Ethel (Mrs. Bedford) Fenwick (January 26th 1856- March 1947) was born Ethel Gordon Manson in the Morayshire town of Elgin in Scotland, and was the first name registered on the first list of nurses in the world.

She was the daughter of a wealthy doctor, he died early in her life and Ethel's mother was to marry Mr George Storer a Member of Parliament. There family home became Thoroton Hall Notts.

She was educated privately at Middlethorpe Hall, York, before at the age of 21 she commencing nurse training at the Children's Hospital in Nottingham as a paying probationer nurse and then at Royal Infirmary Manchester. Her expertise was soon noted and it was not long before she left for London, where she worked in hospitals in Whitechapel, and Richmond.

In 1881, at the age of 24, Ethel was appointed Matron of St Bartholomew's Hospital, a post she held for the next six years until in 1887 she resigned her post to marry a doctor Bedford Fenwick. She was also instrumental in founding the International Congress of Nurses and was its president for the first five years. However, she had a tense relationship with many of the other international nursing leaders and was widely known to be the bully among them. She was especially condescending toward German nurses in the tradition of Florence Nightingale, another prominent British nurse trained in a German school.

She extended significantly the training period for nurses, and campaigned for the state registration of nurses. This was achieved through the Nurses Registration Act 1919, and Mrs Fenwick was appointed state registered nurse no.1 when the register opened in 1923.

Ethel Fenwick acquired the Nursing Record in 1893 and became its editor in 1903. It was renamed The British Journal of Nursing and through its pages for the next 54 years her thinking and her beliefs are clearly revealed. She believed that there was a need for training to a recognised standard and was instrumental in forming The British Nurses Association now the Royal British Nurses Association.

In 1999 an English Heritage "blue plaque" was attached to her former home at 20 Upper Wimpole Street, London, England.

Bibliography

Nurses | British nurses