Louisa McLaughlin
Encyclopedia
Field hospital
A field hospital is a large mobile medical unit that temporarily takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent hospital facilities...
s were then called) during the Franco-Prussian War
Franco-Prussian War
The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the 1870 War was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia. Prussia was aided by the North German Confederation, of which it was a member, and the South German states of Baden, Württemberg and...
of 1870. She also wears the Gold Cross of the Order of the Takova marking her work in the Serbo-Turkish war, the prelude to the Russo-Turkish War (1877 – 78). Her partner Emma Maria Pearson
Emma Maria Pearson
Emma Maria Pearson , the daughter of Captain Charles Pearson, RN, of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, was a writer and one of the first British women to serve as a nurse for the Red Cross....
(1828–93) was awarded the same medals.
Background and Training
Louisa’s family was typical of the upper ten thousandUpper ten thousand
Upper Ten Thousand, or simply, The Upper Ten, is a phrase coined in 1852 by American poet Nathaniel Parker Willis to describe the upper circles of New York, and hence of other major cities....
. Her father, the Very Rev. Hubert McLaughlin (1805–1882),http://www.harrymclaughlin.com/RevHubertMcLaughlinBloodsRoyal.htm and mother, the Honorable Frederica Crofton (1816–1881),http://www.harrymclaughlin.com/FredericaCrofton.htm
each had a pedigree going back to King Edward I of England.
Hubert McLaughlin was Rector of Burford, Shropshire
Burford, Shropshire
Burford is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England.- Location :The parish is situated to the north of the River Teme, on the other side of the Teme is the Worcestershire town of Tenbury Wells. To the west, the A456 road bridges the Ledwyche Brook, leading to the Herefordshire village of...
, a Rural Dean
Rural Dean
In the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, a Rural Dean presides over a Rural Deanery .-Origins and usage:...
, and a Prebendary
Prebendary
A prebendary is a post connected to an Anglican or Catholic cathedral or collegiate church and is a type of canon. Prebendaries have a role in the administration of the cathedral...
in Hereford Cathedral
Hereford Cathedral
The current Hereford Cathedral, located at Hereford in England, dates from 1079. Its most famous treasure is Mappa Mundi, a mediæval map of the world dating from the 13th century. The cathedral is a Grade I listed building.-Origins:...
. He began his clerical career as domestic chaplain to Edward Crofton, 2nd Baron Crofton
Edward Crofton, 2nd Baron Crofton
Edward Crofton, 2nd Baron Crofton , known as Sir Edward Crofton, 4th Baronet, from 1816 to 1817, was an Anglo-Irish Conservative politician....
(1806–89), Representative Peer for Ireland and Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria.
In 1835, Hubert married Frederica, who was Lord Crofton's youngest sister. Louisa, their first child, was born in Nice
Nice
Nice is the fifth most populous city in France, after Paris, Marseille, Lyon and Toulouse, with a population of 348,721 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Nice extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of more than 955,000 on an area of...
, where her father had become the minister of the Church of England chapel.http://www.anglican-nice.com/
At that time Nice was a part of the Italian Kingdom of Sardinia
Kingdom of Sardinia
The Kingdom of Sardinia consisted of the island of Sardinia first as a part of the Crown of Aragon and subsequently the Spanish Empire , and second as a part of the composite state of the House of Savoy . Its capital was originally Cagliari, in the south of the island, and later Turin, on the...
.
Louisa was the eldest of three sisters, one of whom, Sophia,http://www.harrymclaughlin.com/SophiaMcLaughlin.htm served as a nurse with the Universities' Mission to Central Africa for five years, until she took charge of wards at the Civil Hospital in Kandy
Kandy
Kandy is a city in the center of Sri Lanka. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills in the Kandy plateau, which crosses an area of tropical plantations, mainly tea. Kandy is one of the most scenic cities in Sri Lanka; it is both an...
, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1893.
Louisa’s brothers included a major general http://www.harrymclaughlin.com/MajorGeneralEdwardMcLaughlin.htm,
a judge http://www.harrymclaughlin.com/JudgeFrederickMcLaughlin.htm, a Royal Navy captain http://www.harrymclaughlin.com/CaptainCharlesMcLaughlin.htm,
the agent to the Earl of Feversham http://www.harrymclaughlin.com/WilliamMcLaughlinAgent.htm,
and two Church of England clergymen (Alfred http://www.harrymclaughlin.com/RevAlfredMcLaughlin.htm,
whose son was Christian thinker Father Patrick McLaughlin
Patrick McLaughlin (churchman)
Patrick McLaughlin was an Anglican priest and Christian thinker who resigned the priesthood of the Church of England in 1962 and became a Roman Catholic. While he was a priest, he was known as Father Patrick McLaughlin...
,
and Randolph http://www.harrymclaughlin.com/RandolphMcLaughlinBerens.htm, who became a wealthy collector of antiquities). Two other brothers died in childhood.
Louisa was trained as a nurse by Sister Dora
Sister Dora
Sister Dora was a 19th century Church of England nun and a nurse in Walsall, Staffordshire.-Life:...
, whose care for industrial workers in Walsall was as great as Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
's for military casualties in the Crimea. Louisa was Sister Dora's favorite pupil.
Louisa and Emma started working for the The National Health Society as soon as it was established in 1869. The Society, which undertook relief work for the London poor and gave lectures on health education, was founded by Europe’s first modern woman doctor, Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first female doctor in the United States and the first on the UK Medical Register...
, an Englishwoman who had gained a degree in New York.
Wartime Nursing
On August 16, 1870, less than a month after the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, Louisa and Emma went to France at the behest of the National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War (precursor to the British Red Cross) formed only 12 days previously. A week later they were nursing about 100 men desperately wounded in the Battle of Gravelotte.They were then invited to join the Anglo-American Ambulance in Sedan by its surgeon-in-chief, Dr. J. Marion Sims
J. Marion Sims
J. Marion Sims, born James Marion Sims was a surgical pioneer, considered the father of American gynecology. Modern historians argue about his legacy as Sims used slaves as experimental subjects.-Early career:...
. After passing through fields of burned corpses the nurses arrived just after the Battle of Sedan
Battle of Sedan
The Battle of Sedan was fought during the Franco-Prussian War on 1 September 1870. It resulted in the capture of Emperor Napoleon III and large numbers of his troops and for all intents and purposes decided the war in favour of Prussia and its allies, though fighting continued under a new French...
had left 5,000 dead and 20,000 wounded. The Ambulance, set up in a barracks, had beds for 384. Its eight British and eight American surgeons also attended to another 200 in tents.
After a month in Sedan, Emma and Louisa returned to England where they learned that the National Society would not support them if they set up an ambulance for which the Bishop of Orléans
Félix Dupanloup
Félix Antoine Philibert Dupanloup was a French ecclesiastic.-Biography:He was born at Saint-Félix, in Haute-Savoie. In his earliest years he was confided to the care of his brother, a priest in the diocese of Chambéry. In 1810 he was sent to a pensionnat ecclésiastique at Paris...
was pleading. They therefore made an independent appeal in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. This enabled them to return to France with 4,000 pounds of stores in November, just after the first Battle of Orléans.
They established their Ambulance Anglaise in a convent in a suburb of Orléans. Within weeks the second major battle
Second Battle of Orléans (1870)
The Second Battle of Orléans was a battle of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. It took place on December 3 and 4, 1870 and was part of the Loire Campaign...
broke out. The convent was at the center of the heaviest fighting. Despite the turmoil, compounded by shortages of food, drink and supplies, out of 1,400 patients the nurses lost only 40.
This death-rate was far the lowest of any field station in the area because Emma and Louisa had insisted on "exquisite cleanliness" at a time when most surgeons did not wash their hands, and Florence Nightingale scoffed at the notion of germs.
When the Serbo-Turkish War began in August 1876 Emma and Louisa were living in Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
. They immediately set off as volunteers to work with the Red Cross Society of Servia. Armed with green-lined parasols and Hartin’s Crimson Salt disinfectant, they took care of wounded Servian soldiers who had been struggling against Turkish oppression.
Pioneer Nursing Home
Upon returning to England, Emma and Louisa used their joint capital to set up one of London's only two private nursing homes. Their Medical and Surgical Home was located at 15 Fitzroy SquareFitzroy Square
Fitzroy Square is one of the Georgian squares in London and is the only one found in the central London area known as in Fitzrovia.The square, nearby Fitzroy Street and the Fitzroy Tavern in Charlotte Street have the family name of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, into whose ownership the land...
.
That same year, 1877, the originator of antiseptic surgery Joseph Lister
Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister
Joseph Lister, 1st Baron Lister OM, FRS, PC , known as Sir Joseph Lister, Bt., between 1883 and 1897, was a British surgeon and a pioneer of antiseptic surgery, who promoted the idea of sterile surgery while working at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary...
moved from Edinburgh to become Professor of Clinical Surgery at King's College Hospital
King's College Hospital
King's College Hospital is an acute care facility in the London Borough of Lambeth, referred to locally and by staff simply as "King's" or abbreviated internally to "KCH"...
, London, and immediately began placing private patients at the Medical and Surgical Home. They soon occupied most of the 10 available beds. Lister visited his patients every morning, and did many operations assisted by Emma and Louisa.http://www.harrymclaughlin.com/NursingHome.htm
About 1890 they sold the nursing home in order to move to Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Italy, where Emma died of cancer.