Lady nurses for the sick poor in our London workhouses : report of proceedings at the Strand Union Board of Guardians, September 4, 1866 / from the short hand notes of John While ; with an appendix.

Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lady nurses for the sick poor in our London workhouses : report of proceedings at the Strand Union Board of Guardians, September 4, 1866 / from the short hand notes of John While ; with an appendix. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    These extracts bore the strongest testimony to the value set upon the services of these ladies at Manchester, and as to the point made so much of by those who were opposed to the introduction of Protestant Sisters of Mercy on religious grounds, he (Mr. Storr) would quote the words of the very Rev. the Dean of Westminster, delivered on a recent occasion at the University College. These ladies, as was well known, were the nurses at the University College Hospital, an institution dis- tinguished for the absence of all sectarian spirit, and the Dean, speaking of them, said, “I feel certain that there is not a Churchman in the land, however fastidious and however zealous, that would not welcome, in the appliances of University College Hospital, for the moral and religious, as well as physical welfare of its patients, the fulfilment of his best aspirations.” This was Dean Stanley’s view, and he was one of the patrons of the All Saints’ Home. It was also to be remembered that the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of London was the official visitor of the Home, and to show that the institution was completely recognised as a Protestant one, he might mention that its list of patrons had on it some of the most eminent names in the Church. When the subject was brought to the consideration of the Guardians before, there w ere three objections raised, which he would now endeavour to anticipate by answering. It was said, “ These ladies wear long black dresses, white hoods, and carry large black crosses.” It should he remembered that these ladies must wear some distinctive dress, by reason of the places into which they enter. They went into the lowest dens of London— those places which were called the 44 Homes of the Poor,” and they could not go dressed in Hyde Park or Burlington Arcade fashion; the wretched lees of society who lived in these places had a certain amount of respect and awe for these good women which they would feel for no one else, for they recognised in them ladies who, for the love of God and their fellow-creatures, devoted their lives to works of mercy. For his part, he could not see what objection there could be found in a little black and white millinery. What did it matter if these ladies liked to have dresses of a peculiar colour and make, so long as they did so much good. The second objection was, that there would he 44 proselytising” in the workhouse, that the ladies would be holding up crucifixes before the eyes of the patients, and such like; but it was proved that this fear was groundless by the manner in which the ladies discharged their duties at the University College and other Hospitals, and in the Chorlton Workhouse. With regard to the third objection, that 44 the discipline of the house would be interfered with,” he had no fear of that, the ladies interfered in nothing; they saw that the patientswere properly cared for and had their medicines and diet regularly, as prescribed by the medical officer; and Mr. Thorne, the master of their workhouse, must as a man of honour confess that any change from the system which had lately been so exposed in regard to the treatment of the sick inmates, must be a change for the better. The beneficial nature of the assistance given in the workhouse