Search

This article examines the previously neglected history of Lancaster's Crimean War monument, dedicated in November 1860. It connects the monument to two key features of the town's mid-century history: Tory paternalism and a resurgent popular patriotism linked to the contemporary 'Volunteer Movement'. It also establishes the broader significance of the structure, especially in terms of British approaches to war commemoration. In particular, it argues that a key feature of the monument—it carries the names of nineteen of the town's servicemen, all rank and file—complicates the generally accepted chronology of when interest in commemorating the 'common soldier' first emerged in Britain. In this sense, Lancaster's Crimean War monument is one of several mid- and late-Victorian monuments, as the Boer War took place in the later Victorian period, that anticipated the defining quality of war remembrance in the post-1918 period, what Thomas Laqueur has called 'necronominalism' (that is, the naming of the dead, regardless of class or status). The monument is thus indicative of Lancaster's mid-century social politics and it also nuances, usefully, key details regarding the history of British war commemoration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Nursing is the property of Taiwan Nurses Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article follows the case of Colonel Crawley from his role in a bungled Indian court martial in 1862 to his own trial in England the next year. The death of a soldier and his wife during the original court case was the key to transforming the events in an obscure Indian cantonment into a British sensation. A close examination of the regional and imperial networks that were essential to relaying the dead couple's story shows how members of press collaborated with interested parties to craft a popular, fiction-infused narrative of the case calculated to raise public anger against Crawley. Yet, at the resulting trial, the Colonel's defence team were able to check this attack with the creation of their own theatrical narrative lifted from imperial dramas. This article will argue that the power of a self-confident and expanding Victorian British press to redress social ills was limited by their reliance on simplified melodramatic narratives that were prone to backlash. In the case of legal proceedings, like those against Colonel Crawley, cases were framed to reflect popular grievances rather than the strongest legal case. Moreover, as the backlash at the trial reflected the temporary triumph of an alternative melodramatic narrative, the audience and reader responses must be understood as likewise scripted. Consequently, analysis of the Crawley scandal shows the imperative need to evaluate the development and ‘outcome’ of Victoriancause célèbrein light of the fictional and theatrical conventions of the period. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article considers the history of Fort Pitt (1780-1922), its military hospital (founded 1814) and, in particular, its Army Medical School (1860-63). The museum and library were the work of the hospital's first directors: Dr David MacLoughlin and Sir James McGrigor, the latter the renowned reformer of military medical education. Central to the foundation of the medical school was Florence Nightingale who visited the site in 1856. The school opened in 1860 with five sets of students attending before it was transferred in 1863 to the Royal Victoria hospital, Netley, Hampshire. Fort Pitt was a "practical" medical school with students attending for 4-9 months of clinical experience. This included "instruction in tropical medicine" delivered by members of the Indian Medical Service. The foundation of a military medical school fulfilled an ambition dating back to at least 1796. Nightingale's role (exerted through Sidney Herbert) was omitted from contemporary newspaper reports. Fort Pitt continued as a military hospital until 1922 when it was converted to a school. The medical school constitutes a landmark in British military medicine, a response to the failure of British medical care in the Crimean war (1853-1856) and a forgotten legacy of Florence Nightingale.

In the wake of Brexit, a tribute to the pioneering black nurse should offer inspiration in the battles against racism.

The boundaries between medicine, religion, nursing and domestic service were fluid in mid-nineteenth-century England. The traditional religious understanding of illness conflicted with the newer understanding of anatomically based disease, the Anglican sisters were drawing a line between professional nursing and the traditional role of nurses as domestic servants who looked after sick people as one of their many duties, and doctors were looking for more knowledgeable nurses who could carry out their orders competently. This prosopographical study of the over 200 women who served as government nurses during the Crimean War 1854-56 describes the status of nursing and provides a picture of the religious and social structure of Britain in the 1850s. It also illustrates how religious, political and social factors affected the development of the new nursing. The Crimean War nurses can be divided into four major groups: volunteer secular ladies, Roman Catholic nuns, Anglican sisters and working-class hospital nurses. Of these four groups I conclude that it was the experienced working-class nurses who had the greatest influence on the organization of the new nursing.