_THE CRIMEAN WAR AND CALL TO SERVICE_
Tribute to Florence Nightingale by the Countess of Lovelace--Outbreak
of the Crimean War--Distressing Condition of the Sick and
Wounded--Mr. W. H. Russell’s Letters to _The Times_--Call
for Women Nurses--Mr. Sidney Herbert’s Letter to Miss
Nightingale--She offers her Services.
The bullet comes--and either
A desolate hearth may see;
And God alone to-night knows where
The vacant place may be.
ADELAIDE PROCTER.
Then, then a woman’s low soft sympathy
Comes like an angel’s voice to teach us how to die.
EDWIN ARNOLD.
Before the more heroic elements in Florence Nightingale’s character
had been evoked by the events of the Crimean War, her intimate friends
had begun to regard her as a woman for whom the future held some great
destiny. This was strikingly shown in a poem by Ada, Countess of
Lovelace, the daughter of Byron, who described the future heroine of
the Crimea in a poem entitled _A Portrait from Life_. She draws the
picture of her slender form, her “grave but large and lucid eye,” her
“peaceful, placid loveliness,” refers to her love of books, her “soft,
silvery voice” and delight in singing sacred songs--
She walks as if on heaven’s brink,
Unscathed through life’s entangled maze--
and in a concluding verse Lady Lovelace makes the following remarkable
prophecy:--
In future years in distant climes
Should war’s dread strife its victims claim,
Should pestilence, unchecked betimes,
Strike more than sword, than cannon maim,
He who then reads these truthful rhymes
Will trace her progress to undying fame.
The “war’s dread strife” which, in fulfilment of the poet’s intuition,
was to lift Florence Nightingale into “undying fame,” began in the
early spring of 1854. An outbreak of hostilities between Great Britain
and Russia had been impending for some months. Russia made no reply
to the ultimatum sent by Great Britain, and on March 27th, 1854, the
Queen’s Message to Parliament announced that the negotiations were
broken off with Russia and she felt bound to give aid to the Sultan of
Turkey. The following day, March 28th, Her Majesty’s formal declaration
of war was read amid scenes of excitement and enthusiasm from the steps
of the Royal Exchange.
France was England’s ally for the protection of Turkey against Russian
aggression, and vigorous preparations for the campaign proceeded on
either side of the Channel.
A few days after the declaration of war, the English fleet, under the
command of the gallant Sir Charles Napier, sailed for the Baltic,
speeded on its way by thousands of cheering spectators and by the
Queen and Prince Consort, who came in their yacht, the _Fairy_, to
take leave of the officers and men. The eyes of elderly people still
beam and brighten if one mentions this memorable sailing of the
fleet for the Baltic. It was then forty years since Wellington had
returned victorious from Waterloo, and the blood of the nation was up
for another fight. Time had deadened the memory of the horrors and
suffering which war entails: only a thirst for glory and conquest
remained. The whole nation echoed the words of Napier to his men:
“Lads, war is declared. We are to meet a bold and numerous enemy.
Should they offer us battle, you know how to dispose of them. Should
they remain in port, we must try to get at them. Success depends upon
the quickness and decision of your fire. Lads, sharpen your cutlasses,
and the day is ours.”
[Illustration: SIDNEY, LORD HERBERT OF LEA.
[_To face p. 96._
]
In due time tidings came of the victory of Alma. But alas for the brave
“lads,” for the news came too of the wounded lying uncared for, the
sick untended, the dying unconsoled. In the midst of the nation’s
rejoicings at victory a cry of indignation arose on behalf of her
soldiers.
There had been gross neglect in the war administration, and the
commissariat had broken down. Food, clothing, and comforts had been
stowed in the hold of vessels beneath ammunition and could not be
got at when required, while other stores rotted on the shores of the
Bosphorus while awaiting delivery. Not only were food and clothing
lamentably scarce, but the surgeons were often without even lint and
bandages, to say nothing of other requisites for ambulance and hospital
work. “The commonest accessories of a hospital are wanting,” wrote
_The Times_ war correspondent, William Howard Russell, “there is not
the least attention paid to decency or cleanliness, the stench is
appalling; ... and for all I can observe, the men die without the least
effort to save them. There they lie just as they were let gently down
on the ground by the poor fellows, the comrades, who brought them on
their backs from the camp with the greatest tenderness, but who are not
allowed to remain with them.”
The staff of army doctors was insufficient to deal with the wounded,
which after the battles of Alma and Inkerman accumulated in appalling
numbers, and there were no nurses except the untrained male orderlies,
many of whom were only a little less sick than those whom they were
supposed to tend. There was no woman’s hand to soothe the fevered brow,
administer nourishment, perform the various little offices for the
sick, and console the dying.
The untended and uncared-for state of our own soldiers was rendered
more conspicuous by the humane system which prevailed amongst our
French allies. In camp and hospital sisters of mercy glided from
stretcher to stretcher, and from bed to bed, administering food and
help to the wounded. In their convent homes all over France they had
been trained in the work of sick nursing, and their holy vocations did
not prevent them from going forth to the scene of battle.
Soon came the appeal which roused Englishwomen and their country to
a sense of duty, and the honour of uttering it belongs to Mr. (later
Sir) William Howard Russell, the veteran war correspondent, then
representing _The Times_ at the seat of war. After describing the
suffering which he had witnessed amongst the sick and wounded soldiers,
he raised the clarion note:--
“Are there no devoted women amongst us, able and willing to go forth
to minister to the sick and suffering soldiers of the East in the
hospitals at Scutari? Are none of the daughters of England, at this
extreme hour of need, ready for such a work of mercy?... France has
sent forth her sisters of mercy unsparingly, and they are even now by
the bedsides of the wounded and the dying, giving what woman’s hand
alone can give of comfort and relief.... Must we fall so far below the
French in self-sacrifice and devotedness, in a work which Christ so
signally blesses as done unto Himself? ‘I was sick and ye visited Me.’”
The wives of officers at the seat of war sent home harrowing accounts
of the distress amongst the wounded and the futility of their own
efforts to cope with it. “Could you see the scenes that we are daily
witnessing,” wrote one lady to her friends, “you would indeed be
distressed. I am still in barracks, but the sick are now lying in the
passages, within a few yards of my room. Every corner is filled up with
the sick and wounded. However, I am enabled to do some little good, and
I hope I shall not be obliged to leave just yet. My time is occupied in
cooking for the wounded. Three doors from me there is an officer’s wife
who devotes herself to cooking for the sick. There are no female nurses
here, which decidedly there ought to be. The French have sent fifty
sisters of mercy, who, we need hardly say, are devoted to the work. We
are glad to hear that some efforts are being made at home.”
The reason why female nurses had not been sent out at the beginning
of the war was explained by the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State
for War, when he gave evidence before Mr. Roebuck’s Commission, which
sat in 1855 to inquire into the conduct of the campaign, and it is of
interest to quote the evidence as it so exactly explains the train
of circumstances which led to Miss Nightingale’s appointment. Asked
“When did you first determine on sending nurses to Scutari?” the Duke
replied:--
“The employment of nurses in the hospital at Scutari was mooted in
this country, at an early stage before the army left this country,
but it was not liked by the military authorities. It had been tried
on former occasions. The class of women employed as nurses had been
very much addicted to drinking, and they were found even more callous
to the sufferings of soldiers in hospitals than men would have been.
Subsequently, in consequence of letters in the public press, and of
recommendations made by gentlemen who had returned to this country
from Scutari, we began to consider the subject of employing nurses.
The difficulty was to get a lady to take in hand the charge of
superintending and directing a body of nurses. After having seen one
or two I almost despaired of the practicability of the matter until
Mr. Sidney Herbert suggested Miss Nightingale, with whom he had been
previously acquainted, for the work, and that lady eventually undertook
it.”
Here we have the difficulty of the situation revealed. The nurses
hitherto employed in military hospitals had been of a coarse, low
character. They had neither education, training, nor sympathy for
their work. To compare them to “Sairey Gamp” would be an insult to
that immortal lady’s memory, for she had her good points and a certain
professional knowledge and respectability to maintain, while the
average soldiers’ nurse was little more than a mere camp follower. On
the other hand were the good, kindly ladies who felt that they had a
vocation for nursing, but, alas! were absolutely devoid of training and
incapable of organising and controlling subordinates. Between these two
impossible classes the war authorities had come to the conclusion that
the army in the Crimea would be better without female nurses.
The rousing appeal to the women of the country from Mr. Russell, _The
Times_ correspondent, already quoted, had the effect of inundating the
authorities with applications from women of all classes who, moved by
the harrowing accounts of the suffering soldiers, were anxious to go
out as nurses. The offers of help were bewilderingly numerous, but
there was no organisation and no leader.
Mr. Sidney Herbert was at the head of the War Department, and, in the
midst of the excitement and general futility of things, his thoughts
naturally turned to his honoured friend, Florence Nightingale. In his
opinion she was the “one woman” in England who was fitted by position,
knowledge, training, and character to organise a nursing staff and
take them out to the aid of the suffering soldiers. He had, as we have
already seen, an intimate personal knowledge of Miss Nightingale, was
aware of the thorough and systematic study which she had for some
years been giving to hospital nursing at home and abroad, and he knew
also of the organising skill which she had been recently displaying in
the management of the Harley Street Home for Sick Governesses. Mrs.
Herbert, a lady of great insight and knowledge, felt with her husband
that if Miss Nightingale could be induced to undertake the hazardous
task of organising a band of military nurses, the success of the scheme
would be ensured.
But Mr. and Mrs. Herbert had a natural hesitation in making such a
suggestion. It was tantamount to asking their dear friend to go out
with her life in her hands, as well as to brave the adverse criticism
of a large number of short-sighted but well-meaning people, who would
lift up their hands in protest at the idea of a lady of birth and
breeding going out to nurse the common soldier. Poor “Tommy” had a
worse character then than now.
It was clear to Mr. Herbert that if Miss Nightingale were to be asked
to undertake this work, she must be placed in an undisputed position
of authority and supported by the Government. Everything depended on
having a recognised head. To allow bands of lady nurses to start for
the seat of war, each carrying out their pet and immature notions on
hospital work, would have been futile and useless. To send them to
Scutari and place them under the control of the authorities then in
charge of the hospital, would have defeated the chief object of the
plan, which was to reform and amend the existing order of nursing
prevailing at the hospital. Neither was it likely that so shrewd and
capable a woman as Miss Nightingale would consent to organise a new
nursing system--for it practically amounted to that--unless she was
guaranteed a position of undisputed authority. How necessary that was
to the success of the enterprise after events fully proved.
Fortunately, Sidney Herbert was a statesman in a position to
influence his colleagues in the Government, and his recommendation
of Miss Nightingale as a lady fully qualified to perform the task of
Superintendent of Nurses for the Crimea was received with approval,
and indeed with a sense of relief. Here was the woman whom distraught
Ministers had been vainly looking for amidst the motley throng of the
unfit. When things were so far arranged, Sidney Herbert addressed the
following letter to his friend:--
_“October 15th, 1854._
“DEAR MISS NIGHTINGALE,--
“You will have seen in the papers that there is a great deficiency
of nurses at the hospital of Scutari. The other alleged
deficiencies--namely, of medical men, lint, sheets, etc.--must, if
they ever existed, have been remedied ere this, as the number of
medical officers with the army amounted to one to every ninety-five
men in the whole force, being nearly double what we have ever had
before; and thirty more surgeons went out there three weeks ago,
and must by this time, therefore, be at Constantinople. A further
supply went on Monday, and a fresh batch sail next week. As to
medical stores, they have been sent out in profusion, by the ton
weight--fifteen thousand pairs of sheets, medicine, wine, arrowroot
in the same proportion; and the only way of accounting for the
deficiency at Scutari, if it exists, is that the mass of the stores
went to Varna, and had not been sent back when the army left for
the Crimea, but four days would have remedied that.
“In the meanwhile, stores are arriving, but the deficiency of
female nurses is undoubted; none but male nurses have ever been
admitted to military hospitals. It would be impossible to carry
about a large staff of female nurses with an army in the field.
But at Scutari, having now a fixed hospital, no military reason
exists against the introduction, and I am confident they might be
introduced with great benefit, for hospital orderlies must be very
rough hands, and most of them, on such an occasion as this, very
inexperienced ones. I receive numbers of offers from ladies to go
out, but they are ladies who have no conception of what a hospital
is, nor of the nature of its duties; and they would, when the time
came, either recoil from the work or be entirely useless, and
consequently, what is worse, entirely in the way; nor would those
ladies probably even understand the necessity, especially in a
military hospital, of strict obedience to rule....”
Mr. Sidney Herbert then proceeds to name certain people who were
anxious to organise and send out nurses, but about whose capability for
the work he is in doubt. The letter then continues:--
“There is but one person in England that I know of who would be
capable of organising and superintending such a scheme, and I have
been several times on the point of asking you hypothetically if,
supposing the attempt were made, you would undertake to direct it.
The selection of the rank and file of nurses would be difficult--no
one knows that better than yourself. The difficulty of finding
women equal to a task after all full of horror, and requiring,
besides knowledge and goodwill, great knowledge and great courage,
will be great; the task of ruling them and introducing system among
them great, and not the least will be the difficulty of making the
whole work smoothly with the medical and military authorities out
there. This it is which makes it so important that the experiment
should be carried out by one with administrative capacity and
experience.
“A number of sentimental enthusiastic ladies turned loose in the
hospital at Scutari would probably, after a few days, be _mises à
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? You
would, of course, have plenary authority over all the nurses, and
I think I could secure you the fullest assistance and co-operation
from the medical staff, and you would also have an unlimited power
of drawing on the Government for whatever you think requisite for
the success of your mission....
“I do not say one word to press you,” continues Mr. Sidney
Herbert, and then proceeds to pay a tribute to Miss Nightingale’s
capabilities for filling a public post at an hour of crisis such as
no responsible Minister of a Government had ever paid to a woman
before, or indeed since.
“I must not conceal from you,” he continues, “that upon your
decision will depend the ultimate success or failure of the plan.
Your own personal qualities, your knowledge, and your power of
administration, and, among greater things, your rank and position
in society, give you advantages in such a work which no other
person possesses. If this succeeds, an enormous amount of good will
be done now, and to persons deserving everything at our hands; and
which will multiply the good to all time.
“I hardly like to be sanguine as to your answer. If it were yes,
I am certain the Bracebridges would go with you, and give you all
the comforts you would require, and which her [Mrs. Bracebridge’s]
society and sympathy only could give you. I have written very long,
for the subject is very near my heart. Liz [Mrs. Sidney Herbert]
is writing to our mutual friend Mrs. Bracebridge, to tell her what
I am doing. I go back to town to-morrow morning. Shall I come to
you between three and five? Will you let me have a line at the War
Office, to let me know?
“There is one point which I have hardly a right to touch upon,
but I trust you will pardon me. If you were inclined to undertake
the great work, would Mr. and Mrs. Nightingale consent? The work
would be so national, and the request made to you proceeding
from the Government, your position would ensure the respect and
consideration of every one, especially in a service where official
rank carries so much weight. This would secure you any attention or
comfort on your way out there, together with a complete submission
to your orders. I know these things are a matter of indifference
to you, except as far as they may further the great object you may
have in view, but they are of importance in themselves, and of
every importance to those who have a right to take an interest in
your personal position and comfort. I know you will come to a right
and wise decision. God grant it may be one in accordance with my
hopes.
“Believe me, dear Miss Nightingale,
“Ever yours,
“SIDNEY HERBERT.”
Meantime the “one woman in all England” deemed worthy of this high
trust was in the quietude of her country home pondering over the
stirring words of Mr. Russell, _The Times_ correspondent: “Are there
no devoted women amongst us, able and willing to go forth to minister
to the sick and suffering soldiers in the hospitals of Scutari?” Each
morning the newspapers revealed fresh sufferings and privations amongst
the stricken soldiers, and the cries for help grew more importunate.
Florence Nightingale was not the woman to listen in vain, and ere the
sun had faded away behind the beech-trees on that memorable 15th of
October, she had written to Mr. Sidney Herbert offering her services in
the hospitals at Scutari.
Her letter crossed that of Mr. Herbert, of which she was in complete
ignorance. The unique circumstance gives a rounded completeness to the
call of Florence Nightingale which came as the voice of God speaking
through her tender woman’s heart.