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NEWSPAPER AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES |
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DATE/TITLE OF EDITION |
ARTICLE DESCRIPTION |
Death of Miss Nightingale |
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Unknown Local Hampshire Newspaper |
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A trip around Lea Hurst and surrounding area |
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The Angel of Scutari by Robert Innes-Smith |
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A copy of the Form of Service - Memorial Service at St Paul's |
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30 OCTOBER 1854 |
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WHO IS MRS. NIGHTINGALE? |
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Many ask this question, and it has not yet been adequately answered. We reply, then. Mrs. Nightingale is Miss Nightingale, or rather Miss Florence Nightingale, the youngest daughter and presumptive co-heiress of her father, William Shore Nightingale, of Embley-park, Hampshire, and the Lea Hurst, Derbyshire. She is, moreover, a young lady of singular endowments, both natural and acquired. In a knowledge of the ancient languages and of the higher branches of mathematics, in general art, science, and literature, her attainments are extraordinary. There is scarcely a modern language which she does not understand, and she speaks French, German, and Italian as fluently as her native English. She has visited and studied the various nations of Europe, and has ascended the Nile to its remotest cataract. Young (about the age of our Queen), graceful, feminine, rich, and popular, she holds a singularly gentle and persuasive influence over all with whom she comes in contact. Her friends and acquaintances are of all classes and persuasions, but her happiest place is at home, in the centre of a very large band of accomplished relatives, and in simplest obedience to her admiring parents. |
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Why, then, should a being so highly blessed with all that should render life bright, innocent, and to a considerable extent useful, forego such palpable and heartfelt attractions? Why quit all this to become - a nurse? |
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From her infancy she has had a yearning affection for her kind - a sympathy with the weak, the oppressed, the destitute, the suffering, and the desolate. The schools and the poor around Lea Hurst and Embley first saw and felt her as a visitor, teacher, consoler, expounder. Then she frequented and studied the schools, hospitals, and reformatory institutions of London, Edinburgh, and the continent. Three years ago, when all Europe had a holiday on and after the Great Exhibition, when the highlands of Scotland, the lakes of Switzerland, and all the bright spots of the continent were filled with parties of pleasure, Miss Nightingale was within the walls of one of the German houses or hospitals for the care and reformation of the lost and inform. For three long months she was in daily and nightly attendances, accumulating experience in all the care and labours of female ministration. She then returned to be once more the delight of her own happy home. But the strong tendency of her mind to look beyond its own circle for the relief of those who nominally having all practically have but too frequently none to help them prevailed; and therefore, when the hospital established in London for sick governesses was about to fail for want of proper management, she stepped forward and consented to be placed at its head. Derbyshire and Hampshire were exchanged for the narrow, dreary establishment in Harley-street, to which she devoted all her time and fortune. While her friends missed her at assemblies, lectures, concerts, exhibitions, and all the entertainments for taste and intellect with which London in its season abounds, she, whose powers could have best appreciated these, was sitting beside the bed and soothing the last complaints of some poor dying, homeless, querulous governess. The homelessness might not improbably, indeed, result from that very querulousness: but this is too frequently fomented, if not created, by the hard, unreflecting folly which regards fellow-creatures entrusted with forming the minds and dispositions of its children as ingenious, disagreeable machines, needing, like the steam-engine, sustenance and covering, but, like it, quite beyond or beneath all sympathy, passions, or affections. Miss Nightingale thought otherwise, and found pleasure in tending those poor destitute governesses in their infirmities, their sorrows, their deaths, or their recoveries. She was seldom seen out of the walls of the institution, and the few friends whom she admitted found her in the midst of nurses, letters, prescriptions, accounts, and interruptions. Her health sank under the heavy pressure, but a little Hampshire fresh air restored her, and the failing institution was saved. |
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Meanwhile a cry of distress and for additional comforts beyond those of mere hospital treatment came home from the East from our wounded brethren in arms. There instantly arose an enthusiastic desire to answer it. But inexperienced zeal could perform little, and a bevy of ill-organized nurses might do more harm than good. There was a fear lest a noble impulse should fail for the want of a head, a hand, and a heart to direct it. It was then that a field was opened for the wider exercise of Miss Nightingale's sympathies, experience, and powers of command and control. But at what cost? At the risk of her own life - at the pang of separation from all her friends and family, and at the certainty of encountering hardship, dangers, toils, and the constantly renewing scene of human suffering amid all the worst horrors of war. There are few who would recoil from such realities, but Miss Nightingale shrank not, and at once accepted the request that was made her to form and control the entire nursing establishment for our sick and wounded soldiers and sailors in the Levant. While we write, this deliberate, sensitive, and highly endowed young lady is already at her post, rendering the holiest of woman's charities to the sick, the dying, and the convalescent. There is a heroism in dashing up the heights of Alma in defiance of death and all mortal opposition, and let all praise and honour be, as they are, bestowed upon it: but there is a quiet forecasting heroism and largeness of heart in this lady's resolute accumulation of the powers of consolation, and her devoted application to them, which rank as high, and are at least as pure. A sage few will no doubt condemn, sneer at, or pity an enthusiasm which to them seems eccentric or at best misplaced; but to the true heart of the country it will speak home, and be there felt, that there is not one of England's proudest and purest daughters who at this moment stands on so high a pinnacle as Florence Nightingale. |
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SATURDAY AUGUST 30 1856 |
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THE DINNER TO THE GUARDS |
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Although the Crimea has been evacuated, and the pomp of Peace has succeeded to the pomp of War in Russia as well as in England and France, it is matter of rejoicing to know that the public interest in the brave men who sustained the honour of the British name in the bloody battle-fields of the Alma and of Inkerman has suffered no diminution. It is felt by the British people of all ranks and classes that if our officials mismanaged the war, or the progress of hostilities produced no General worthy to be associated on the historical page with the great commanders of the last generation; - the rank and file of the British Army did all that men could do, and more than some men might have done, to vindicate and exalt the ancient renown of their country. To have fought in the fields or wrought in the trenches of the Crimea to have commanded or obeyed the memorable struggle of 1854 and 1855 is a passport to the admiration and the gratitude of the men and women of Great Britain, from the Sovereign on the throne to the humblest country lass that helps to gather in the harvest. Each part of the country has welcomed its own hers, or its own regiment. Swords of honour to the officers, and public dinners or receptions to the men, have been the form which these ovations have assumed; and if occasionally the tribute have been indiscriminate, it has invariable been enthusiastic. If the English did not capture the Malakoff they had pluck enough to have done it, if the fortune of war had so willed it. If William did not preserve Kars he did his duty manfully, and was beaten by famine, not by the foe. If the whole of the Crimea were not wrested from Russia and given back to Turkey, it was not for want of will or want of courage on the part of the British army or its leaders; but because diplomacy and intrigue - in Paris, if not at home - stopped our brave men in the career of victory. Such has been the feeling of the people of this country, in every reception of the returning heroes of the Crimea; and such it will continue to be. The popular instinct is aware that the nation wants, and will yet want, soldiers; that if England is to hold her own amid the troubles that are preparing for Europe she must be ready to confront new perils, and to withstand new combinations against her; and that the red-coats, and plenty of them, are almost, if not quite, as necessary as an effective Navy, to uphold the name and the fame, the power and the position of the country. |
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Among the most gratifying of the recent demonstrations of this kind was at the dinner to the Guards, which took place in the Surrey Gardens on Monday last, and at which the chair was appropriately taken and excellently filled, by an admirable specimen of the British soldier. The unaffected and rough, but genuine eloquence of Sergeant-Major Edwards went direct to the point and would have been in appealing to the reason of his listeners, and to the hearts of the comrades who had shared with him the privations and hardships as well as the glories of the Crimea. The eloquence of the Lord Mayor reads tamely and ineffectively after that of the gallant soldier in the chair; and we venture to predict that, if the Sergeant-Major had to propose the health of the chief magistrate of the city of London, he would have found something more to the purpose to say of him than that, "whether as regarded his height, his looks, or the tinge of grey on his hair, he was an honour" to the city of London. If he had a portrait to paint or a nigger to sell, his Lordship could scarcely have been more personal. |
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If any improvement might have been suggested in the character of the festival, it was that the fare might have been somewhat more plentiful, that the whole sum subscribed for the purpose should have been expended in regaling the gallant men who had deserved so well of their country; and lastly, that the Lord Mayor, if not the colonels and the Generals, the Lords and the Honourables, who sat in the boxes, and looked on as at a play should have been seated at the tables, and mingled with the men on terms of perfect equality. The Lord Mayor of London, at all events, would have suffered no diminution of his somewhat obsolete dignity if he had sat at the right hand of the Sergeant-Major. The representative of the rank and file of the noblest army in the world was for the nonce, the equal of the representative of the first city in the world; and the air of patronage and superiority implies, if not intended, by the Lord Mayor's address from a side box, was somewhat out of place. But perhaps the Lord Mayor, who by virtue of his position, is not only the representative of civic honour, but of English and civic hostility, intends to make the gallant Guardsmen the amende honorable by inviting them to a dinner in the City- His Lordship could not perform a more popular act. Omitting turtle, turbot, and whitebait; hock, claret, and burgundy, and treating them to substantial beef and pudding, and the homely drinks which they were accustomed to receive in the Crimea at the fair hands of Mrs Seacole, he could feast the whole of them at a tenth, or twentieth, part of the sum which it would cost him to entertain as a many aldermen or member of the Court of Common Council, with a sprinkling of Judges and Bishops. We throw out the hint for his Lordship's consideration. |
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Let us express, in conclusion, our hope that the interest of the people of England in the career and character of their Army will not confine itself to dinners and triumphal arches, speeches, and swords of honour; but that the Army as an institution will receive the attention due to its high importance in a time of such unsettlement and disquietude as the present, when Great Britain is almost the only State in Europe whose Sovereign sits securely on the throne. We may have to rely upon an army yet to save us from dishonour; and, although the sea which guards our shores is worth, as a means of defence, a standing army of five hundred thousand men, it is by no means improbable we may require the heroism of stout hearts and brave hands in other battle fields that those of the Crimea. We are forewarned, and should be forearmed; and if, in time of peace, we treat the soldier as a useful citizen of free and enlightened State-if we look to his comfort, to his education, and to his dignity-and make his profession in all respects such as an honourable and well-conducted man will find it worth his while to follow, we shall neither lack heroes in the time of war, nor sacrifice them by unnecessary neglect and stupid routine, as we did in the first dark days of the Crimean struggle. |
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MISS NIGHTINGALE'S CARRIAGE AT THE SEAT OF WAR |
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One of the most interesting object which attracted our Artist's pencil, in his return in the Argo`s steamer from the Crimea, was the roughly-built carriage in which Florence Nightingale journeyed in her Christian mission to the seat of war. It is a homely vehicle corresponding with the womanly simplicity of her whom it was employed to convey from place to place upon her errand of mercy. We picture and otherwise record the State coaches of Sovereigns, and statesmen, and municipal authorities, which figure in the gay pageant of an hour, and with their paint and gilding delighting the multitude. Then why should we not commemorate the lowly carriage in which the "ministering angel" went about doing good. |
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We have said this carriage is of homely construction. It is very light, being composed of wood battens formed on the outside, and filled with basket-work, so much the fashion now in England. The interior is lined with a sort of waterproof canvas. It has a fixed head on the hind part and canopy extending the full length, with curtains at the side to enclose the interior. The front driving-seat removes, and thus the whole forms a sort of small tilted wagon, with webbed frame, suspended on the back part, on which to recline, and well padded round the sides. It is fitted with patent breaks to both the hind wheels, so as to let it go gently down steep hills. From its appearance it has been well tested, and proved itself, notwithstanding its rough appearance, a good friend to hundreds of our unfortunate countrymen. |
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The Midland Counties Herald relates the following gratifying circumstance:- "We have the pleasure of stating, on the authority of an intimate friend of Miss Nightingale, that, desirous of preserving the strictest incognito, she refused the offer of a passage on a British man-of-war, and embarked on board a French vessel, passing through France by night, and travelled through this country, without being recognised to the station nearest to her own residence, where she arrived on Friday last. There however, on the platform, she was met and greeted by Lady Auckland." |
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A STORY OF FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE'S GIRLHOOD |
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As many of our readers know, Florence Nightingale, the heroine of the Crimea, spent her earlier years at Lea Hurst, a picturesquely situated mansion hard by the upland village of Holloway, which lies between Cromford and Crich. Though old-looking the house belongs to the present century but (as has been written of it) it is almost as classic as the birthplace of Shakespeare at Stratford on Avon. Florence Nightingale was born at Florence, but removed with her parents to their lovely Derbyshire residence when still a child, and did not leave it again till she decided to devote her life to the sick and suffering. Here is a story of her girlhood which will not be out of place in this column. Some boys had thrown stones at a valuable sheep-dog belonging to an old Scotch shepherd, and broken its leg, and it was decided that it would be a mercy to kill the poor animal, when Florence Nightingale came upon the scene. The little girl went fearlessly up to where he lay saying in a soft caressing tome, "Poor Cap! Poor Cap!" It was enough, he looked up with his speaking brown eyes, now bloodshot and full of pain, into her face, and did not resent it when, kneeling down beside him she stroked with her little ungloved hand the large intelligent head. To the vicar he was rather less amenable, but a dint of coaxing, at last allowed him to touch and examine the wounded leg. Florence persuasively telling him it was "All right". Indeed she was on the floor beside him, with his head on her lap keeping up a continuous murmur much as a mother does ever a sick child. "Well" said the vicar, rising from his examination, "as far as I can tell there are no broken bones. The leg is badly bruised. |
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It ought to be fomented to take the indimuation and swelling down." "How do you foment?" asked Florence. "With hot cloths dipped in boiling water" answered the vicar. "Then that`s quite easy. I`II stay here and do it. Now, Jimmy, get sticks and make the kettle boil." There was no hesitation in the child's manner; she was told what ought to be done, and she set about doing it as a simple matter of course. "But they will be expecting you at home" said the vicar. "Not if you tell them I'm here" answered Florence, "and my sister and one of the maids can come and fetch me home in time for tea, and she hesitated, "they had better bring some old flannel and cloths; there does not seem to be much here, but you will wait and show me how to foment, won't you?" "Well yes." Said the vicar, carried away by the quick energy of the little girl. And soon the fire was lit and the water boiling. An old smock frock of the shepherd's had been discovered in the corner, which Florence had deliberately torn into pieces, and to the vicar's remark, "What will Roger say?" she answered, "We'll give him another." And so Florence Nightingale made her first compress, and spent the whole of that bright spring day in nursing her first patient - the shepherd's dog. In the evening, when Roger came, not expecting to find visitors in the humble cottage, and dangling a bit or cord in his hand. Florence went up to him. "You can throw that away Roger." She said; your dog won't die; look at him!" And Cap rose and crawled towards his master whining with pleasure. "Deary me! dreary me! What have you done with him? He could not move this morning when I left him." Then Florence told Roger, and explained the mode of treatment. "You have only to go on to-night and to-morrow he will be well the vicar says" An smiling brightly she continued: "Mrs Norton has promised to see to Cap to-morrow when you are out, so now you need not kill him; he will be able to do his work again" "Thank you kindly missy I do indeed," said the old man huskily. "It went hard with me to do away with him; but what can a poor man do?" And putting out his hand he stroked the dog. "I`II see to him missy now I know what's to be done," and he stood his crook in the corner and hung his cap on the peg. Then Florence took her leave, stroking and petting the dog to the last and those who, standing in the kitchen door, watched her disappear, little thought they were gazing upon one whose mission would be to tend the sick and wounded on many a battlefield, and how, in years to come men dying far away from home would raise themselves upon their pillows to "kiss her shadow as it passed them." - ED D.S.B. |
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VOL 11 NO 42 APRIL 1941 p22-23 |
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Florence Nightingale And Her Derbyshire Home |
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I have been asked to write something about Florence Nightingale and her connection with my late brother Louis Shore Nightingale, of Lea Hurst, formerly Vice-president of the Derbyshire Rural Community Council. Lea Hurst, Miss Nightingale's early home in Derbyshire, was his in later life, and there was a close but somewhat complicated relationship between them I must begin by explaining. |
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Florence Nightingale's ties with Derbyshire originated with her grandmother, Mrs William Shore, daughter of George Evans, of Cromford Bridge House, near Matlock, a member of the well-known Evans family, whose name used to be specially familiar in connection with Crompton and Evans` Bank. Mr and Mrs William Shore had an only son, William Edward (the father of Florence Nightingale), and a daughter Mary. William Edward Shore on coming of age inherited a fortune from his mother's uncle, Peter Nightingale, of Lea, near Matlock. Peter Nightingale made his money in lead mining and other enterprises, and added considerably to the property he had inherited in and near the villages of Lea and Holloway. William Edward Shore took the name of Nightingale under his great uncle Peter's will, and so it was that his daughter Florence became famous, not as Florence Shore, but as Florence Nightingale. |
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As Mr W. E. Nightingale had no son, his landed property was to pass at his death to his sister, Mrs Smith, who was treated as a son by the Nightingale family and took the name of Nightingale when he eventually inherited the property. To him Florence, who was eleven years his senior, gave an almost maternal affection. As Sir Edward Cook writes in his biography of her, "She was successively his nurse, playfellow, and tutor," and it may be added, his devoted friend through life. Her interest and affection were in due course extended to his children - my two brothers, my sister and myself. From our childhood, "Aunt Florence" was one of the foundations of our world. Some of my earliest recollections are of our summer holidays at Lea Hurst, when she usually there. She had a bedroom and an adjoining sitting room with a wide balcony, and I remember seeing her standing one the balcony. We so seldom saw her except upon a sofa that her tall figure, viewed from the garden below, made a striking impression. When we children paid our visits to her upstairs, she was always to be found on her sofa, but we did not think of her as an invalid. Her bright eyes and kind face gave us a warm welcome; we always found her ready to talk and to listen, to sympathize, and to encourage. A visit to her was a never failing pleasure. |
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After my childhood, Lea Hurst was let for a good many years, but we saw Florence constantly in London where she lived, and we, too, had our home. We were aware that she was always very busy with the Nightingale Training School for Nurses founded by her at St Thomas's Hospital, and with the many threads of her work for nursing and sanitation, both military and civil, and in India; but she seldom spoke to us young one of these matters. Her talk was that of a sympathetic older relation, a delightful companion, and it was only later that I realised how much I had unconsciously learned from her. She delighted to hear news of her old friends in the Derbyshire villages where as a young woman she used to try with all her might to give people the kind of help now provided by the District Nurse and the hospital services. She interested herself in a "coffee tavern" at Whatstandwell, an attempt to provide something like the "tea rooms" now so familiar then almost unknown. She was always eager to help with charitable gifts. She sent books for prizes to the village school at Lea, made acquaintance with the successive headmasters, and, busy as she was corresponded with them from her home in London about their work. |
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All these things were of special value in those early days, when the county library, the public health services, and so forth, were as yet undeveloped; and through Miss Nightingale, they became familiar ground to us young people. When my brother came to live in Derbyshire, before the beginning the last war, he naturally followed on these lines. After some harassing work in connection with agricultural war tribunals, it was a great pleasure to him when her was elected in 1917 to the Derbyshire County Council, as member for the Crich division. He and his wife were then living at Wood End, near Cromford, an old house built by Peter Nightingale. After my mother's death in 1922, they went to live at Lea Hurst, where his wife died in 1927. Throughout the sad years of her illness and afterwards, his keen interest in public business and his sense of public duty were a strong support to him. He took special pleasure in the work of the Education Committee and the County Library, and in the Rural Community Council. The village had at Holloway, named after Florence Nightingale, was built through his initiative and energy. He was very modest about his own powers, and unwilling to put himself forward personally, but he had a firmness and uprightness of character which with is good sense and practical experience gave his work its special value. His humour, kindliness, and desire to help were, I believe, a real encouragement to officials with whom he worked. |
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Readers may be interested to know that Lea Hurst, his home and Miss Nightingale's, is now a hospital for private patients. Both would be well pleased that the house should be used for such a purpose. |
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November 30 1907 |
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MISS NIGHTINGALE AND THE ORDER OF MERIT |
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The Order of Merit , instituted by Edward VII in 1902, is limited to 24 members. At present there are 23, of whom six including the Queen are women. Mother Teresa was appointed an honorary member in 1983. |
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An announcement of high interest was made last night in the London Gazette. It was to the effect that the KING had been pleased to confer the Order of Merit upon MISS FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. When that most coveted and most exceptional Order was founded, at the time originally fixed for the Coronation, the list of twelve members was received with general applause; but there were those who asked whether it could not have been extended so as to include the name of the lady who had done such inestimable service to her country and to humanity. It was understood, however, that the original statutes of the Order limited it to those who had won conspicuous distinction in the military and naval services and those who are exceptionally eminent as men of letters and in the fields of art and science. We are glad to believe that the addition, a few months ago, of LORD CROMER and now MISS NIGHTINGALE to the list of members shows that the statues have been extended so as to include persons who have rendered any very high public service of non party kind. It is good, also, to find that this high mark of the SOVEREIGN'S and the country's recognition is not to be denied to women. It is one thing to admit women to the struggles of politics; it is quite another to signalise, by these high marks of public and official recognition, the innumerable services which they render to their country. |
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Of the paramount claims of MISS NIGHTINGALE to any honours that the SOVEREIGN can bestow there is little need to speak, short as is the public memory in these times. It may indeed, be a surprise to many to learn that the heroine of the Crimean campaign - struggle against death, disease, and misery - is still living among us; but her name is one of the very few that is universally known, universally honoured. At eighty-seven years of age, during almost fifty of which she has been a suffering invalid, broken down by work and hardship in the Crimea, she still lives, and what is more, still works for the causes to which her life has been given. It may be a secret to the public, but it is well known to all who are in any sense behind the scenes, that MISS NIGHTINGALE in her retirement has been as constantly consulted as if she were still what she was in the Crimea, the "Lady-in-Chief" of the nursing organization. . . For to the end she has preserved those qualities which gave her such an incomparable influence in the evil days of the Russian war; immense good sense and ungrudging self-devotion. On what she was then, and what she did, there is no need to dwell, for it is enshrined in the memory of her country. She came forward at a time when incredible mismanagement had wrought incredible misery; when 20,000 British troops had been thrown down upon the shores of an enemy's country to face not only a great army, but cold and disease, without huts, without proper clothing, without the most elementary comforts with medicines, and without nurses. MISS NIGHTINGALE an her picked bank of thirty-eight nurses - all new to the work, as every one was at that time - went out at SIDNEY HERBERT'S invitation, and, in spite of the most scandalous opposition on the spot, quickly changed the whole condition of things. One the one hand, she reformed the whole system of supplies to the sick; on the other, her personal presence brought comfort, hope, and even happiness to thousands of the wounded, the suffering and the dying. . |
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Article appeared on 30 November 1994. |
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DEATH OF MISS NIGHTINGALE |
15th August 1910 |
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We deeply regret to state that Miss Florence Nightingale, O.M., the organiser of the Crimean War Nursing Service, died at her residence, 10 South -street, Park-lane, on Saturday afternoon. She had been unwell about a week ago, but had recovered her usual cheerfulness on Friday. On Saturday morning, however, she became seriously ill and she gradually sank until death occurred about 2 o'clock. The cause of death was heart failure. Two members of her family were present at the time. |
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Miss Nightingale, who had for some time been an invalid and had been under the constant care of Sir Thomas Barlow, was in her 91st year. She celebrated her 90th birthday on May 12 last, and one of the first acts of the present King since coming to the throne - King Edward had died on May 6 - was to send her a telegram of congratulation. The message was worded as follows:- |
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"On the occasion of your 90th birthday I offer you my heartfelt congratulation. And trust that you are in good health. - GEORGE R & L" |
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The funeral will take place in the course of the next few days and will be of the quietest possible character in accordance with the strongly expressed with of Miss Nightingale. |
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MEMOIR |
In Miss Florence Nightingale there has passed away one of the heroines of British history. The news of her death will be received to-day with feelings of profound regret throughout not merely the land of her birth, but in all lands where her name has been spoken among men. |
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Florence Nightingale was born May 12, 1820, at Florence, from which city she took her name. She was the younger of the two daughters and co-heiresses of Mr William Shore Nightingale, of Embley Park, Hampshire, and Lea Hall, Derbyshire, a descendant of the old Derbyshire family of Shore and himself the possessor of large estates and considerable wealth. Her mother was a daughter of William Smith, the friend of Wilberforce and his supporter in the House of Commons in the Abolitionist and other movements. From Lea Hall the family removed, about 1826, to Lea Hurst, a house about a mile distant, and the one with which the name of Florence Nightingale has been more especially associated. Florence, who even in her young days was a child of extremely strong sympathies, quick apprehension, and excellent judgement, was carefully trained, acquiring, among other accomplishments, under the direction of her father a knowledge of the classics, mathematics, and also modern languages. But while applying herself to the culture of her mind she was at the same time, the consular and benefactress of all the villagers to whom her help or her kindly words might be of service, displaying even thus early in life that bent of her mind and disposition which afterwards spread her fame throughout the world. |
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Seeking for wider experience than her position as a squire's daughter in a small Derbyshire village could give her, she visited all the hospitals in London, Dublin, and Edinburgh, many country hospitals, and some of the naval and military hospitals in England; all the hospitals in Paris, studying with the Soeurs de Charite; the Institute of Protestant Deaconesses at Kaiserwerth, on the Rhine, where she was twice in training as a nurse; the hospitals at Berlin and many others in Germany; while she also visited Lyons, Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Brussels. On her return to Derbyshire, where she hoped to have the rest of which she stood in need after her travels, she was appealed to, in 1850, on behalf of the Home for Sick Governess, 90, Harley-street, London, which was languishing from lack, not only of proper support, but also of proper management. She responded to the appeal by herself taking over the entire control of the institution, and devoting alike time, energy, and fortune to re-establishing it (with the help of Lady Canning, the original founder) on a sound basis. She also took an active interest in the ragged schools and other similar institutions in London. Altogether something like ten years had been spent by her in preparing unconsciously, for the great events of her life, and these came with the Russian war. |
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THE CRIMEAN WAR |
On September 20, 1854, the battle of Alma was fought, and it is not too much to say that the accounts published in the columns of The Times from our Correspondent, the late Dr (afterwards Sir William Howard Russell) as to the condition of the sick and wounded sent a feeling of horror throughout the length and breadth of the land. There is no necessity to dwell her in detail the harrowing stories he related. Suffice it to say that he showed how the commonest accessories of a hospital were wanting; how the sick appeared to be tended by the sick, and the dying by the dying; how indeed the manner in which the sick and wounded were being treated was "worthy only of the savages of Dahomey" and how, while our own medical system was exceedingly good, and was, too, rendered still more efficient because of the sisters of charity who had followed the French troops in incredible numbers. |
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On October 12, 1854, a leading article appeared the The Times in which it was pointed out that while "we are sitting by our firesides devouring the morning paper in luxurious solitude . . . these poor fellows are going through innumerable hardships"; and the article went on to suggest that the British public should subscribe to sent them "a few creature comforts." On the following day we published an extremely sympathetic letter from Sir Robert Peel, starting a fund with a cheque for £200, and so generally and so liberally was his example followed that £781 was received by us within two days, £7,000 within seven days, and £11,614 by the end of the month, when the fund was closed. But in the meantime, the terrible cry from the East had met with a response which was of even more effectual service to the suffering soldiers than the thousands of pounds thus promptly and generously contributed. On October 15 , Miss Nightingale wrote to Mr Sidney (afterwards Lord) Herbert, Secretary at War, offering to go to Scutari, and, as it happened, her own letter was crossed by one to herself from Mr Sidney Herbert. Medical stores, he said, had been sent out by the tom weight, but the deficiency of female nurses was undoubted. Lady Maria Forrester had proposed to go with or to send out trained nurses, "but there is," Mr Herbert went on to say, "only one person in England that I know of who would be capable of organising and superintending such a scheme. . . . A number of sentimental and enthusiastic ladies turned loose in the hospital at Scutari would probable, after a few days, be mises a la porte by those whose business they would interrupt and whose authority they would dispute. My question simply is, Would you listen to the request to go out and supervise the whole thing?" Miss Nightingale, as we have seen, had already answered this question, and preparation could thus be set on foot without a moments delay. But, as showing how little she was known to fame at that time, we may mention as a curious fact that in The Times of October 19, 1854, there appeared the announcement - "We are authorised to state that Mrs (sic) Nightingale" had undertaken to organise a staff of female nurses who would proceed with her to Scutari at the cost of the Government. Not, indeed until s~~~~~~ days had elapsed does it seem to ha~~~~~~~~~ realised that "Miss Nightingale ~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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Miss Nightingale, and even ~~~~~~~~~~~ Examiner found it necessary to publish an article headed "Who is Miss Nightingale?" setting forth who she really was, and bearing eloquent testimony to her accomplishments, her experience, and the nobility of her character. |
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Within a week Miss Nightingale had selected from hundreds of offers, received from all parts of the country, a staff of 38 nurses, including 14 Anglican sisters, ten Roman Catholic sisters of mercy, and three nurses selected by Lady Maria Forrester. It may be interesting to recall that among the ladies forming the gallant little band was Miss Erskine, eldest daughter of the Dowager Lady Erskine, of Pwell-y-crochan, North Wales. Miss Nightingale and her nurses left London on October 21, passing through Boulogne on October 23 on their way to Marseilles; and a letter which appeared in The Times some days afterwards, written by a correspondent who had been staying at Boulogne, related how the arrival of the party there caused so much enthusiasm that the sturdy fisherwomen seized their bags and carried them to the hotel, refusing to accept the slightest gratuity; how the landlord of the hotel gave them dinner, and told them to order what they liked, adding that they would not be allowed to pay for anything; and how waiters and chambermaids were equally firm in refusing any acknowledgement for the attentions they pressed upon them. |
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ARRIVAL AT THE FRONT |
From Marseilles the party proceeded to Constantinople where they arrived on November 4 the eve of the battle of Inkerman. They found there were two Hospitals at Scutari, of which one, the Barrack Hospital, already contained 1,500 sick and wounded, and the other the General Hospital, 800 making a total of 2,300 but on the 5th of November there arrived 500 more who had been wounded in the course of that day's fighting, so that there were close on 3,000 sufferers claiming the immediate attention of Miss Nightingale and her companions. In the best of circumstances the task which the nurses thus found before them would have been enormous; but the circumstances themselves were as bad as the imagination can conceive, if indeed imagination unaided by fact, could call up to appalling a picture. Neglect, mismanagement, and disease had "united to render the scene one of unparalleled hideousness." The wounded, lying on beds placed on the pavement itself, were bereft of all comforts; there was a scarcity alike of food and medical aid; fever and cholera were rampant with proper treatment, were dying from sheer exhaustion brought about by lack of the nourishment they required. |
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Miss Nightingale, as "Lady-in-Chief", at once set to work to restore something like order out of the chaos that prevailed. Within ten days of her arrival she had had an impromptu kitchen fitted up, capable of supplying 800 men every day with well-cooked food, and a house near to the Barrack Hospital was converted into a laundry, which was also sorely needed. In all this work she was most cordially supported by Mr Mac Donald, the almoner of The Times Fund, the resources of which were, of course, freely placed at her disposal. But in other directions Miss Nightingale had serious difficulties to encounter. The official routine which had sat as a curse over the whole condition of things continued as active, or rather as inefficient, as ever. Miss Nightingale was at first scarcely tolerated by those who should have co-operated with her. She had, at times, the greatest possible difficulty in obtaining sufficient Government stores for the sick and wounded; for though as Mr Sidney Herbert had written, medical stores had been sent out by the ton weight they were mostly rotting a Varna instead of having been forwarded to Scutari. On one occasion, when she was especially in need of some that had arrived, but were not to be given out until they had been officially "inspected" she took upon herself to have the doors opened by force and to remove what her patients needed. |
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But her zeal, her devotion, and her perseverance would yield to no rebuff and to no difficulty. She went steadily and unwearyingly about her work with a judgement, a self-sacrifice, a courage, a tender sympathy, and withal a quiet and unostentatious demeanour that won the hearts of all who were not prevented by official prejudices from appreciating the nobility of her work and character. One poor fellow wrote home; - "She would speak to one and nod and smile to a many more; but she could not do it to all you know. We lay there by hundreds; but we could kiss her shadow as it fell, and lay our heads on the pillow again contend" - Mr Mac Donald too, wrote in February, 1855:- |
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Wherever there is disease in its most dangerous form and the hand of the despoiler distressingly high, there is that incomparable woman sure to be seen. He benignant presence is an influence for good comfort even amid the struggles of expiring nature. She is a "ministering angel" without any exaggeration in these hospitals, and as her slender form glides quietly along each corridor, every poor fellow's face softens with gratitude at the sight of her. When all the medical officers have retired for the night and silence and darkness have settled down upon those miles of prostrate sick, she may be observed alone, with a little lamp in her had, making her solitary rounds. The popular instinct was not mistaken which, when she set out from England on her mission of mercy, hailed her as a heroine. I trust she may not earn her title to a still higher though sadder appellation. No one who has observed her fragile figure and delicate health can avoid misgivings lest these should fail. With the heart of a true woman, and the manners of a lady, accomplished and refined beyond most of her sex, she combines a surprising calmness of judgement and promptitude and decision of character. |
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It was also written of her:- |
She has frequently been known to stand 20 hours on the arrival of fresh detachments of sick, apportioning quarters, distributing stores, directing the labours of her corps, assisting at the painful operations where her presence might soothe or support and spending hours over men dying of cholera or fever. Indeed the more awful to every sense any particular case might be the more certainly might be seen her slight form bending over him, administering to his ease by every means in her power, and seldom quitting his side till death released him. |
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CRITICISM AT HOME |
Meanwhile the reports which Miss Nightingale made both to Lord Raglan, the Commander-in Chief, and to the War Minister at home were of invaluable service in enabling them to put their finger on the weaker spots of the administration. On the other had, it is painful to recall the fact that while, in all these various ways, Miss Nightingale was doing such admirable work in the East, sectarian prejudices a home had led to unscrupulous attacks being made alike on the religious views and on her motives in going out. "It is melancholy to think," a Mrs Herbert wrote to a lady correspondent, "that in Christian England no one can undertake anything without these most uncharitable and sectarian attacks . . . Miss Nightingale is a member of the Established Church of England, and what is called rather Low Church; but ever since she went to Scutari her religious opinions and character have been assailed on all points. It is a cruel return to make towards one to whom all England owes to much." Happily a check was put to this campaign of slander and uncharitableness by a letter written by Queen Victoria from Windsor Castle, dated December 6, 1854, to Mr Sidney Herbert, asking that accounts received from Miss Nightingale as to the condition of the wounded should be forwarded to her, and saying:- |
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"I wish Miss Nightingale and the ladies would tell these poor noble wounded and sick men that no one takes a warmer interest, or feels more for their sufferings, or admires their courage and heroism more, than their Queen. Day and night she thinks of her beloved troops. So does the Prince. Beg Mrs Herbert to communicate these my words to those ladies, as I know that our sympathy is much valued by these noble fellows." |
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The eminently tactful indication conveyed in this letter of her Majesty's complete confidence in Florence Nightingale did much not only towards silencing the ungenerous critics at home, but also towards strengthening the position of the Lady-in-Chief in meeting the difficulties due to excessive officialism in the East. |
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GROWTH OF THE WORK |
In January, 1855, Miss Nightingale's totally inadequate staff was increased by the arrival of Miss Stanley with 50 more nurses; and how greatly they were needed is shown by the fact that there were then 5,000 sick and wounded in the various hospitals on the Bosporus and the Dardanellies, 1,000 more being on their way down. By February there was a great increase of fever, which in the course of three or four weeks swept away seven surgeons, while eight more were ill, twenty-one wards in the Barrack Hospital being in charge of a single medical attendant. Two of the nurses also died from fever. Miss Nightingale told subsequently how for the first seven months of her stay in the Crimea the mortality was at the rate of 60 per cent. Per annum from disease alone, a rate in excess, she added of that which prevailed among the population of London during the Great Plague. By May, however, the position of affairs had so far improved at Scutari, thanks mainly to the untiring energies and devotion of Miss Nightingale, that she was able to proceed to Balaclava to inspect the hospitals there. Her work at Balaclava was interrupted by an attack of Crimea fever, and she was afterwards urged to return home; but she would go no further than Scutari, remaining there until her health had been re-established. Thereupon she again left for the Crimea, where she established a staff of nurses at some new camp hospitals put up on the heights above Balaclava, and took over the superintendence of the nursing department, herself living in a hut not far away. She also interested herself in organizing reading and recreation huts for the army of occupation, securing books and periodicals from sympathisers at home. Among the donors were Queen Victoria and the Duchess of Kent. Another institution she set up was a café at Inkerman, as a counterattraction to the ordinary canteens. Then she started classes, supported the lectures and schoolrooms which had been established by officers or chaplains, and encouraged the men to write home to their families. Already at Scutari she had opened a money-order office of her own, through which the soldiers could send home their pay. She thus set an example which the Government followed by establishing official money-order offices at Scutari, Balaclava, Constantinople, and elsewhere. Some £70,000 passed through these offices in the first six months of 1856. |
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THE END OF THE WAR |
Florence Nightingale remained in the Crimea until the final evacuation in July, 1856, her last act before leaving being the erection of a memorial to the fallen soldiers on a mountain peak above Balaclava. The memorial consisted of a marble cross 20ft. high, bearing the inscription, in English and Russian- |
LORD, HAVE MERCY UPON US. |
GOSPODI POMILORI NASS. |
Calling at Scutari on her way home, Miss Nightingale left that place in a French vessel for Marseilles, declining the offer made by the British Government of a passage in a man-of-war and reached Lea Hurst on August 8, 1856, having succeeded in avoiding any demonstration on the way. |
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Before returning to England Florence Nightingale had received from Queen Victoria an autograph letter with a beautiful jewel, designed by Prince Albert; the Sultan had sent her a diamond bracelet; and a fund for a national commemoration of her services had been started the income from the proceeds, £45,400, being eventually devoted partly to the setting up at St. Thomas's Hospital of a training school for hospital and infirmary nurses and partly to the maintenance and instruction at King's College Hospital of midwifery nurses. For herself she would have neither public testimonial nor public welcome. She was honoured by an invitation to visit the Queen and Prince Consort at Balmoral in September, and addresses and gifts from working men and others were sent or presented privately to her. But though her fame was on every one's lips, and her name has ever since been a household word among the peoples of the world, her life from the time of her return home was little better than that of a recluse and confirmed invalid. Her health, never robust, broke down under the strain of her arduous labours, and she spent most of her time on a couch, while in the closing years of her life she was entirely confined to bed. |
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LATER REFORMS |
But, though her physical powers failed her, there was no falling off either in her mental strength or in her intense devotion to the cause of humanity. She was still the "Lady-in-Chief" in the organization of the various phases of nursing which, thanks to the example she had set and the new spirit with which she had imbued the civilised world, now began to establish themselves; she was the general adviser on nursing organization not only of our own but of foreign Governments, and was consulted by British Ministers and generals at the outbreak of each one of our wars, great or small; she expounded important schemes of sanitary and other reforms though compelled to leave others to carry them out, while at all times her experience and practical advice were at the command of those who needed them. |
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Almost the entire range of nursing seems to have been embraced by that revolution therein which Florence Nightingale was the chief mans of bringing about. Following up the personal services she had already rendered in the East in regard to Army nursing, she prepared at the request of the War Office, an exhaustive and confidential report on the working of the Army Medical Department in the Crimea as the precursor to complete reorganisation at home; she was the means of inspiring more humane and the more efficient treatment of the wounded both in the American Civil War and the Franco-German War; and it was the stirring record of her deeds that led to the founding of the Red Cross Society, now established in every civilised land. By the Indian Government also she was almost ceaselessly consulted on questions affecting the health of the Indian Army. On the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny she even offered to go out and organise a nursing staff for the troops in India. The state of her health did not warrant the acceptance of this offer; but no one can doubt that, if campaigns are fought under more humane conditions to-day as regards the care of wounded soldiers, the result is very largely due to the example and also to the counsels of Florence Nightingale. |
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But advance no less striking is to be found in other branches of the nursing art as well. In regard to general hospitals, the pronounced success of the nursing school established at St Thomas's as the outcome of the Nightingale Fund led to the opening of similar schools elsewhere, so that to-day hospital nursing in general occupies a far higher position in the land than it has ever done before, while this, in turn, advanced the whole range of private nursing in the country. Then, again, the system of district nursing, which is now in operation in almost every large centre of population, has had an enormous influence alike in bringing skilled nurses within the reach of suffers outside the hospitals, and of will further raising the status of nursing as a profession. "Missionary nurses," Florence Nightingale once wrote, "are the end and aim of all our work. Hospitals are, after all, but an intermediate stage of civilisation. While devoting my life to hospital work, to this conclusion have I always come-viz., that hospitals were not the best place for the sick poor except for severe surgical cases." |
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DISTRICT NURSES |
District nursing was really set on foot in this country by the late Mr William Rathbone, who, in compliance with the dying request of his first wife, started a single nurse in Liverpool in 1859 as an experiment. The demand for district nurses soon became so great that more were clearly necessary, and Miss Nightingale was consulted as to what should be done. She replied that all the nurses then in training at St Thomas's were wanted for hospital work, and she recommended that a training school for nurses should be started in Liverpool. The suggestion was adopted, and in November, 1861, on being consulted about the plans, she wrote to the chairman of the training school committee:- |
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God bless you and be with you in the effort, for it is one which meets one of our greatest national wants. Nearly every nation is before England in this matter-viz., in providing for nursing the sick at home; and one of the chief uses of a hospital (though almost entirely neglected up to the present time) is this - to train nurses for nursing the sick at home. |
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By about 1863 there was a trained nurse at work among the poor in each of the 18 districts into which Liverpool had been divided for the purpose of the scheme. The example of Liverpool was speedily followed by Manchester where a district nursing association was formed in 1864; the East London Nursing Society established in 1868, and the Metropolitan and National Association followed in ~~~~. In the organization of the last-mer ~~~~ society Florence Nightingale took the ~~~~ interest, sending to The Times a long letter in which she expressed her gratification at the idea of the nurses having a central home, set forth in considerable detail the nature and importance of the duties and district nurses wore called upon to perform, and appealed strongly - and successfully - for donations towards the cost of a home. After these pioneer societies had been successfully started many others followed; but the greatest developments of all was afforded by Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses, the operations of which have been of the highest importance in spreading the movement throughout the United Kingdom. When, in December, 1896, a meeting was held at Grosvenor House for the purpose of organizing a Commemoration Fund in support of the Institute, a letter from Florence Nightingale was read, in which she expressed the heartiest sympathy with the proposal. |
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Great and most beneficent changes, again, have followed the substitution in workhouse infirmaries of trained nurses for the pauper women to whose tender mercies the care of the sick in those institutions was formerly left. It was a "Nightingale probationer," the late Agnes Jones and 12 of her fellow-nurses from the Nightingale School at St Thomas's who were the pioneers of this reform at the Brownlow-hill Infirmary Liverpool; and it was undoubtedly the spirit and the teaching of Florence Nightingale that inspired them in a task which, difficult enough under the conditions then existing, was to create a precedent for Poor Law authorities all the land over. |
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Midwifery was another branch of the nursing art which Florence Nightingale sought to reform. She published in 1871 "Introductory Notes on Lying-in-Hospital"; and, in 1881, writing on this subject to the late Miss Louisa M. Hubbard, who was then projecting the formation of the Matrons` Aid Society, afterwards the Midwives` Institute, she said, referring to those "Introductory Notes" :- |
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The main object of the "Notes" was (after dealing with the sanitary question) to point out the utter absence of any means of training in any existing institutions in Great Britain. Since the "Notes" were written next to nothing had been done to remedy this defect. . . . I wish you success from the bottom of my heart if, as I cannot doubt, your wisdom and energy work out a scheme by which to supply the deadly want of training among women practicing midwifery in England. (It is a farce and a mockery to call them midwives or even midwifery nurses, and no certificate now given makes them so.) France, Germany, and even Russia would consider it women-slaughter to "practise" as we do. |
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No less keen was her interest in rural hygiene. The need of observing the laws of health should she thought, be directly impressed on the minds of the people, and to this end she organised a health crusade in Buckinghamshire in 1892, employing - with the aid of the County /council Technical Instruction /Committee - three trained and competent women missioners, who were to give public addresses on health questions, following up these by visiting cottages in their own homes and giving them practical advice. |
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WRITINGS |
Further evidence of Florence Nightingale's activity and beneficent efforts is afforded by the series of books, pamphlets, and papers that came from her pen. In 1858 appeared her "Notes of Matters affecting the Health, Efficiency, and Hospital Administration of the British Army," a volume of 560 pages, in which "so far as the state of my health," she writes, "has permitted me," she makes an exhaustive review of the defects that led to the "disaster" at Scutari and discusses in most thorough and lucid manner the various points calling for consideration in regard to the management and efficiency of army hospitals. The value of this work, still great, was simply incalculable at the time it was first issued. In October, 1858, Miss Nightingale contributed two papers to the Liverpool meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science on "The Health of Hospitals" and "Hospital Construction." In 1860 she published "Notes on Nursing." So popular had this work become by reason of its thoroughly practical hints, given in the clearest possible language, that some 1000,000 copies of it are said to have been sold. For the Edinburgh meeting of the National Association for the Promotion of Social Science, held in 1863, Miss Nightingale contributed a paper on "How People may Live and not Die in India"; and she followed up the same subject, when the association met at Norwich in 1873, with a paper on "Life or Death in India," this paper being subsequently reprinted with an appendix on "Life or Death by Irrigation." In which considerations arising out of the Bengal famine are discussed more especially from the point of view of the paramount necessity of combining drainage with irrigation. |
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CLOSING YEARS |
In these various ways one sees how Florence Nightingale, though a bedridden invalid and well advanced in years, was still ever ready, as she had been throughout life, to devote her energies to promoting the practical well-being of her fellow-creatures. What with writing papers, pamphlets, and letters, receiving reports concerning the many movements in which she was interested, and dealing with communications Governments, authorities, and others all the world over, she was even in the closing years of her life, essentially a hard-working woman. How great, indeed were the demands made upon her time as well shown by a letter by her on October 21, 1895, to the Rev. R. G. Clarke, curate of St Philip's, Birmingham, and local secretary of the Balaclava Anniversary Commemoration. In the course of this letter she said:- "I could not resist your appeal, though it is an effort to me, who know not what it is to have leisure hour, to write a few words"; and she added:- "I generally resist all temptations to write, except on ever pressing business. I am often speaking to your Balaclava veterans in my heart, but I am much overworked". |
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Yet, among all these manifold claims upon her attention, she never forgot that unpretending "Home" in Harley-street, W., over which she was still presiding when she went out to the Crimea. In The Times of November 12, 1901, she appealed for further support for this institution, declaring that it was |
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Doing good work - work after my own heart, and I trust, God's work. There is (she continued) no other institution exactly like this. In it our governess (who are primarily eligible), the wives and daughters of the clergy, of our naval military, and other professional men receive every possible care, comfort, and first-rate advice at the most moderate cost. . . Every one connected with this home and haven for the suffering is doing their utmost for and it is always full. It is conducted on the same lines as from its beginning, by a committee of ladies, of which Mrs Walter is the president, and she will be glad to receive contributions at 90 Harley-street, W. I ask and pray my friends who still remember me not to let this truly sacred work languish and die for want of a little more money. |
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On the occasion of her 84th birthday, in May, 1904, Miss Nightingale (who had already received the Red Cross from Queen Victoria) had conferred upon her by King Edward the dignity of a Lady of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. October 21, 1904, was the jubilee of the memorable expedition on which she set forth in 1854; to few great reformers had the mercy been vouchsafed of seeing within their own lifetime results so striking and so beneficial as those that had followed the noble efforts of "The Lady with the Lamp"; and the congratulations she received on the occasion of jubilee were but a sample of that universal veneration she had won. |
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Further recognition of the value of her life's labours came to Miss Nightingale with the announcement in the London Gazette of November 29,1907, that the King had been graciously pleased to confer upon her the Order of Merit, she being the only woman upon whom this exceptionally distinguished mark of Royal favour has been conferred. On March 16, 1908, Miss Nightingale received the honorary freedom of the City of London, an honour which had been conferred upon only one woman before - namely, the late Baroness Burderr-Couttes. Owing to her advanced age, Miss Nightingale was unable to be present at the Guildhall to receive this mark of distinction, and her place was taken by a relative. At her own request the money which would have been spent on a gold casket was devoted to ~~~~~ the sum of 100 guineas being given ~~~~ the Hospital for Invalid Gentle- ~~~~~ the casket presented to Miss Nightingale was of oak. |
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FUNERAL OF MISS FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE |
MEMORIAL SERVICE AT ST PAUL'S |
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IMPRESSIVE SCENES |
The funeral of Miss Florence Nightingale took place on Saturday at East Wellow, Hampshire, and simultaneously a Memorial Service, at which the King and Queen and Queen Alexandra were represented, was held at St. Paul's Cathedral. |
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THE FUNERAL |
The funeral ceremony in the little Hampshire villages was marked by a complete absence of publicity and formality ` in full harmony with the wishes of the heroine of the Crimea ` though it was more than could be expected that the people of the countryside, amongst whom the noble-hearted lady had spent her girlhood and many of her subsequent years, could resist availing themselves of the opportunity of turning out in large numbers in her honour, undeterred by the rain which fell the whole day long. |
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When the special train conveying the body and the chief mourners arrived from Waterloo the approaches to Romsey Station were thronged with people, though but few were collected on the platform. Travelling in the train were Dr S. Shore Nightingale, Mr W. Shore Nightingale, Mr and Mrs Louis Shore Nightingale, Mr and Mrs Vaughan Nash, Mr and Mrs H. L. Stephen, Mr Arthur Hugh Clough, Miss B. A. Clough, Mrs Perrott, Mr and Mrs T. L. Coltman, Colonel Bonham-Carter, R.E., Miss Joan Bonham-Carter, Sir Harry Verney, Mr Fredrick Verney, and Mrs Nixon. As the bells from the old Abbey, with its flag at half-mast, tolled out a solemn knell, the doors of the darkly draped coach were thrown open, disclosing within a garden of flowers, in the centre of which was placed the plain oak coffin. Its only covering was a creamy-white cashmere shawl, such as Miss Nightingale was in the habit of wearing, while resting on it were a few wreaths chosen from the rest on account of the close relationship of the contributors; one, for instance, composed entirely of rich gladioli, being sent by the family. A bearer party selected from the Brigade of Guards removed the coffin from the coach. It was but fitting that the Army, for which she had done so much in life, should render her this last service in the hour of death. When the casket, with its floral covering, had been placed in the glass-panelled hearse more wreaths and crosses were brought from the station until the coach became one mass of flowers. |
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The little procession, consisting almost entirely of the chief mourners in single or pair-horse carriages, passed through old familiar streets. At every window the blinds were down, and men, women, and children collected in the doorways to witness the passing of the dead to East Wellow Churchyard, which is about four miles from Romsey Station. The procession turned into Embley Park, the former home of Miss Nightingale, and now thrown open by its present owner for this particular purpose, so that for the last time Florence Nightingale was carried beneath the shadow of the shrouded windows of the dwelling where she spent a happy childhood. The procession left the park within a few yards of the house where she had her first patient. The creeper-covered thatched cottage, in which as a child she nursed back to health the poor shepherd's collie, still stands, and some of the mans descendants ` the Snellgroves ` came out to pay a last tribute of respect. At length the picturesque little church of East Wellow was reached, and at the lynch gate the procession was met by the Rev S. M. Watson, vicar of Wellow, and the Rev. T. G. Gardiner, chaplain to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Here four or five old labourers who had been members of Miss Nightingale's class, when as a girl she taught at Embley Park, took up a position at the head of the procession. Most toughing was the contrast between the old bend men, almost at the end of their course, and the stalwart soldiers bearing the coffin. In the porch a pathetic figure rose feebly as the coffin passed. It was that of an old Hampshire an who fought at Sebastopol and was one of those whom in Scutari Hospital 'The Lady of the Lamp' personally attended and helped to restore to health and activity. The church was crowded and many people could not get near the doors. The service commenced with the hymn 'The Son of God goes forth to war'. This was followed by 'On the resurrection morn', and the congregation joined in the concluding hymn 'Now the labourer's task is o'er'. The coffin was then deposited in the family vault wherein lie the bodies of Miss Nightingale`s parents. |
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The wreaths and crosses numbered over three hundred. There were tributes from the King and Queen, while to a beautiful cross of orchids from Queen Alexandra was attached to a following inscription from her majesty |
To Miss Nightingale |
In grateful memory of the greatest benefactress to suffering humanity the Military Nursing Service |
In the year 1853, and by her own individual exertions and heroism |
From Alexandra August 20, 1910 |
Hospital and nursing institutions in all parts of the country were represented in the list of wreaths, and there were others from Princess Frederica, the American Ambassador and Mrs Whitelaw Reid, the Army Council the survivors of the Balaclava Light Brigade Charge - "To our benefactress and friend of nearly 60 years," the Royal Army Medical Corps, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, the International Council of Nurses, the American Federation of Nurses, the Red Cross Society, Queen Victoria's Jubilee Nurses, the Army and Navy Male Nurses' Co-operation, the Army and Navy Club, the Union Jack Club, Girton College, and from various regiments. |
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IN ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL |
While the body of Miss Florence Nightingale was being borne to its resting place in a quiet old country churchyard there gathered in St. Paul's Cathedral a great congregation to pay homage and reverence to her memory. There were representatives of our King and Queen, of Queen Alexandra, and other members of the Royal Family, of many institutions which are consecrated to works of mercy, and conspicuously of the Army to which Miss Nightingale came in a dark hour of trial and suffering as a ministering angel indeed. The "Lady with the Lamp," flitting through the hospitals of the Crimea, lighted a flame, after a lapse of six-and-fifty years, burns as brightly to day and with even greater steadiness than it did in those far-off days. The work which her devoting and self sacrifice began is on a sure and certain basis, and at the end of a long life she had the satisfaction of knowing that her successors of today are organised, equipped, and supported in a manner which ensures that never again shall our sick and wounded soldiers in war time lack that tender care and nursing which gentle womankind alone can give. |
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Thus it was fitting that at Saturday's service there should assemble beneath the great done of St. Paul's many hundreds of the nursing sisters not only of the Army and Navy but of our great hospitals and institutions who revere Florence Nightingale as their exemplar and are striving to follow worthily in her footsteps. It was surely meet, too, that a place of honour was found near to the special representatives of the Army for some forty-veterans of the Crimea - bowed, white haired men with medals on their breasts to tell the tale of service for Queen and country. Most of these aged warriors were in the familiar red coated uniform of Chelsea Hospital, and as the congregation was assembling they spoke in low whispers of the time they remembered well when Florence Nightingale and her band of devoted women were the talk of an admiring and grateful country. Some, indeed, there were who could recall the fact that Miss Nightingale had nursed and tended them with her own hands. With quivering lip they spoke of that time, nearly six decades ago, which is more vivid in their memories that all else that has come between and in very near to them on this day of mourning. |
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THE CONGREGATION |
Over three thousand people were given seats within the Cathedral, but the applications for admission represented many thousands more. The War Office had undertaken the allocation, but save for this fact and the presence as participants in the service of the famous band of the Coldstream Guards there was nothing military about the ceremonial. Under their conductor, Lieutenant J. Mackenzie Rogan, the band for half an hour before the set service commenced played |
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Solemn, stately music - Handel's Largo, the Judex from Gounod's "Mors et Vita," and the Sanctus from the same composer's "Messe Solennelle." Seats slightly in front of the general congregation, facing the choir were reserved for the Royal representatives. Major-General J. S. Ewart, representing his Majesty the King, was escorted to his seat by Canon Newbolt and Canon Alexander, who assisted by the Minor Cannons in residence, conducted the service. Near by sat Lord Wenlock. Colonel H. Streatfeild, Captain R. R. Bulkeley, Scots Guards, and Major J. E. B. Martin, who represented respectively her Majesty the Queen, Queen Alexandra, the Duke of Connaught, and Princess Christian. Present on behalf of the Army Council were Lieutenant General Sir W. H. Mackinnon and Mr R. H. Brade; of the Board of Admiralty, Captain C. E. Madden and Sir C. Inigo Thomas; and of the Board of Education, the Hon. Miss M. Lawrence; while the Army Medical Service was represented by Surgeon-General W. L. Gubbins (Director General), the Navy Medical Service by Staff Surgeon G. F. Dean, and the Indian Medical Service by Lieutenant-Colonel Sir R. H. Charles, Mr. John Burns, President of the Local Government Board, sat near to the American Ambassador and Mrs Whitelaw Reid, Mr R. S. Meiklejohn was present on behalf of the Prime Minister; Viscount Morley, Secretary of State for India, was represented by Sir Richmond Ritchie; the Earl of Crewe, Secretary of State for the Colonies, by Mr. C. T. Clay; and Mr Haldane, Secretary of State for War, by Mr. F. C. Bovenschon. |
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The various Army and Navy nursing associations were represented by delegations, and seats were also allocated to all the chief civilian nursing organisations and institutions, the principal London hospitals and workhouse infirmaries, the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, and two Liverpool hospitals in which Miss Nightingale took a special interest. The delegates attending on behalf of Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses were Mr. W. G. Rathbone and Mr D. P. Pennant (hon. Secretaries), Miss A. M. Peterkin (acting general superintendent), and Miss A. C. Lowe (secretary). Viscount Goschen, chairman of the Council of the Institute, was unavoidably absent. The mourners further included: Cannon Edgar Sheppard (Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal), General Henniker, General Bagge, Sir Herbert Stephen, Major Ricardo (Royal Hospital, Chelsea), Sir John and Lady Cockburn, Major Grant Duff (Black Watch), Colonel Magill (British Red Cross Society), General Luke O'Connor, Mr. T. Sano (Japanese Red Cross Society), Sir Thomas Barlow, Major Burrell and Major Fuhr (Royal Army Medical Corps), Miss Becher, matron-in-chief, and Miss McCarthy, principle matron. War Office (Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service); Miss Sidney Browne, Miss Ray, King's College Hospital, Miss Baxter, Chelsea Infirmary, and Miss Buchanan Riddell, University College Hospital (Territorial Force Nursing Service). All the churches were represented, the Rev. H. Macmillan being present on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury, while places were likewise reserved for such organisations as the Salvation Army, the Church Lads' Brigade, the Jewish Lads' Brigade, and Working Men's Clubs. Seats for the family of the late Miss Nightingale were occupied by Captain L. C. Ludlow, Mrs. Norman Moore, Mr. Benjamin Leigh-Smith, Miss Leigh-Smith, and Mrs. Nixon. |
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SIMPLE DIGNITY |
Just before the hour of noon the representatives of the City of London were shown to their places in the choir. The Lord Mayor was represented by Alderman Sir James Ritchie, who was attended by the Mace and Sword Bearers and other officers of the Corporation. Simple toughing dignity was the characteristic of the service, which opened and closed with two of Miss Nightingale's favourite hymns - "The Son of God goes forth to war" and "The King of Love my shepherd is," the former sung to the well-known tune "St. Anne" and the latter to the "Dominus regit me." Sir George Martin accompanied on the organ and the entire congregation joined in the singing. The opening hymn was followed by prayer and Psalms, and the antiphon, "I am the Resurrection and the Life" was sung to Dr. Broft's music. The clear voice of Canon Newbolt was uplifted in the reading of the well-known Lesson from the First Epistle to the Corinthians, which forms a part of the Church Service for the Burial of the Dead. Then came some poignant moments when with low rumbling roll of side drums mingled with the deep measured thud of the bass drum the strains of the Dead March in "Saul" played by the military band, filled the sacred building with its music so nobly suggestive of the majesty of death. Crimean veterans standing with bowed heads were not ashamed to brush away a furtive tear as they listened to sounds which many a time have fallen on their ears as they have followed some loved comrade to his place of rest. Deeply impressive, too, was the rendering of the anthem from the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom - "Give rest, O Christ, to Thy servant with Thy Saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting." This was sung to the Kieff Chant, familiar in the Greek Church, with its wild wailing cadences, its weird effects of vocal light and shade, written for men's voices only. So it was used now, for the male choristers of St. Paul's sung it as it might have been sung in St. Petersburg or Moscow. There was no sermon and no allusion to her who had departed, save the simple thanksgiving to Almighty God that He had been pleased to deliver "Thy servant Florence out of the miseries of this sinful world." Silently the congregation went forth after the Benediction had been pronounced, lingering for a moment to listen to Gounod's "Marche Solennelle," played by the band with appropriate stateliness and solemnity. |
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MISS NIGHTINGALE'S FUNERAL |
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It was the desire of Miss Nightingale that she should be buried quietly, without any elaborate show, and the wish was truly in keeping with her simple character and life. The inscription on her coffin could not have been shorter or simpler:- |
FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE |
Born. May 12, 1820 |
Died. Aug. 13, 1910 |
Between those two dates she had simply done the duty that fell to her in life. But in discharging her allotted task she had achieved greatness and renown ` much to her own astonishment ` and, in the circumstances, the privacy and simplicity of the burial for which she asked in her will was, perhaps, impossible. The country felt it was bound to give expression to its admiration of the eminent services rendered to humanity by Miss Nightingale in the alleviation of the anguish of the sick and wounded, and in the saving of dear and precious lives, as the pioneer of the modern system of nursing. So the great national tribute of a memorial service in St. Paul`s Cathedral on Saturday was supplemented by a remarkable and quite unexpected demonstration of local feeling at the interment at East Wellow, Hampshire, on the same afternoon. The executors of Miss Nightingale's will were grieved to see the great crowd at the churchyard. But the assemblage was unavoidable, and happily the demeanour of the people was most sympathetic and reverent. The last resting place which Miss Nightingale selected for herself was at any rate in complete harmony with her gentle, retiring and deeply religious nature. She is buried with her father and mother in a remote country churchyard, in the district where she spent the years of her girlhood, and under the shadow of the ancient edifice where she worshipped. The Church of East Wellow lies in seclusion and tranquillity about four miles from the old borough and market town of Romsey. |
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In Romsey itself there was but little stir on Saturday. The desire of the inhabitants to respect the wishes of Miss Nightingale's executors was evident. The railway station was deserted when the funeral train ` a special from Waterloo ` arrived at a quarter past 1 o'clock. Only a few people assembled outside to see the removal of the coffin from the train to the hearse. It was borne by nine picked from the Grenadier, the Coldstream, and the Scots Guards - the battalions of the Guards which fought in the Crimean War - who came down from London for the purpose. The funeral procession itself was designed to attract as little public attention as possible. The hearse was a glass-panelled car, which showed the coffin covered with a white cashmere shawl, often worn by Miss Nightingale, and decorated with a number of beautiful wreaths. |
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QUEEN ALEXANDRA'S TRIBUTE |
At the foot of the coffin rested the floral tribute sent by Queen Alexandra. It was a cross of mauve orchids fringed with white roses and lilies. Attached to it was a black bordered card containing the following inscription in the handwriting of her Majesty:- |
"To Miss Florence Nightingale. |
"In grateful memory of the greatest benefactor to suffering humanity, |
by founding the Military Nursing Service in the year 1853 by her own |
individual exertions and heroism.- |
August 20, 1910.-From ALEXANDRA." |
On the lid, of the coffin also were a large chaplet of crimson sword lilies and a wreath of heather, both sent by the members of the Nightingale family. Following the hearse were five coaches containing the chief mourners. They were:- Dr Shore Nightingale, Mrs W Shore Nightingale, Mr and Mrs Louis Shore Nightingale, Mr and Mrs Vaughan Nash, Mr and Mrs H L Stephen, Mr Arthur Hugh Clough, Miss B A Clough, Mrs Perrott, Mr and Mrs T L Coltman, Colonel Bonham Carter, R.E., Miss Joan Bonham Carter, Sir Harry Verney, Mr Frederick Verney, and Mrs Nixon. |
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The funeral passed slowly through the narrow streets of the town. From the tower of the old Abbey, dating back a thousand years, the Union Jack floated at half-mast. A few of the shops put up mourning shutters. The knell of church bells was heard. But otherwise there was no display of the customary habit or show of bereavement. The people suspended their labours, and coming into the streets stood with bare heads as the coffin went by. Only a few persons followed the funeral on foot to East Wellow. After leaving the town it went by Broadlands, the home of Lord Palmerston, where he was born and died; and thence by a winding road bordered by hedgerows to the churchyard. About half-way between Romsey and East Wellow the road skirts the boundary of Embley Park, formerly the seat of the Nightingales. The funeral turned into the demesne, and passing the house, a fine Elizabethan mansion, silent, and all the windows shrouded, emerged by another gate into the public road once more. |
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AT THE CHURCHYARD |
The countryside seemed to be forsaken. Not a soul was to be seen in the harvest fields or by the wayside. But as the funeral approached East Wellow the explanation of this deserted aspect of things was forthcoming. All the inhabitants had gathered at the churchyard to pay their last respects to a renowned and noble lady who had lived for a time in the midst of them and whose early association with the district was a cherished memory. The weather was inclement. The drizzle of rain which fell as the funeral made its way, at a walking pace, from Romsey to East Wellow, developed into a heavy shower when the churchyard was reached, and continued during the service and interment. |
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At the lich-gate stood the officiating clergy the Rev. S M Watson, vicar of East Wellow, and the Rev T S Gardiner, London, a friend of the family, to receive the body. The coffin was carried on the shoulders of the Guardsmen up the steep path leading to the church, which was lined with people standing three or four deep under dripping umbrellas. It was preceded by six old tenants and workmen of the estate, who, as children, remembered Miss Nightingale; and it was followed by the family mourners. Under the porch of the church stood a Crimean veteran, 84 year old, feeble and one-eyed. Private John Kneller, of the 23rd Foot (now the Royal Welsh Fusiliers), lost his eye in the trenches before Sevastopol, and as he lay for three months in the hospital at Scutari he often saw Florence Nightingale carrying her lantern on her nightly visits to the place. |
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The brief Burial Service and the severe simplicity of its setting were surely in consonance with Miss Nightingale's rooted distaste for ostentation. The church is a 13th century edifice. Its outer walls are coated with flints set in mortar, and its roof of red tiles is surmounted by a wooden bell-tower. Inside it was bare of ornamentation. The walls up to the dark oaken roof, are whitewashed. On one side this coating was peeling off, disclosing a rude coloured fresco, painted, it is supposed, in the 13th century, and depicting the martyrdom of St Thomas of Canterbury. The coffin rested on high black trestles in the ...... inseparable from the record of Miss Nightingale's labours in the Crimea. |
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As the little church had accommodation for fewer than 200 people, not many were admitted beyond the family mourners and representatives of the gentry and the farming and labouring classes of the district. But room was naturally found for a number of nurses in uniform, who came from Salisbury. It was the ordinary Burial Service, interspersed with some of the favourite hymns of Miss Nightingale simply rendered by the village choir. The opening hymn was "The Son of God goes forth to war." The 90th Psalm was recited. This was followed by the hymn, "On the Resurrection morning." And finally "Nor the labourer's task is o'er" was sung. Then the coffin was carried by the military bearer-party out into the churchyard. The path to the graveside was fringed with wreaths. Indeed the floral tributes were so numerous that the entire churchyard was decorated with them. The Nightingale family vault is but a few yards from the porch of the church. It is marked by a pillar-stone, terminating in a spire upon which there is an inscription recording that Miss Nightingale's father died in 1874, 80 years old, and that her mother passed away six years later. The open grave was also lined with floral tributes. Standing at its head was a large cross of white flowers, mounted on a pedestal, from which depended a long satin ribbon bearing the inscription in gold letters - "With grateful appreciation of a noble example. From the matrons and nursing staffs of all the London hospitals." On one side of it was a chaplet from the Army Council, inscribed "In Memoriam." On the other side was a floral model of a military lantern, sent by the Army and Navy male nurses "in token of deep gratitude to the pioneer of nursing." Close by was a cushion of white Blossoms with the initial letter "B" formed of blue flowers. "With the heartfelt regrets." Said the inscription, "of the survivors of the Balaclava Light Brigade Charge. To our benefactress and friend of nearly 60 years." The committal service was very brief. The drizzle continued while these last rites were performed and the coffin was lowered into the vault. |
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THE WREATHS |
The following is a list of some of those who sent wreaths which are not mentioned in the account of the funeral:- |
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Miss Nightingale's secretary; the servants at 10 South-street. |
The American Ambassador and Mrs Whitelaw Reid |
Princess Frederica, "In deepest sympathy." |
The Officers, N.C.O.'s and Men of the Royal Army Medical Corps, "A tribute of profound admiration and respect." |
The Matron and Nurses, the present patients and the domestic staff of the Hospital for Invalid Gentlewomen, 19, Lisson-grove. (Miss Nightingale was head of this institution when it was in Harley-street, before she went to the Crimea) |
The Nurses and Council of St John's House, "In kindness to the nurses of St John's House who worked under her at Scutari." |
The Matron and nursing staff of the Royal Herbert Hospital. |
The Newcastle and Gateshead Veterans' Association. "In grateful and affectionate remembrance of one who was the British Soldiers' ministering angel." |
Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (a scarlet Maltese cross), "In reverent and affectionate memory." |
The International Council of Nurses in the name of the 25,000 members of the affiliated National Councils of Nurses of Great Britain and Ireland, Canada, The United States of America, Germany, Denmark, Holland, and Finland ( a chaplet of laurel and roses), "With homage to the also the President of the German Nurses' Association)" |
The American Federation of Nurses (a chaplet of laurel and roses). |
The Red Cross Society. |
Queen Victoria's Jubilee Nurses, "In reverence and gratitude." |
The Copenhagen Nurses' Association, through the Consul-General for Denmark |
The Tasmanian Trained Nurses' Association |
The Institution of Nursing Sisters, 4, Devonshire-square, Bishopsgate, "In remembrance of the association of the institution in the Crimea and during the closing years of her life." |
The Members of the Nurses' Union, through Miss Dashwood, National Head. |
The Nightingale Graduate Nursing Institution, Victoria, British Columbia (a chaplet of laurel and lilies). |
The London Hospital (a large cross and a chaplet of laurel and roses), "With deep veneration and grateful affection." |
"Through such souls alone, |
"Through such souls alone, |
For us in the dark to rise." |
The Nursing Staff of the Royal Derbyshire Nursing Association, "In loving remembrance." |
The Nurses of the Royal Edinburgh Infirmary, "With respectful and affectionate homage." |
The Lady Superintendents, Matrons, and Nurses of the Liverpool Queen Victoria District Nursing Association, "In loving memory of the Inspirer of the Nursing of the sick poor in their own homes." |
The Nurses of the Somerset Hospital, Cape Town. |
Miss Wilson, the Treasurer, Miss Rosalind Paget, Miss R P Fynes Clinton, and the Members of the Midwives' Institute and Trained Nurses' Club. |
The 700 Members of the St Bartholomew's Hospital Nurses' League. |
The Scottish Matrons' Association. |
The Liverpool Nurses' Training School. |
The Superintendent and Staff of the Mental Nurses' Co-operation. |
The Matron and Nursing Staff of the Nurses' Co-operation. |
The Nurses of the Birmingham Infirmary. |
Miss Curtis and the Queen's Nurses of Hammersmith and Fulham. |
The Commandant and Members of the Women's Sick and Wounded Convoy Corps. |
The Members Army and Navy Club. |
The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies |
The Officers, Sisters, and Children of the National Children's Home and Orphanage. |
The president (Miss C A Rogers) and members of the Leicester Infirmary Nurses' League and the nursing staff. |
The president (Miss C A Rogers) and members of the Leicester Infirmary Nurses' League and the nursing staff. |
The nurses of Nurses Hostel, Francis-street W.C |
The nurses of the North Evington Infirmary, Leicester. |
The matron and staff of the South London District Nursing Association. |
Miss Hadden and nurses Metropolitan Nurses' Association |
The sailors, soldiers, and Marines of a former generation from members of the Union Jack Club, "In grateful remembrance of Miss Florence Nightingale's devotion." |
The 93rd Sutherland Highlanders, 2nd Battalion Argyll and Sutherland, "The thin red line." |
The Tankersley Ex-Soldiers' Association (a wreath of laurel and heather), "In loving gratitude. The gracious work she did will never die." |
The mistress and staff of Girton College. |
The Master and brethren of the Florence Nightingale Lodge No 706, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. |
The North of England Society for Women's Suffrage, "A tribute of admiration and respect to a pioneer among women." |
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The following cousins of Miss Nightingale:- |
Mr Benjamin Leigh Smith, Miss Leigh Smith, Mr Nicholson, Miss Nicholson, Mr and Mrs Leonard Cunliffe, Mrs Gascoigne, and Mrs Robert Nixon, and Miss Eira Ludlow, goddaughter of Miss Nightingale |
The following relatives of the late Sir Harry Verney, Miss Nightingale's brother-in-law:- |
Lady Verney and family, Mrs Lloyd Verney and family, Mr Harry Lloyd Verney, and Mr and Mrs Gerald Fanshaw, and Miss Ruth Verney, goddaughter of Miss Nightingale. |
Wreaths were also sent by the following:- |
Mrs Thorne and Dr May Thorne, who was Miss Nightingale's medical attendant for the last five years. Miss A. L. Pringle a former matron of St. . . . . . . . . . the Hon. Maud Stanley ("With the most grateful remembrance of Miss Nightingale's great kindness to me"); Lady Frederick FitzRoy ("In kind remembrance of the Crimea 1855"); Miss Paget and Miss Rosalind Paget ("In memory of the Crimea"); Mr and Mrs Buchanan, 12, South-street ("In memory of greatest of women and kindest neighbour"); Sir William Farrer and Miss Minnie Farrer; Major G F Harley Thomas ("In memory of my late father's friend and fellow-worker"); Major Spencer F. Chichester, Embley Park and Embley Estate; Mr and Mrs G D Taviner and family, Miss Susan Chance, Mrs E. Herbert Draper, Mrs F H Haydon, Mrs Brawley, Mr F J Duthie. |
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Temperance Grillage ("In loving memory") (an old servant, wife of Peter Grillage, whom Miss Nightingale brought back as a little friendless boy from the Crimea and took into her service); the daughter of a soldier (4th King's Own) who fell in the Crimean War ("With the deepest sympathy"); a soldier's daughter, whose father was killed in the Crimean War ("In loving remembrance"); the daughter of a Crimean veteran ("In grateful Memory") "the widow of one whose regiment she nursed in the Crimea", "A New Zealander who mother (now dead) when a young girl had the honour of presenting Miss Nightingale with a bouquet as she passed through Nuneaton Railway Station on her return from the Crimea." |
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A wreath of heather was sent by Stella Forester, age seven, "To dear Miss Nightingale," with the request, "Please may my wreath be put with the other flowers- I picked the heather and made it myself." |
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MEMORIAL SERVICE IN ST. PAUL'S |
It is not to be supposed that many of those who constituted the great congregation in St. Paul`s Cathedral on Saturday had ever seen Miss Nightingale. Some of the red-coated pensioners, perhaps, or the other Crimean veterans who attended the memorial service, remembered her gracious presence upon distant fields, A comparative few, also, of the men and women present may have been brought into personal contact with her at home through her interest in the organisation of the nursing profession. To the vast majority, however ` even to the majority of the nurses who came to St. Paul's ` Miss Nightingale can only have been a name, or perhaps a tradition, though an inspiring one. |
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This circumstance rendered the tribute which was paid to her memory in this service in the Cathedral Church of London all the more remarkable. The great building was crowded with those who desired to do honour to the illustrious lady whose name had been held in reverence by successive generations of her compatriots; and it might have been filled over and over again if all the applications for tickets could have been granted. The congregation thronged the nave, the space beneath the Dome, the choir, and even the choir galleries. Those who occupied seats on the left of the choir were close to the statue ` the first ever created in St. Paul's ` of John Howard, a philanthropist whose efforts in the cause of suffering humanity acquired for him a place in the affections of his countrymen similar to that occupied by Florence Nightingale. To her might well be applied the noble words in which Burke described the object of Howard's labours - "to remember the forgotten, to attend to the neglected, to visit the forsaken." |
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One bore away from the Cathedral impressions of a solemn simple service, of beautiful music exquisitely rendered, of uniformed nurses and grey, bent old soldiers, of the glitter of military accoutrements, and the deep mourning of the men and women who filled the church. There were nearly a thousand nurses present, but they were only the representatives of thousands of them in London and throughout the country. All the great London hospitals and many of those in provincial cities sent some members of their nursing staffs, and in the space beneath the Some there was to be seen an infinite variety of nurses uniforms ` cloaks and bonnets of blue, grey, black, or scarlet. Some nurses came in hospital costume, with white caps, but the outdoor uniform was more generally worn. The men from the Chelsea Hospital, about 50 in number, were given seats on the south side of the Dome, where their quaint uniforms made a vivid patch of scarlet. All the men wore their Crimean medals. There were other decorations of the same kind to be seen here and there in the congregation, proudly displayed upon the civilian clothing of old soldiers. |
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THE NAVAL AND MILITARY NURSING SERVICE |
In a prominent position near the Chelsea pensioners were the ladies representing the Territorial Force Nursing Service, with short scarlet capes over their nursing uniforms, and the representatives of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Service in their grey and scarlet costumes, as well as those of the Nursing Services of the Navy. Many of them wore medals which betokened war service. Immediately in front of the choir steps was stationed the band of the Coldstream Guards, under Lieutenant J Mackenzie Rogan, with their drums swathed in black. Next to the band, and facing the altar, were placed five chairs for the representatives of the King, the Queen, the Queen Mother, The Duke of Connaught and Princess Christian. The were occupied respectively by Major General J S Ewart, A.D.C. General; Lord Wenlock, Colonel H Streatfeild, Captain T R Bulkeley, and Major J E B Martin - all of course, in full uniform. Behind them, in the seats reserved for the representatives of the Services and the regiments which took part in the Crimean War, were many other brilliant uniforms, including those of more than one Highland regiment. |
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The officers present included the following:- |
Lieut.-General Sir W H Mackinnon (who with Mr R H Brade, represented the War Office); Captain C E Madden R.N. (representing with Sir C Inigo Thomas, the Board of Admiralty); Surgeon-General W L Gubbins, Director-General Army Medical Service; Staff-Surgeon G F Dean, R.N., Lieut.-Colonel Sir R Havclock Charles, Indian Medical Service. Major-General Luke O'Connor, V.V., who served as a sergeant at Alma and received his commission as a reward for conspicuous gallantry in that battle; Major Ricardo, Adjutant of the Royal Hospital Chelsea; and Lieut.-Colonel Hugh Sutton, Coldstream Guards. |
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The Prime Minister, who was unable to attend was represented by Mr R S Meiklejohn. Other Ministers also were specially represented:- Lord Crewe, by Mr C T Clay; Mr Haldane, by Mr F C Bovenschen; and Lord Morley of Blackburn, by Sir Richmond Richie. The American Ambassador, Mr Whitelaw Reid, attended with Mrs Reid, and the familiar form of Mr Burns was recognised among the general congregation. The Rev J v Macmillan was present on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Hon. Maude Lawrence (Chief Woman Inspector of the Board of Education) represented that department. The City of London was officially represented by Sir James Ritchie, acting Lord Mayor, who wearing his robes of black and gold, was attended by the City Marshal and the Sword-bearer and Mace-bearer, Sir Vezey Strong and Mr Sheriff Slazenger, in their scarlet robes, accompanied Sir James Ritchie, and a number of Common Councilmen were present in their Nazarene robes. The civic representatives were conducted to seats within the choir. |
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The Territorial Force Nursing Service was represented by Miss Sidney Brown Matron-in-Chief, Miss Ray (King's College Hospital), Miss Barter (Chelsea), and Miss Buchanan Riddell (University College Hospital). Two representatives of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service attended - Miss Beecher, Matron-in-Chief, and Miss McCarthy. The Queen Victoria's Jubilee Institute for Nurses was represented by Mr W G Rathbone and Mr D F Pennant (hon. Secretaries), Miss A M Peterkin (acting general superintendent), and Miss A C Lowe (secretary). . . . . . . . .Nightingale), and Canon Edgar Sheppard, Sub-Dean of the Chapels Royal. |
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CRIMEAN VETERANS |
Major Ricardo (Adjutant of the Royal Hospital Chelsea) had charge of a party of Crimean veterans, embracing all the in-pensioners of the hospital who served in the Crimea and were well enough to bear the fatigue of the journey from Chelsea to the City. Their names and corps were as follows:- |
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Sergeants John Cooney (57th Foot), Thomas Greenhouse (82nd Foot), John Garrett (3rd Grenadier Guards), and George Powell (6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons); Corporal William Gourlay (Royal Artillery), and Private George Allen (72nd Foot), William Avers (Rifle Brigade), James Bromley (21st Fusiliers), Patrick Burley (30th Foot), William Cox (42nd Foot), John Croft (2nd Life Guards), William Cullen (18th Food), Richard Davis (Royal Artillery), John Dempsey (Royal Irish Fusiliers), John Dickson (Royal Artillery), Michael Dorgan (7th Foot), David Dunbar (6th Foot), Evan Evans (4th Foot), Maragret Fox (Royal Artillery), James Flynn (Rifle Brigade), David Geoghan (13th Light Dragoons), David Goodyear (28th Foot). William Gosling (4th Foot), Cornelius Heffernan (Royal Artillery), John Hill (3rd Grenadier Guards), James Jenkins (30th Foot), George Jones (Rifle Brigade), David Larkin (Landed Transport), H Lewers (7th Foot), William Linahan (18th Foot), Robert McGowan (Royal Artillery), William Manderville (4th Foot), George Morris (Scots Fusliers), John Pittock (55th Foot), John Rogers (77th Foot), Daniel Ryan (89th Foot), Thomas Smith (90th Foot), George Sullivan (46th Foot), Edwin Wallace (Royal Artillery), Joseph Wallington (50th Foot), Charles Waller (10th Hussars), John Warren (62nd Foot), and Michael Whelan (46th Foot). |
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Many of these old soldiers were very feeble and could walk only with the aid of sticks or crutches, while some bore the marks of the battles they had fought , having lost limbs or suffered injuries which had left their scars. Other Crimean veterans attended independently, some, though ill able to afford the expense, having come long distances by train to pay their last tribute to the memory of the lady whom more than one of them remembered as ministering to them in their hours of sickness and suffering. Among the veterans who thus attended were:- |
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Mr Peter Kent (formerly of H.M.S. Tribune), Mr Henry Ostridge (formerly of the 1st Battalion Royal Scots), Mr Thomas R Vile (formerly of the Coldstream Guards), Mr George Smith (formerly of the R.M.L.I., Chatham Division, attached to H.M.S. Algier), Mr William Piner (formerly of the 63rd Foot), and Mr J Norman (formerly of the Scots Guards). |
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THE SERVICE |
The service began at noon, but the congregation were in their places half an hour earlier. In the intervening period the band of the Coldstream Guards played appropriate selections - the Largo of Handel, the "Judex" from Gounod's "Mors et Vita," and the "Sanctus" from Gounod`s "Messe Solennelle," This music was fitting prelude to the simple but affecting service which followed. After the entry of the choir and the clergy - Canons Newbolt and Alexander, and the Minor Canons - the congregation joined in singing the hymn "The Son of God goes forth to war," one of Miss Nightingale's favourite compositions. The singing was accompanied by the organ, at which Sir George Martin presided. Special psalms were sung ` the 5th, 23rd, and 27th ` with the antiphon "Make thy way plain before my face." The "Benedictus," sung to Martin in A flat, followed with the sentence "I am the resurrection and the life" (to the music of Croft) as the antiphon. Then came the Lesson, read by Canon Newbolt at the chancel-gate. It was the chapter of "the former Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians" from the Order for the Burial of the Dead, with its triumphant climax.- then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death where is thy sting` O grave, where is they victory` |
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The magnificent strains of the "Dead March" in Saul, preceded by the prolonged roll of the muffled drums which Lieutenant Mackenzie Rogan has designed for these occasions, filled the Cathedral with a volume of solemn music. As they died away the choir of men's voices, accompanied only by the organ, broke forth in the beautiful Liturgy of St. Chrysostom, sung to the deliberate modulated phrasing of the Kieff chant. A number of prayers followed including the Collect from the Burial Service and the prayer which precedes it. In this prayer the name Florence was introduced. Then again the congregation sang a hymn which was known to be dear to Miss Nightingale, "The King of Love my Shepherd is." After the Benediction the band played with impressive effect Gounod's "Marche Solennelle." This brought the service to an end, and the congregation remained standing while the representatives of the King and other members of the Royal Family, followed by Mr and Mrs Whitelaw Reid and the civic procession, left the Cathedral by the west door. |
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PULPIT REFERENCES |
References to the death of Miss Nightingale, with appreciation of her life's work in the cause of humanity, were made in most of the churches throughout the country and at the parade services in the various military stations yesterday. |
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ST. PAUL'S |
CANON NEWBOLT, preaching at St. Paul's, said that no one who was present at the service in that Cathedral on the previous day, in which they commemorated Miss Nightingale before God, was likely to forget the wonderful significance of that representative gathering of mourners, drawn by the magnetic influence of her name. Those who remembered the dark days of the Crimean tragedy, those to whom she was but a name, those who, day by day, had cause to thank her foresight and practical wisdom for the tender alleviation of suffering on many a bed of sickness, the great army of nurses who proudly owned her as their chief, on whom the mantle of her devotion and skill had fallen, those who were only dimly conscious that a great heroine had left the earth - all these and many more were represented at the service on Saturday to thank God for a splendid memory, a noble example and a tradition of inspiration. |
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Sometimes when we got out of heart with the world, sometimes when we took up our burden with a heavy heart, it might cheer and console us to see how the world still reserved its greatest honours for simple goodness. Among the most venerated and popular personalities of our time there would stand out three of commanding pre-eminence - Queen Victoria, General Gordon, and Florence Nightingale; and the appeal which they made was the appeal of simple goodness ` children of God who, thinking little of earth, place, and honour, sought rather to please the Captain of their salvation. Certainly she whose memory they honoured to-day was overburdened by the praise which she could not avoid, distressed by the light of her deeds which betrayed her excellence, and pained by notoriety. A simple grave in a country churchyard, rather than a public funeral in Westminster Abbey, was a fitting sequel to a hidden life forced by duty into prominence. The name of Florence Nightingale would live on in many a quiet home where the memory of her goodness was the tradition which was handed down from father to son, taking rank with deeds of chivalry and devotion in the field. Men would still tell how soldiers would kiss her shadow as it fell upon their bed of sickness and lie down their head upon their pillows again content. They would hand down the record of "the Lady of the Lamp," making her solitary rounds in the wards through the silent night. They would tell of her benignant presence as an influence for good even among the struggles of expiring nature. With the heart of a heroine, the brain of a genius, the strength of a martyr, Florence Nightingale met the horrors of Scutari and conquered, and made it possible that for after generations the Red Cross of skilled benevolence should float over the ambulances and hospitals of those who should be called upon to draw the sword in the great assize of nations known as war. |
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WESTMINSTER ABBEY |
The Rev. G A Bienemann, preaching yesterday afternoon at Westminster Abbey, said that it was a combination of feeling with great gifts of intellect and powers of organisation which distinguished Florence Nightingale, who had been laid to rest in a quiet country churchyard while the nation mourned. But it was something more than the feeling, and something more than the intellect, which made her name a household work wherever the English language was spoken. They too needed that something more when they thought of the long road, which remained to be travelled towards the reunion which they hoped for. That something more . . . . . . |
CANTERBURY |
Canon Mason, preaching at Canterbury Cathedral yesterday morning, said that Florence Nightingale would rank among the great names of history of Christian philanthropy. It was cult to imagine at the present day the ....... things with which she had to contend, Dr..........as were the sufferings of our soldiers in the Boer War, they were as nothing compared to the hopeless misery of our troops in the Crimean. A life like Miss Nightingale's should make us .... desire to spend our own lives, not in self-indulgent and self-seeking and self-assertion, but in strenuous devotion to the glory of God and to the good of man. |
YORK |
The Lord Mayor of York, a number of nurses from the Yorkshire County Hospital, the Nurses' Home, the Military Hospital, and other institutions attended a memorial service to Miss Nightingale in York Minster on Saturday. Lieutenant-General Sir Laurence Oliphant was also present. The Bishop of Beverley, in his sermon, said that Miss Nightingale had added one more evidence of the truth that they were alike the happiest and the most worthy of honour who were the most eager to serve their fellows in the name and in the strength of Christ. Florence Nightingale came as near as it was possible for human nature to come to the ideal Christian woman. |
ALDERSHOT |
The Rev P F Raymond, Senior Chaplain, preaching at morning service in All Saints' Military Church, Aldershot, asked what but compassion, love, kindness, and sympathy for her fellow-creatures impelled that wonderful woman, Miss Florence Nightingale, "the Lady of the Lamp," to undertake the life's work to which she devoted herself ` a work never forgotten by any to whom suffering appealed, lease of all by soldiers, among whom - friends and foes alike ` she ministered through the horrors and privations of the Crimean War, the pioneer of those Army nursing sisters who of late years had so devotedly followed in her footsteps. The memory of that example of compassion had touched the hearts of many throughout the whole Empire during the past week. |
DOVER |
Cannon Bartram, preaching at St Mary, Dover yesterday, said that the name of Florence Nightingale would be for ever sacred. The devotion and self-sacrifice with which she responded to the call to go forth at the head of a band of nurses to succour the sick and wounded sent a thrill through the land and, as the weary months went by, the tidings ever came from the seat of war how she and her sisters, like ministering angels, were gently tending the sick and wounded and tales were told of how many a rough warrior was ready to kiss her shadow as she passed. Her life was devoted to the relief of suffering at first, while her strength remained, by the tenderness of her own ministrations, and then by the great system of trained nursing which was one of the glories of this age. |
PORTSMOUTH |
The Rev H Jones, Chaplain to the Forces, preaching at the Royal Garrison Church, Portsmouth said that she whom they all mourned that day and who amid a nation's sorrow was to rest, would always stand foremost among those who strove for the needs of humanity. - At the Royal Dockyard Church, the Rev A W Plant referred to the noble work of Miss Nightingale, saying that she was an example of one who, by her devotion to the needs of her fellow-creatures, had made her life a blessing to her own day and for generations to follow. |
EAST WELLOW CHURCH |
The Rev S M Watson, the vicar, preaching at the East Wellow Church yesterday morning, said that the first thing that would probably strike people when they came to read the life of Miss Nightingale would be the number of opportunities which she found for doing good, for comforting the sorrowful, for relieving the sick, for tending the wounded, for caring for the soldier. She was an unselfish woman, willing and able to put other people first and herself second. If they could learn to cultivate that spirit of constant unselfishness they would find opportunities for doing good as Florence Nightingale had done. It was no exaggeration to say that the national and Imperial future of this great country depended to a great extent upon how far that spirit of goodness was fostered and grew among the people. |
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A Memorial service was held at St Thomas's Hospital on Saturday in the little chapel attached to the institution. Miss Nightingale had always taken an interest in St Thomas's, which was the hospital that she endowed with the money collected for her after her return from the Crimea, when she founded the Nightingale Training School. The Rev A O Hayes (vicar of Holy Trinity, Lambeth) officiated. |
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TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES |
Sir, - The work accomplished by Miss Nightingale for the sick has received full and generous recognition. I think, however, that the fact that she was amongst the first of sanitarians to attempt the improvement of the care of mothers and infants has not been duly appreciated. Her watchful eye saw the dangers of poor mothers by unskilled help in their hour of need, and in consequence a ward was opened for midwifery cases in King's College Hospital many years ago. Had Lord Lister's knowledge been as advanced then as a little time after, this scheme would have probably met with the success it deserved, but for lack of genius and hard work on the part of many, obstetric cases were not then understood to suffer by the same law as surgical cases. The mortality was high, and the plan long closed our general hospitals to cases requiring urgent care, but as present there are few of these hospitals which do not possess a maternity ward giving help to the poor, as well as training in midwifery to nurses. St Thomas's Hospital is the latest of the list, and the ward is called after the Queen. The Midwives Act is still incomplete, and will remain so while the training is necessarily so costly and while there is no sort of maintenance fund to fall back on in districts which are too sparsely populated and too remote to afford the entire payment of a skilled midwife. Nursing could never have advanced as it did in the early years without the £50,000 given by the nation as a thanksgiving to Miss Nightingale; if, as she strongly held, prevention was more important than cure, let those with reverence her work come forward to save the health and lives of mothers and infants who have no trained nurse or doctor at hand to work in the straight path of practical hygiene. We want a fund wisely administered to make the Act a living law for good. |
yours, faithfully |
JANE WILSON, President |
12 Buckingham-street, Strand, W.C., |
The Incorporated Midwives' Institute |
Aug19. |
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