Page 9 - HGS Suburb News 138 - Spring 2019

The District Nurse

The district nurse has always book, bring back a nostalgia for babies in dreadful circumstances.
been part of the community, nurses in crisp white starched One district nurse recorded in
but when did district nursing aprons, sky-blue dresses with her daily notes that visits were
really begin? After reading and stiff white collars, black lace- concluded with prayer and
looking at Susan Cohen’s revealing ups with thick black stockings. bible reading. Some nurses were
new pictorial history, we can A sharp contrast to the nurses’ so brave that they were awarded
really understand how it evolved. scrubs of today. the George Medal for the courage
Sick men, women and children Before the National Health and persistence with which
have always been cared for at Service, raising money to cover they managed to save lives.
home since time immemorial, the cost of district nursing was a After the war things began to
but it was not until the late grave problem. How was the cost improve. They received a better,
1800s that these dedicated of wages, travel, accommodation, more practical uniform. Married
women took on the role of the as well as expenses for essential woman were able to remain in
district nurse. items such as medicines and the profession. Infant mortality
In those days life expectancy dressings to be provided for? dropped to 1 in 1000. Male
Memories of the Minsk Ghetto was short, infant mortality was There were the usual fêtes, nurses were recruited, though
high and medical knowledge
they were only permitted to
flower shows and concerts but
was unscientific, and there was it was always a problem. The nurse male patients.
An audience of 24 gathered in residents. She was presented with the book, We Remember Lest
no professional training for nurses. poor over-worked nurses earned
In 1948 with the inauguration
the Garden Suburb community a book in Russian which she the World Forget – Memories of As we know Florence Nightingale between £25 and £30 per year. of the National Health Service
library to listen to Debra Brunner, brought back to England, and the Minsk Ghetto, has now 1820-1910 was largely responsible Getting about was another the provision of the district
CEO of The Together Plan Charity, once translated she found it was been published in English.
talk about the work of her charity the individual memories of the Debra’s charity works with for permanently changing the difficulty. Their transport could nurse became the responsibility
and their latest publication. people she had tea with, all of Jewish communities in the region, face of home nursing care and be by donkey, bicycle, pony and of the county authority. Their
introduced professional training
cart, or even a tractor. In bad
services were now free to
As part of her work Debra whom survived the Minsk Ghetto. revitalising them with the help
was in Minsk and was invited to After much work, and also of both adults and young people for nurses in 1860. weather they had to walk for anyone and the nurses were
have tea with a group of elderly discovering additional survivors, from the UK. A fascinating talk. In 1887, when Queen Victoria miles to remote areas to reach paid by the state. Life became
celebrated her golden Jubilee, patients only to be confronted easier. Houses had telephones,
district nursing had been with epidemics of children with nurses had cars and there was
The Jamestown Brides elevated to a new status. They chicken-pox, influenza, blood- an emergency squad. However
poisoning, typhoid and even
were provided with resplendent
the role today of the district
uniforms. The wonderful black head lice. Delivering babies was nurse is still as challenging as
was sending out young women scheme than it might seem and white photographs in this part of the nurse’s role, 10% were ever. The 19th Century slums
of good reputation as brides for from a 21st century viewpoint. home births. District nurses were may have gone, but poverty and
planters. They were the ‘maids We get to understand what
for Virginia’ of Jennifer Potter’s the journey across the ocean available to 75% of the population. deprivation still exist. Many of the
During the wars, district
The Jamestown Brides. must have been like, and then nurses volunteered for active diseases and ailments the early
patients suffered from have been
Local author Jennifer Potter what confronted the women
was born in Devon, and spent once they arrived. Jamestown service. They helped in air raid replaced by more complex illnesses
time in Malaysia, Jordan and must have seemed a dismal, shelters and first aid posts. and medical conditions, which
Indonesia, reading French at small and poor place. The Some joined the armed forces make the job of the district
and civilian defence forces. nurse even more challenging.
Bristol University. She worked in women’s story is not, for the They were very brave, refusing
journalism before turning her most part, one of triumph. Not STEPHANIE HURST
hand to writing. The Jamestown all of them found men willing to give up on their patients
Brides is one of four novels and to pay the bride price – though even when caught up in air Images of the Past: The District
raids. Babies were born under
Nurse, Susan Cohen. Pen & Sword,
five non-fiction works. It traces women were scarce, there were
– as much as it can, given the other, cheaper, ways to find a bombardment. Mothers delivered £14.99.
paucity of surviving records – wife. And their fates are almost
the lives of 56 young women impossible to track, partially Become part of the community
shipped to Virginia to become because relevant records were
In 1607 three English ships planters’ wives in exchange for destroyed. Many of the 56 simply Complete and return the form below, join online, or download a standing
landed in Chesapeake Bay in tobacco, the profits from which disappear from any records; order form from hgs.org.uk/ra/joinnow.html. Alternatively, if you own a
Virginia. The men aboard were were to line the coffers of Potter is only able to trace with The book is a compelling smart phone, scan the QR code.
Our Privacy Policy can be viewed at
not fleeing poverty or religious Virginia Company speculators. some certainty the fates of four read – meticulously researched www.hgs.org.uk/ra/dataprotection.pdf
persecution. Instead they risked The book searches for the of them. Some will have been and well written. Like Potter
life and limb in the perilous women’s motivation for leaving killed or taken captive in the herself, I longed to know more
ocean voyage in order to find what was doubtless a less than Indian uprising that took place about the individual lives of the
gold and a passage to the Far idyllic life in England for an a mere three months after the women who willingly left one
East. They were not the first to unknown, but certainly dangerous women arrived – this is the book’s fairly stable if not particularly
try to settle the area – two land across the Atlantic, as well most harrowing incident. Many happy life for another undoubtedly
attempts had failed – but this as for what befell them after they must have succumbed to the unstable and probably perilous
time they succeeded in building arrived. First-hand information diseases and hard living that early one. In lieu of these stories, Potter MEMBERSHIP FORM
a lasting colony on the James on the women is scarce – they 17th century Jamestown offered. provides the reader with interesting one subscription covers everyone at the address
River and a settlement they were not the type to write letters The reader is left amazed that and evocative contextual stories, I would like to join the HGS Residents Association.
called Jamestown. Ill-prepared, and memoirs and probably could the colony actually survived. vivid descriptions and insightful
they had to rely on the area’s not write at all. Instead, Potter Certainly the people who settled legal proceedings. PLEASE USE CAPITALS THROUGHOUT
indigenous people and almost starts from lists of their names, in Virginia seemed less prepared to TINA ISAACS Name
all starved to death in the winter parentage, age, birthplace and face New World circumstances Address
of 1609-1610. Mortality remained testimonials from trusted sources, than their contemporary fellow The Jamestown Brides: the untold Postcode
extremely high in the early years and then finds what she can exiles in Massachusetts (founded story of England’s ‘maids for Virginia’,
– of the first 10,000 settlers only about them and their families in 1620), not that New Englanders Jennifer Potter (2018). London: Email
(Giving your email address helps us keep in touch and reduce costs )
2,000 survived. in parish and court records. had it easy, either. Atlantic Books, £20.
Still, more people came to While little can be learned Phone

Jamestown; gentlemen, craftsmen, directly about the women, Potter Subscription amount: £ (Minimum payment £15)
labourers, indentured servants ably describes their general circum- WORDSEARCH
and a handful of women. And stances, gives us insight into Fellowship donation: £ (To support Fellowship, a Suburb charity,
while no one found gold, they the men who ran – and ran into In the first of our new series of Wordsearch in 2019 we have (Optional) in its work for Suburb senior citizens)
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did ‘discover’ tobacco, which the ground – the Virginia highlighted to start you off, Names may be read in all directions, Total: £ (Total amount for cheque, standing
became a profitable crop. Much Company, and the environment straight or diagonally. Please send your entries by email to order, PayPal or credit card via
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propounded numerous for-profit such a perilous journey into the a £20 book token. Good luck! * I declare by making this donation that I want to Gift Aid my donations to
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