command and control” approach to leadership. We have supported leaders to think about how they will retain and build upon the skills, expertise and professional presence they have developed in this challenging time. We have also shared stories of sadness and grief for lives lost.  

We will continue to provide this service. We recognise that the leadership support needs of midwives and nurses are central to how we emerge as a profession from the Covid–19 response. The role of the nurse and midwife has always entailed skill, intellect, clinical judgment and critical thinking. What has changed is how other professions and the public now recognise and value this unique contribution. We are committed, at the Florence Nightingale Foundation, to continuing Nightingale’s legacy by enabling nurses to have the presence, impact and influence Florence would be proud of. This is a point in the history of our profession that we must take advantage of and follow in Nightingale’s footsteps to showcase and advocate for the modern identity of nursing and midwifery.       

Dr Gemma Stacey

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Our new online exhibition, part of the suite of new content we have launched to commemorate Nightingale’s bicentenary, was featured on the Today programme on 12 May.

You can listen to the clip here:

The leader of our project, Professor Paul Crawford, was also interviewed on BBC Radio Derby – you can hear that clip below:

And Dr Richard Bates was interviewed on BBC WM 95.6:

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This post comes courtesy of Darcie Mawby, a second year PhD student at the University of Nottingham working on gender, conflict and identity in women’s accounts of the Crimean War, c. 1854–56. It is based on recent research conducted at the National Archives in Kew.

[Crimean War. Women nurses tending wounded soldiers as “woman’s mission”. Lithograph by J. A. Vinter, 1854, after H. Barraud. Wellcome Collection.]

It’s rare to hear about the lives of many Crimean war nurses. Even in the most recent publications, such as Carol Helmstadter’s Beyond Nightingale (2019), most highlighted accounts are those of nurses from early training institutions such as St John’s House, members of religious nursing sisterhoods, or lady nurses – plus of course the exceptional example of Mary Seacole. But there are 218 women listed on the register of “Nurses sent to the Military Hospitals in the East”, and hundreds more applied. Who were they? What motivated them to become nurses? What were their social backgrounds? The file of nursing applications, held at the National Archives in Kew, contains an abundance of fascinating stories that provide insight into the daily lives of nineteenth-century women and nurses.

Florence Nightingale left England with thirty-eight nurses in October 1854, heading for the hospital at Scutari Barracks in Constantinople. Newspaper advertisements were placed soon after by Lady Canning and Elizabeth Herbert – well-connected figures who knew Nightingale from serving on the committee of the Establishment for Gentlewomen During Illness, which Nightingale ran in 1853–54 – to organise further parties to serve in other newly established hospitals in Constantinople and the Crimea.

Applications flooded in. They came from women of all ages and classes, from all over Britain, Ireland, and beyond – there was a letter full of patriotic sentiment from Isabel Braide, a British woman living in New Orleans, who begged to be sent as a nurse. There were also occasional applications from men to work as cooks, doctors, or chaplains. The applicants’ motives varied. Some cited Christian and patriotic duty; some wanted to put their past experience of nursing, travel, or military life to good use; and some took the opportunity to appeal to the ladies’ benevolence for assistance. One woman, Mary Ann Brown, in her letter asking to be hired, recounted the mistreatment and desertion she and her children suffered at her husband’s hands.

Applicants had to meet certain criteria, and no nurse was sent without training. Many lower-class women who were appointed were experienced in hospital work. Susan Cator, for example, had worked at the London Hospital for eleven years. She was a senior nurse in the surgical ward when she was appointed to go to the warzone in August 1855. Despite the emphasis on experience, “character” was at least as important in the selection process. Nursing as a profession in general, and paid nurses in particular, had a negative reputation in the 1850s. No woman was sent who was not deemed “respectable”, a status ascertained through multiple references – from medical professionals or clergymen, if possible – and an interview with the overseeing ladies. Sobriety, good temper, activity, and honesty were especially valued. Cator nearly lost out on her appointment when an old accusation against her of drunkenness came to light. She was redeemed when multiple colleagues leapt to her defence, stating that a disgruntled former nurse had falsely accused her. Another woman, Mary Anne Fabian, was less fortunate. When she arrived at the train station acting strangely on the morning of her planned departure for Constantinople, she was dismissed immediately for intoxication. She wrote to explain that the impression of drunkenness had been caused by toothache remedies she had taken, but it was too late – the ship she should have been on had sailed, taking her luggage with it. Given that the medicines Fabian used were chloroform and brandy, it’s no wonder she acted out of sorts!

Extract of a “Testimonials Form” for Mary Anne Boyer Davies, who worked at Koulali Hospital April–June 1855. National Archives, Nurses Testimonials, WO 25/264/844. Of interest are the desired character traits – sober, honest, cleanly, active, intelligent, good-tempered – and the note: “N.B.—This Form being general, some of the above questions will be of course inapplicable to Ladies volunteering to serve as Nurses”.

Personal circumstances were also a consideration. Women in their twenties were consistently deemed “too young”; they were too inexperienced and innocent for work in a military hospital and considered to pose too much temptation to soldiers. Many women applied to be nurses to be nearer to husbands, brothers, or sons serving at the front. Only four soldiers’ wives were accepted: three as nurses, one as Nightingale’s housekeeper. Notes written on the unsuccessful application of Anne Adams, whose husband was in the 28^th Regiment, hint why there were so few: “we have been obliged to decline sending soldiers’ wives from the jealousy of their husbands & the quarrels it entails”. Such personal attachments could directly complicate the work and reputation of the nursing mission. One nurse, Martha Clough, earned notoriety after she ran away from the General Hospital in Balaclava to join the field hospital of the Highland Brigade, apparently in order to find the 79^th Highlanders, the regiment of her love interest. Clough herself later succumbed to disease; one of thirteen registered nurses to die while serving.

Note on the unsuccessful application of Mrs Millington, aged 22: “much too young & pretty & totally unfit”. National Archives, Nurses Testimonials, WO 25/264/2386

Reputation was a constant concern. In the wake of Nightingale’s departure, nursing wounded soldiers was deemed by many who wished to follow her example to be one of the most noble of Christian causes. This is the image of Crimean War nursing that was quickly picked up by the popular press, and that is remembered today. However, female military nurses were considered an experiment, and Victorian social concerns imposed rigid constraints. Not only was there a backlash against nurses’ presence in military hospitals from many doctors, but applicants could face disapproval from their families. For this reason Mary Munro, a trained nurse who was ultimately sent to Smyrna Hospital, hid her application from friends and family – one of many to do this. Elizabeth Eager – another trained nurse – was convinced to withdraw her application by her sisters, who vehemently opposed the idea of her working in a military hospital.

Emily Kingston: Case Study of a Nottingham Nurse

While transcribing these applications there was one that stood out. I came across the name of the building housing my own History department at the University of Nottingham, “Lenton Grove”. I hadn’t given any thought to the history of Lenton Grove – a listed eighteenth-century building – so imagine my surprise when the name cropped up on an application from Emily Kingston, who lived there in the 1850s.

Lenton Grove, now on the University of Nottingham main campus, May 2020. Kingston’s old house has been converted into academic staff offices. Photo: Darcie Mawby.

Kingston, a middle-class woman of 32, wrote to Elizabeth Herbert in December 1854 that,

“it has been for a long time past my earnest desire to join the nurses sent out to the Hospitals in the East, and having obtained my mother’s sanction to my so doing, I take the Liberty of addressing you to inquire if any additional nurses will be sent out”.

Kingston stated her willingness to submit to rules, mentioned her good health and that she “had some experience in sick rooms”. She also named respectable gentlemen as references, including Adjutant General Sir George Wetherall, and two uncles, both reverends. All proved favourable, as Kingston was sent to Smyrna Hospital in March 1855.

Her willingness to learn was important. Promising applicants lacking in experience were given training in London hospitals or at St John’s House, though there was little uniformity in this. Emily Kingston had already entered the hospital in Nottingham when she made her application in December, and so had several months’ preparation by the time she left for the war zone. Another woman, Mary Tattersall, had only just begun her training at Westminster Hospital when Kingston departed, but was herself sent out a mere three weeks later.

Emily Kingston’s character was noted on the register of nurses to be “exemplary and well suited in every way”, and one of her reference letters described her as “one in one thousand”. Her age and circumstances also worked in her favour. As an unmarried, middle-class woman of 32, Kingston could devote her time to charitable causes. She, like other “ladies”, gave her services gratuitously, but she also made application on behalf of her family’s cook, Anne Suter, aged 35, to go as a paid nurse. In doing so, Emily drew attention to Anne’s own nature as “perfectly respectable, sober, trustworthy, an excellent cook and a truly kindhearted and good tempered woman”. Suter was engaged as a cook at Smyrna Hospital, and her salary of 16 shillings per week – higher than the meagre 10 shillings for nurses – testifies to the truth of Kingston’s words.

Kingston and Suter fulfilled, in two different ways, the lady organisers’ aim to recruit the “right class” of nurse. Unquestioned superiority was given to the more inexperienced women of higher social rank, like Kingston, whose moral character was deemed sufficient qualification for them to preside over the paid nurses. Although those paid nurses were vetted, not all were appreciated like Suter. A number of the nurses from St John’s House, who went in the first party, were dismissed for “incompetency” as military nurses.

Letter by Emily Kingston, National Archives, Nurses Testimonials, WO 25/264/1995

There was far more diversity among Crimean War nurses and applicants than I have outlined here, and certainly more than the popular image of Florence Nightingale and the lady nurses suggests. The selection and work of military nurses were fraught with Victorian concerns about class, propriety, and female morality. But the nursing mission also provided an unprecedented opportunity for women to train, work, and travel for a good cause. Emily Kingston worked at Smyrna Hospital until it was “broken up” in December 1855, as the war neared its end. Anne Suter continued to work until May 1856, after peace had been declared. They, like numerous other women from housemaids to noblemen’s daughters, sought rewarding work and new experiences in nursing.

Sources and Further Reading:

The National Archives, Nurses Testimonials, WO 25/264.

British Library, Charlotte Canning Correspondence, Papers Relating to the Crimean War, Mss Eur F699/2/3.

British Library, Nightingale Papers, Vol. X, Add MS 43402.

Florence Nightingale Museum, Nurses sent to the Military Hospitals in the East (display item).

London Metropolitan Archives, Letters Relating to Nurses from St John’s House, H01/ST/NC/03/SU/A.

Helmstadter, Carol, Beyond Nightingale: Nursing on the Crimean War Battlefields (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019).

Helmstadter, Carol and Godden, Judith, Nursing Before Nightingale, 1815–1899 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011).

McDonald, Lynn, Florence Nightingale: The Crimean War: The Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, Vol. 14 (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2010).

Summers, Anne, Angels and Citizens : British Women as Military Nurses, 1854–1914 (London : Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988).

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