In the Crimea, the British soldiers were facing many difficulties encamped before Sebastopol. As the winter of 1854 approached they lacked the supplies needed to survive the harsh weather. Many of the supply ships had been sunk in a hurricane, and it was difficult to get the supplies that had arrived up to the front, as the roads turned to almost impassable mud tracks. Queen Victoria, anxious to hear about the welfare of the soldiers, was kept up to date with events, and copies of some of their letters were circulated. One such letter, from Captain Gordon of the Scots Fusilier Guards, describes the way in which diseases such as cholera were afflicting the troops:
'...We have got over 100 men sick in our Hospital tents and I am sorry to say that the cholera has broken out amongst us again, which is very sad as the sick have nothing to lie upon but the wet ground, our clergyman who has only just come out to us, visited our Hospitals up here for the first time yesterday, and told me he expected to see them in a very bad state, but certainly he never thought they were as bad as they are ...'
The British troops lacked the resources to deal effectively with the numbers of sick and wounded in the Crimea. From Balaklava, the men would be taken by ship to hospital at Scutari, on the shore of the Bosphorus 335 miles away.
It was here that Florence Nightingale had arrived with forty nurses at the Barrack Hospital in November 1854. On her arrival she faced opposition from those in charge, despite the large number of wounded arriving from the Crimea, the lack of sanitation, food and beds and the extent of disease.
Queen Victoria was anxious to hear of the state of the soldiers, and requested details from Miss Nightingale's reports.
Queen Victoria was concerned to hear of the difficulties and felt compelled to act. As well as putting pressure on the Government to give improved support, she asked for reading matter and items such as soap and beef tea to be sent to Scutari hospital, to be distributed by Florence Nigthingale and her nurses.
Moved by the work of Miss Nightingale, the Queen wished to acknowledge her efforts with a personal gift. A specially designed brooch, inscribed 'Blessed are the Merciful' was madelate in 1855, and sent by Queen Victoria to Florence Nightingale with the following accompanying letter:
'Dear Miss Nightingale,
You are I know well aware of the high sense, I entertain, of the Christian devotion which you have displayed during this great and bloody War, and I need hardly repeat to you - how warm my admiration is for your Services which. are fully equal to those of my dear and brave Soldiers whose sufferings you have had the privilege of alleviating in so merciful a manner. I am however anxious of marking my feelings in a manner which I trust will be agreeable to you, - and therefore send you with this letter a brooch the form and emblems of which commemorate your great and blessed work - and which I hope you will wear as a mark of the high approbation of your Sovereign!
It will be a very great satisfaction to me when you return at last to these shores to make the acquaintance of one who has set so bright an example to our Sex, & with every prayer for the preservation of your valuable health,
Believe me always,
Yours sincerely
VR'
After the war was over Queen Victoria invited Florence Nightingale to Balmoral so that she could hear a first-hand account of her experiences.
In person, Miss Nightingale convinced the Queen and Prince Albert of the need for a full review of the military hospital system and on 5 May 1857 a Royal Warrant was issued for a commission to enquire into the health of the army. At the Queen's command Florence Nightingale prepared a volume of notes on the hospital administration of the British Army, which she had privately printed in 1858. She sent a copy to Queen Victoria and in the letter which accompanied the book, she wrote:
'...The system to which such evils are attributable has preserved its vitality for nearly two centuries. But no term can be assigned to the affectionate gratitude which will surround the names of Her Majesty and the Prince Consort, if, by their authority, that system be now replaced by one more in conformity with the progress in science and morality, which has been made under Her Majesty's beneficent reign...'
Queen Victoria was also sensitive to the conditions in which wounded soldiers were being treated through her visits to the sick and injured. After visiting a military hospital at Fort Pitt in Chatham, Queen Victoria wrote to Lord Panmure, Secretary for War, criticising the buildings with their high windows, small wards, and lack of a dining room 'so that the poor men must have their dinners in the same room in which they sleep, and in which some may be dying'.
In 1856, The Royal Victoria Hospital, Netley, was built to counter the inadequacies of existing military hospitals in Britain. The Queen laid the foundation stone of the hospital; below the stone was a box containing coins, a Crimea medal, a Victoria Cross and a document signed by the Queen.
Queen Victoria's sense of social responsibility and compassion towards the wounded soldiers, together with Florence Nightingale's expertise, helped to improve conditions for some of the injured men during the conflict. At the end of the war, Queen Victoria's support of Florence Nightingale led to the reform of the medical services to the British Army which was to be of benefit for generations to come. |