Mary Stanley

Mary Stanley (1813–1879) philanthropist and nurse, is best known for her dispute in the Crimea with her friend Florence Nightingale.[1]

Mary Stanley
Born	14 December 1813
Died	26 November 1879(1879-11-26) (aged 65)
Nationality	British
Known for	Pioneering modern nursing

Personal life

She was born in Alderley, Cheshire, the second of five children to Edward Stanley, later to be the Bishop of Norwich, and sister of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Dean of Westminster and Owen Stanley, the naval explorer. She was also a close friend of Sidney Herbert, and his wife. She was an ardent Puseyite. She converted to Catholicism in 1856.[2]

Nursing

Mary Stanley was one of the women who answered the appeal which went out for nurses for the Crimea. She shared Florence Nightingale's interest in nursing, the two having become friends in 1847, and like Florence Nightingale, was an advocate of the Kaiserswerth plan for a time.[3] However, while Nightingale was initially an admirer of the Sisters of Mercy and later became an admirer of Kaiserswerth, Stanley went the other way and this led to her conversion. Mary Stanley helped the government recruit the first group of nurses to go to Constantinople which included a group of nuns from the Irish Sisters of Mercy.[3] She and Nightingale were assisted in their nursing endeavours by Cardinal Manning. With his aid Stanley led a second party of predominately Catholic nurses to the Crimea. The rift between her and Nightingale began when she arrived. Despite the reviews given by Nightingale of these nurses some went on to have stellar careers in nursing and the primary objection was probably due to the argument about who was in charge and a degree of mistrust of Catholics at the time.[3][4][5]

Published works

Stanley wrote a book outlining the issues with getting trained women for the role of nurses in British hospitals; 'Hospitals and Sisterhoods' published in 1854. Her second book 'True to Life: A Simple Story' was published in 1873.[2][6]

Later life

On her return from the Crimea she continued with her philanthropic work, establishing savings clubs, an industrial laundry and creating employment for soldiers' wives in the production of army uniforms. In 1861, during the "cotton famine" in Lancashire caused by the American Civil War, she assisted Elizabeth Gaskell to distribute aid to the unemployed cotton workers.[7] In 1870 she became a founding member of the Ladies' Committee of the British Red Cross.

She died in 1879 at the age of 66.[7] She is buried in Alderley, Cheshire.

References

1. Lynn McDonald (21 December 2010). Florence Nightingale: The Crimean War: Collected Works of Florence Nightingale. Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press. pp. 77–. ISBN 978-1-55458-245-7.
2. Joseph Gillow (1850–1921). A literary and biographical history, or bibliographical dictionary, of the English Catholics from the breach with Rome, in 1534, to the present time. p. 524.CS1 maint: date format (link)
3. Robert Dingwall; Anne Marie Rafferty; Charles Webster (11 September 2002). An Introduction to the Social History of Nursing. Routledge. pp. 39–. ISBN 978-1-134-97871-7.
4. Judith Lissauer Cromwell (15 March 2013). Florence Nightingale, Feminist. McFarland. pp. 128–. ISBN 978-0-7864-7092-1.
5. Raphael Samuel (4 October 2016). Routledge Revivals: Patriotism: The Making and Unmaking of British National Identity (1989): Volume II: Minorities and Outsiders. Taylor & Francis. pp. 78–. ISBN 978-1-315-45050-6.
6. Marilyn D. Button; Jessica A. Sheetz-Nguyen (4 November 2013). Victorians and the Case for Charity: Essays on Responses to English Poverty by the State, the Church and the Literati. McFarland. pp. 257–. ISBN 978-0-7864-7032-7.
7. "Bishop Stanley". Norwich Heart. Retrieved 13 February 2011..