Pioneer nurse in Africa
by Mike Oettle
MENTION nursing,
and almost everyone’s heard about Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), who
turned secular nursing into a respectable profession. (Before Florence,
virtually all nurses in the English-speaking world who weren’t nuns were women
of poor education and no reputation.) But few outside the nursing profession
have heard about Henrietta Stockdale (1847-1911).
Yet without Henrietta, the good work done by Miss Nightingale might have been forgotten in this country until much later – and thanks to her efforts the Cape Colony became a pioneer state in recognising nursing as a properly organised
profession.
Let’s start at the beginning: Henrietta was born in Nottinghamshire, the eldest of five children of the Rev Henry Stockdale, Vicar of Misterton (and later of Bole). In similar fashion to Florence Nightingale, she received a solid classical education at home, first from her father and later from a governess.
At the age of 16 Henrietta “determined to become a missionary in Africa”.[1] When she was 25 she heard Allan Becher Webb, Bishop of Bloemfontein,[2] appeal for teachers and nurses to come and work with him in the Oranje Vrij Staat, and in response she was trained as a nurse at two London hospitals. Here again her life parallels that of Florence Nightingale, who in her mid-20s felt called by God to be a nurse, and underwent nursing training at the Institute for Protestant Deaconesses in Kaiserswerth, in Germany’s Ruhr
district.
The
following year, 1874, Henrietta joined Mother Emma (Emma Proctor) and four
associates and travelled to Bloemfontein, where they formed the Community of St
Michael and All Angels. She took her vows and was known as Sister Henrietta.
In 1876 she went to Kimberley and worked first as district nurse in the mining camps, and then at Kimberley’s new Carnarvon Hospital. There she was trained in midwifery, but then contacted typhoid and went home to England. She studied nursing training at London’s University College Hospital, and on her return to
Carnarvon Hospital she started the first training school for nurses in Southern
Africa.
Late in 1877 she returned to Bloemfontein for a year-long spell as matron of St
George’s Hospital, then returned to Carnarvon Hospital. During the Transvaal
war of 1880-81 (the First Anglo-Boer War) she was in charge of the military
hospital at Newcastle, Natal, and during the South African War (1899-1902)
she again nursed wounded men.
In 1890 Henrietta was registered (certificate No 15) with the British Trained
Nurses’ Association and she worked closely with its founder, Mrs Bedford
Fenwick, who was an early advocate of State registration of nurses. Thanks
to pressure Henrietta brought to bear on influential figures, notably Dr
William Guybon Atherstone, of Grahamstown, the Parliament of the Cape of Good
Hope became the first legislature in the world to provide for nurses’ and
midwives' registration, through the Medical and Pharmacy Act of 1891.
In 1892 Carnarvon and Diggers hospitals were combined to form Kimberley Hospital. In ’93, the Cape Government enlarged and subsidised the hospital and sent
doctors such as Starr Jameson and John Mackenzie, who took part in training
nurses. “Inspired and guided by her,” writes Dr Charlotte Searle in the Dictionary of South African Biography, “Kimberley nurses moved out to wherever they were needed, establishing hospitals, starting nurses' training schools, and providing nursing care.”
In 1895 the order withdrew from Kimberley Hospital. Henrietta moved to St Michael’s Home, and established a maternity nursing home and nursing co-operative.
Dr Searle gives this description of Henrietta: “This remarkable woman, who laid the
foundation of professional nursing and modern hospital organisation in
Southern Africa, was a singularly attractive person, tall, well built, with a
creamy complexion, soft, dark brown hair, blue eyes and a pleasant voice. She
was regarded as a saint by some, and as a keen business woman politican by
others. She had a fearless approach to the political questions of the day,
and never hesitated to enlist the aid of a Royal Princess when she felt that
nursing and the care of the sick were threatened.”
That she was seen as a saint in later years is in sharp contrast with Florence Nightingale who, although she continued fighting for nursing all her life despite being an invalid, became bitter and vindictive in old age.
Henrietta died on 6 October 1911 and is buried in Kimberley. A stained glass window in St Cyprian’s Cathedral commemorates her life and work, and in the cathedral grounds is a statue of her by Jack Penn. The original Kimberley Hospital chapel, built in her time at the hospital, is a national monument.
