This Wednesday, it’s International Nurses Day. Each year, on 12th May, the contribution and dedication of nurses to the healthcare of millions of people is celebrated across the world. This year, International Nurses Day will focus on change and innovation in nursing during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 12th May is also the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale which is marked by a service held at Westminster Abbey. This involves three important processions, one of which is a procession of Florence Nightingale Foundation Scholars who carry a symbolic Lamp, accompanied by student nurses. Together they represent nursing knowledge and the transfer of knowledge to the next generation. So for this week’s blog post, we thought we’d take a brief look at the careers of two nurses with links to Birmingham, who trained at The Nightingale Home and Training School for Nurses which was established by Florence in 1860 at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London.
Mary Cadbury
Born into the Quaker Cadbury family in Birmingham in September 1839, Mary Cadbury was the fifth child of Benjamin and Candia Cadbury. Her father owned a drapers shop on Bull Street, until he went into partnership with his brother John in 1846, forming the Cadbury Brothers chocolate business.
According to M. Christabel Cadbury writing in 1936, Mary showed a caring nature from childhood. It was thought this was inherited from her maternal grandmother, Hannah Wadkin of Pendleton near Manchester, who was known for her skill and attentiveness in looking after the sick.
In 1873, Mary left home to begin training at one of the earliest organisations to provide professional training for nurses, The Nightingale Home and Training School for Nurses, which had been established by Florence Nightingale in 1860 at St. Thomas’ Hospital, London. After completion of her training in 1874, she spent eight months employed at Highgate Workhouse Infirmary where she became head nurse. She then went on to complete further training at Bloomsbury District Nursing Home becoming one of the early district nurses, providing nursing to the poor in their own homes. This was followed by two and a half years as District Nurse at Whalley Range, Manchester before she was appointed Matron at Liverpool’s Brownlow Hill Workhouse Infirmary. She then spent six years as Matron at West Street Hospital, Sheffield and in 1890 became Matron at Queen’s Hospital Birmingham. She was still working when she died in 1896.
Mary was an avid letter writer and from when she left home in 1873, she began to send letters home two or three times a week. She continued this for most of the rest of her life and her letters to her family provide detailed accounts of her experiences as a nurse in this period. The letters covering the period 1873 – 1893 are held by London Metropolitan Archives as part of the Saint Thomas’ Hospital: Nightingale Collection.
Anne Campbell Gibson
Anne Campbell Gibson, born in Edinburgh around 1850, was one of 7 children born to John Gibson, teacher, headmaster and the first HM Inspector of Schools in Scotland, and Anne McDougall Gibson.
In 1881, Anne C. Gibson attended the Nightingale School for a year’s training and was encouraged to specialise in poor-law nursing, caring for those in the workhouse infirmary. Continuing her training in the following year, she took up a position as assistant to Mary Cadbury, who by this time was working as Matron at the Brownlow Hill Workhouse Infirmary, Liverpool, and by 1887, Anne had become Matron there.
Her next position from 1888 was as the first Matron of the new Birmingham Poor Law Union Infirmary based at Western Road (now City Hospital) and she remained there until 1912, assisted by a number of other Nightingale Nurses. In this time, she also established a Nurse Training School and became recognised nationally for her work in the field of poor-law nursing, giving talks and writing papers, including one in 1895 at the Central Poor Law Conference, London entitled ‘Nursing in Workhouses and Workhouse Infirmaries’.
For a year during the First World War, Anne was appointed Matron of the Beaufort War Hospital in Bristol and went on to serve on the Council of the College of Nursing from its creation in 1917. She died in 1926.
If you have any papers relating to the history of nursing in Birmingham, we’d love to know so please email archives.heritage@birmingham.gov.uk.
Eleanor, Archivist
References
Cadbury, M. Christabel, The Story of a Nightingale Nurse and Kindred Papers, Headley Brothers, 1939, held by Archives & Collections, Library of Birmingham, ref. L78.1
Penny, John, Anne Campbell Gibson, Matron of the Beaufort War Hospital 1915/16, 2015, available on the Glenside Museum website
Ritch, A. E., ‘Sick, aged and infirm’ adults in the new Birmingham Workhouse, 1852 – 1912 University of Birmingham, 2009
Ritch, A. E., Medical care in the Workhouses in Birmingham and Wolverhampton, 1834-1914, University of Birmingham, 2014
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