Tagged: The Bedford Fenwicks

KM Leper Fund open

The Nursing Record of 3 November 1892 reports:

We are glad to learn that much practical interest is being shown by all classes in Miss Marsden’s great work for the Lepers. Her Committee has opened an account, called the ‘Kate Marsden Leper Fund’ at Sir Samuel Scott & Co’s, 1, Cavendish Square, London, into which donations and subscriptions are being paid. And it is an interesting fact, and further instance of the Royal sympathy with all good works, to which we have recently alluded, that the first cheque entered into this account was a donation from H.R.H. the Princess MAY of TECK.

On an unrelated note to the Fund, but relevant to KM’s future activities, the Record goes on to note that Mrs Bedford Fenwick has been successful in her proposal that an International Nursing Congress be held at the same time as the Exhibition in Chicago in May, 1893.

The Nursing Record: editorial on KM

sick room Victorian adThe important ceremony – described  in another column – which took place last Friday, at the meeting of the General Council of the Royal British Nurses’ Association, will arouse renewed  interest both in the truly great work of Miss Kate Marsden, and also with regard to the Association itself. Because it will be felt that not only has this heroic lady amply deserved all that could be said in her praise, but that it is most fitting that the first body to voice that praise should be the important Association which represents  the profession to which Miss Marsden belongs, and which numbers Miss Marsden amongst its members. As our readers are aware, we have recounted, in these columns,  the chief features of this lady’s adventurous journeys, and the two additional and most striking facts stated by Dr Bedford Fenwick, at the meeting of the Association, still further emphasize her unselfish heroism.

It would seem to many, now-a-days – as it did to one man nearly nineteen hundred years ago – a hard saying, that he should  ‘‘sell all that he had and give to the poor,” but it appears that this is literally what Miss Marsden has done, and that she has expended the entire fortune of which she was possessed, in the pursuit of her mission.  She has returned to England, and very shortly starts for America, in the hope of being able by writing and lecturing upon her work, to raise sufficient to found and permanently endow, the proposed two Leper Colonies. But there is more than this, because it now appears that Miss Marsden was warned, three years ago, that she must exercise the greatest caution for her health, for all her family have succumbed to consumption. In braving only the severity of a Russian winter, therefore,  Miss Marsden was fully aware that she was running a very serious risk, and she seems to have faced this as quietly as she gave up all her worldly goods for the cause she had at heart.

The more one learns of the indomitable determination, combined with the calm, unselfish heroism which this Englishwoman has displayed – the more one realises that  there is existent amongst us today, the very characteristics upon which the fabric of the British Empire has been built up, and which as made the English name traditionally respected throughout the world – the more our admiration for Miss Marsden must increase and deepen. We cannot but feel regret that she has been advised to appeal to our American cousins for the money which she requires for her work, for we feel that were the facts but known in this country, the requisite funds would speedily be procured. We would fain hope that it is not yet too late to make an appeal to the public for the amount, and are glad to learn that an important Committee is being formed to carry on Miss Marsden’s work, and assist her in the financial management of her scheme. Our readers will be glad to learn that we  have made arrangements  for her to act as a Special  Correspondent of this Journal, so that we shall be able, from time to time, to give them the earliest and only authentic information as to her travels, and as to the progress of her Leper Colonies. And, in another column, they will find a full report of a paper read by Miss Marsden before one  of the leading Medical Societies of Moscow – information not only important, but unique.

Source: RCN archives The Nursing Record 27 October 1892

Advertisement included just to liven things up a bit. It was alongside the Editorial in TNR.

KM at Court, then awarded RBNA silver badge

Friday 21 October 1892 was a busy day for KM.

In the morning she was at Court, where she was:

honoured by a private interview with their Royal Highnesses The PRINCESS OF WALES, and the Princesses VICTORIA and MAUD.

The Nursing Record 27 Oct 1892

Later in the day (The Times says “the evening”) KM attended a meeting of the General Council of the Royal British Nurses’ Association (RBNA), at the Hall of the Royal Medico-Chirurgical Society (Wikipedia, now the Royal Society of Medicine) at 20 Hanover Square, London. Princess Christian attended, wearing a black silk gown, edged with jet, with a scarlet vest, and a scarlet velvet bonnet with jet ornaments. So there we go. Sir William Savory presided.

RBNA bronze badge schoolsofnursing.co.uk
Bronze version of the RBNA badge (source: schoolsofnursing)

It was proposed [amongst many other items] that the Executive Committee should be empowered to confer a silver badge upon members of the Association who might be considered worthy of such a distinction and ‘If this were agreed to, the Executive Committee considered that such a badge should be bestowed upon Miss KATE MARSDEN in recognition of her work on behalf of Siberian Lepers.’

Dr Bedford Fenwick – who had probably fast-tracked KM’s life membership due to the interest in her from royalty – then said he was commanded by Her Royal Highness to give a brief account of the work done by KM on behalf of the lepers in Asiatic Russia.

[…] DR. FENWICK told how Miss MARSDEN, moreover, had “to the spirit as well as the letter fulfilled the Divine command to sell all that she had and give to the poor,” and, furthermore, that, to his own knowledge, all her family except one brother had died of consumption, and that, some three years ago, it had been his duty to warn Miss MARSDEN that she must run no risk of exposure to damp or cold. She had not only, therefore, faced the manifest difficulties and dangers of her expedition, but she had done so knowing that she was carrying her life in her hand by exposing herself to the rigours of a Siberian winter.

“THIS lady,” concluded Dr. FENWICK, “is the member of the Association whom Her Royal Highness, at considerable personal inconvenience, has returned to England, this morning, to personally congratulate, and whom I venture to think that this Council in honouring, is honouring itself.” Considerable applause followed, during which Dr. FENWICK, who had left the room, returned, leading Miss MARSDEN by the hand, and presented her to the Princess [Christian]. Her Royal Highness came to the side of the dais, and taking the Badge from its morocco case, pinned it on Miss MARSDEN’S breast, and assured her, in the most kindly manner, of the interest which she felt in her work.

WHEN the prolonged applause had subsided, Sir WILLIAM SAVORY said that the Princess desired to propose, and he would gladly second and put to the Meeting, the following Resolution: ‘That the General Council of the Royal British Nurses’ Association tenders to Miss KATE MARSDEN its sincere congratulations upon the great success which has already attended her efforts to alleviate the conditions under which the Siberian lepers live, and upon her safe return from her difficult and dangerous journeys. And the General Council assures Miss MARSDEN of the earnest sympathy and good wishes with which her fellow members of the Association, in all parts of the world, will watch her renewed travels through an almost unknown land; and the fresh efforts she is about to make in the cause  of humanity on behalf of friendless, homeless, and helpless outcasts.” The motion was carried amidst loud cheers.

According to The Times,

Princess Christian then read the following statement:- “I should like to take this opportunity of saying how gratified I have been to learn that two of our members – this Misses Annesley and Henrietta Kenealy – volunteered their services, and for some time acted as nurses in the Eppendorfer hospital, at Hamburg, during the recent severe epidemic of cholera in that city. […]

These are nurses which in the view of others (eg correspondents to the New Zealand press) should have been celebrated above and beyond KM.

See the following article carried by much of the NZ press:

Dr. Bedford Fenwick gave an interesting description of Miss Marsden’s journey through a desolate country of forest and swamp, in the course of which she discovered 13 leper settlements. The lady then returned to Russia, where unbounded enthusiasm was shown, and £4,000 in cash subscribed. The Government decided to form two leper colonies, and some self-sacrificing Sisters of Mercy appeared to nurse the poor creatures. These good women set off for Siberia at once, and so far as I can make out their enlistment is the sole practical way in which the lepers have, up to now, benefited.

All sorts of grand things are going to be done in the future for these lucky lepers. Miss Marsden exhibits pictures of the model village, with church and school and hospital, etc., which will be built sometime in the sweet by-and-bye. I do not gather, however, that personal nursing forms any part of the energetic lady’s programme. She can be more useful organising and collecting funds, and interviewing the newspapers. The actual (if one may use the expression) dirty work of nursing and tending and cleansing of the unspeakably foul folks is apparently to be left to the Russian Sisters of Mercy.

Dr. Fenwick volunteered the surprising statement that Miss Marsden had made the Siberian journeys at her own expense, and that her family being consumptive the travelling amongst swamps was practically taking her life in her hand. The same evening Miss Marsden was commanded to Balmoral, and on Saturday had an interview with Her Majesty to whom she unfolded her schemes. The Queen expressed herself greatly interested and wished Miss Marsden good luck.

I was glad to note that at the meeting of the Nurses’ Association, Princess Christian, after complimenting Miss Marsden. referred of her own initiative to the unaffected heroism of the two sisters Kenealy, who faced the very real horrors of Eppendorff cholera hospital, and were of the greatest use, being held up (H.R.H. had since heard) as examples to the other nurses.

The November number of the ‘English Illustrated’ will contain an interview with ‘the intrepid angel of the Siberian lepers’ (as a ‘Chronicle’ man calls Miss Marsden), who, it must be conceded, is a bold and successful self-advertiser.

Yesterday, by the way, Miss Marsden was the heroine of an ‘At home’ at Lady Jeune’s. Her Ladyship, you probably know, might have sat to Dickins as Mrs Leo Hunter.

It is not known where KM’s silver badge now lies; it is not one of those held by the RGS.

In the evening KM had to catch the train up to Scotland, as the following day she was due to meet Queen Victoria at Balmoral…

Sources:

  • RCN archives The Nursing Record of 27 Oct 1892 and “The Royal British Nurses’ Association.-A.” Times [London, England] 22 Oct. 1892: 10. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 13 May 2014. The same edition of The Nursing Record also includes a copy of the preface to the speech given on behalf of KM in Russia.  This is followed by an advertisement for nurses’ uniforms, and a truly horrific report of a 23-year old dying in childbirth.
  • The Guardian (22 Oct 1892) – 1 paragraph, including the line: “Miss Marsden has literally “sold all that she hath” to carry on her work, the purpose of her present visit to England being to collect additional funds.”
  • Badge image from schoolsofnursing.co.uk corroborated by this 1891 article copied on Flickr
  • NZ press sources:
  • The Nursing Record of 27 October 1892, in a paragraph headed Royal Sympathy summarises all these shenanigans thus:

Miss Kate Marsden, whose heroic journey on behalf of the Siberian Lepers has been described in these columns, and who is just about to leave for America in the hope of raising funds, by lecturing through the States, for the foundation and endowment of two Leper colonies, which she will then return to Siberia to superintend, was on Friday morning honoured by a private interview with their Royal Highnesses The PRINCESS OF WALES, and the Princesses VICTORIA and MAUD, and later in the day was presented by Her Royal Highness PRINCESS CHRISTIAN with the Special Badge of the Royal British Nurses’ Association – of which Miss Marsden is a Member – in recognition of her labours in the cause of humanity, and the gift was enhanced by the gracious sympathy expressed by the Princess with Miss Marsden’s difficult undertaking. Finally, the same evening, Miss Marsden left for Balmoral in obedience to the QUEEN’S command, as Her Majesty desired to be personally informed by Miss Marsden, of what she has already done, and  at she proposes now to do. And it is stated that other members of the Royal Family will probably attend an influential meeting, which will be held today in London to wish this English Nurse good-bye and God speed in her work. All of which facts form all admirable object-lesson as to the ennobling influence exercised upon the nation by the Royal Family.

KM made life member of the RBNA

On 8 October 1892, KM’s life membership of the Royal British Nurses’ Association began. The entry reads:

Number: 3171
Name (in full): Kate Marsden
Home Address: 22 St Helen’s Road, Hastings
Date of Membership: 8th October 1892
Date of Associateship: [blank – actually date above written incorrectly & crossed out]
Hospital or Institution from which application was made: blank [as are most others]
Remarks: Life Member

Many of the other entries on the page are for life members; some but not all are crossed out with ‘Deceased’ and date. Others, such as that for a Louisa Basau, are crossed out and noted ‘Removed by order of the Exec Committee’. The first member in the directory is Mrs Bedford Fenwick; #2 is Dr Bedford Fenwick (both crossed out when deceased).

The minutes of this meeting include the following notes:

  • Page 76: “A meeting of the Executive Committee was held on Friday October 7th 1892, in the Offices of the Association at 5pm. Present: Mr Pickering Pick in the chair, Mr Davies Colley, Dr Schofield, Mr Langton, Miss J de Pledge, Mrs Owen Lankester, Miss Ridley, Miss Stewart, Sister Cecilia, Miss Cooper, Miss Spring, Miss Robertson, Miss Oldham, Miss Hughes, Sir James Crichton Browne, Mr Barker, Dr Coupland, Dr Bezley Thorne, & Dr Bedford Fenwick.” […]
  • Pg78 “ A letter from Miss Greenfield, matron of a nursing home, was read, in which she asked to be allowed to become a member, though her Hospital training was insufficient. The Committee could not accede to this request, & the secretary was instructed to convey their refusal to Miss Greenfield. The secretary stated that owing to pressure of business she thought it well to defer the applications for membership, if the Committee agreed. The Chairman assented, & one only application was considered that of Miss Kate Marsden, who was elected a member.” […]
  • Pg81 “On Dr Fenwick’s suggestion it was determined to recommend to the Council: that the Badge of the Association should be presented in Gold to any Royal or Princely VicePresident & in silver to any nurse member who had distinguished herself in any signal manner, & in the event of that resolution being adopted by the General Council, that the following resolution be carried out: that the Exec Committee of the RBNA presents in the name of the Association its silver Badge to Miss Kate Marsden in recognition of her heroic endeavours to alleviate the Condition of Siberian Lepers. The Committee tenders to Miss Marsden its sincere congratulations upon the marked success which has already attended her efforts, & upon her safe return form her dangerous & arduous journeys in Asiatic Russia, and the Committee assures Miss Marsden of their earnest sympathy & good wishes with which her fellow members of the RBNA will watch her [renewed] travels in an almost unknown land & the fresh efforts which she is about to make in the case of humanity. Seconded & adopted.” […]
  • Pg85: “For the subcommittee on the Sessional [sic] lectures he reported that they recommended that meetings be held as usual in November, January and February, Miss Marsden, Mrs Bedford Fenwick & Miss Kenealy [sic] having undertaken to give the necessary papers, & that in March, April & May a course of lectures on Fever Nursing should be prepared for. This report was unanimously adopted.

A couple of weeks later, on 21 October, KM was the first recipient of the RBNA’s new silver badge, presented to her by Princess Christian.

Should KM ever have been permitted RBNA membership at all? The rules were that nurses should have at least three years’ hospital experience. This was her record:

  • Deaconesses’ Institution and Training Hospital, Tottenham: Approx 1 year (1877-78)
    • But the RBNA registration board minutes @ KCL [of either 27 Dec 1895 / 16 March 1894 (my notes unclear)] state: “Isabella Davison was refused, the Deaconess’ Institution at Tottenham not counting as a Training School”
  • Westminster Hospital, London: A few months (1878)
    • This would certainly have counted, though KM’s accusers claim that the hospital carried no record of her time there (see Westminster Hospital page & Lady Lena Login’s comments)
  • Woolton Convalescent Home, Liverpool: Approx 4.5 yrs (late 1878-1882)
  • Wellington Hospital, New Zealand: Around six months (1885)

So, as Woolton was unlikely to have counted as a training hospital, KM was not qualified to be on the nurses’ official register. But on the other hand, she never made any pretence to look for nursing work as a registered RBNA member. And it is possible there were two registers (see note below).

One of the accusations later thrown at Kate was that she had been fast-tracked through qualification, doubtless due to the royal attention on her at the time.

In January 1895, Lucy Alexayeff and Rev Alexander Francis went to see Dr Thorne to discuss KM and her RBNA membership (with the hope of having it withdrawn). Lucy gave this account to Isabel Hapgood:

We went thence, if you please, to an appointment which Mr Francis had with some of the Committee of the Royal British Nurses Association! The very institution which at a remote period in the affair awarded her a badge & membership – about which, if you remember, we felt indignant & vexed – Strange that I should find myself there when the preliminary steps were taken for their being reclaimed! There were six members present besides their solicitor & (lady) Secretary – a very nice serious looking Dr Thorne was in the chair & the lady member next to me was Mrs Bedford Fenwick of all people – I am sorry that I do not know clearly where & how she had figured hitherto – she was at the World’s Fair I know – & Dr Thorne mentioned to us later that it was her husband who insisted upon KM’s hastily being appointed a member etc because she was going to be invited by the Queen & so on – adding that they had two extra meetings in one day to get it done in time & that it had been a most foolish thing! […] He [Dr Thorne, later] also mentioned that both Mr & Mrs Bedford Fenwick were at one time members of KM’s London Committee – but had both felt dissatisfied & had withdrawn.  [LMA letter to IFH #37]

 

Source:

  • RBNA archives at Kings College, The Strand, London [KCL]
  • KCL database of first nurses on the RBNA register (Pioneering Nurses). KM is not listed either by name or index number, but it is a way of seeing which institutions qualified. Although 18 nurses listed there had worked at a convalescent home, all of them had also worked for at least three years in other hospitals (often noted with a ‘cert’ against them). This discussion thread includes a comment from the Pioneering Nurses team about registration numbers:

It is confusing – there are two different registers, one has members of the RBNA which include doctors and other supporters as well as nurses, and the other is a register of nurses who were qualified, according to the regulations of the RBNA, to work as professional nurses and wished to be included on the register.