Nursing in Whiteparish
Little is known of nursing care in Whiteparish until the very end of the 19th century. A midwife was working in Whiteparish by 1811, who was required to attend to the poor, but most nursing would have been provided informally by family members, friends and neighbours. In 1883 a concert was held in the village to raise funds for a nurse for the sick poor, but it is unclear if one was ever appointed.
In January 1896 the parish council agreed to provide £15 from the charitable funds which it administered towards providing a parish nurse. The remainder was to be made up by voluntary subscriptions, and a total of £21. 10s. had been promised by the end of the month. A Whiteparish Nursing Fund was established, managed by the village doctor.
The appointment of the nurse took place fairly quickly thereafter. Nurse Austin was not a local woman but was recruited from London; moreover she was French and a Roman Catholic, something notable in strongly Protestant Whiteparish. As early as April the village doctor was on record as saying that he did not fault her capabilities as a nurse, but ‘she lacked tact, and seemed to cause disturbances’. These problems were not resolved, and she was reported to have been dismissed later that month, but refused to go quietly, producing in her support a petition signed by 79 parishioners. Whether Nurse Austin was dismissed in April is uncertain, since she was still in the village in July, when a public meeting was called to debate the matter. The doctor did not attend the meeting but Nurse Austin did attend, and spoke in her defence. She admitted to having differed with the doctor over his treatment of several patients, but said she had sound professional reasons for doing so.
Despite her ‘outsider’ status as a Catholic and a Frenchwoman, and the difficulties between her and the doctor, many people in the parish supported her and valued her qualities as a nurse. This was not enough to reverse her dismissal by the parish council, which had taken place by August, though the council did agree to pay her travel expenses in coming to Whiteparish and in returning to London. Her Catholic faith may have been an issue for some influential inhabitants; one of the largest landowners in the parish had reportedly refused to subscribe to the voluntary fund for this reason.
The parish council did not attempt to recruit another nurse. The councillors may have had their fingers burnt by this episode, or they may have taken another look at the cost. A qualified nurse, such as Nurse Austin, could expect £1 a week, but, as the charity funds were limited, such a salary was heavily reliant on the uncertain generosity of individual subscribers.
Whiteparish did eventually get a parish nurse, albeit shared with the neighbouring parishes of Landford and Nomansland. In December 1905 the parish council received a letter from the wonderfully-named Lady Luck of Landford Lodge, honorary secretary of the committee for providing such a nurse, seeking support. The council kept such requests at arm’s length, though a year later, by which time a nurse was stationed in the parish, the councillors agreed to make payments from the charitable funds towards those cases she attended in Whiteparish, though not those outside the parish. Lady Luck’s efforts to establish nursing care in the district was far more successful than the attempt by Whiteparish parish council; as the Whiteparish, Landford and Nomansland Nursing Association, it was still providing nursing care in 1927.
~ Rosalind Johnson - 12 May 23