"
On the pages of history is recorded in golden letters the name and deeds
of Florence Nightingale, who, as the pioneer of scientific hospital
nursing, did so much to mitigate the horrors of war. Her example was
nobly followed half a century later by two other English ladies, who,
although they had not to encounter the desperate odds connected with
ignorance and old-fashioned ideas which Miss Nightingale successfully
combated, did marvellous service by displaying what private enterprise
can do in a national emergency--an emergency with which, in its
suddenness, gravity, and scope, no Government could have hoped to deal
successfully. I must go back to the winter of 1899 to call their great
work to mind. War had already been waging some weeks in South Africa
when the Government's proclamation was issued calling for volunteers
from the yeomanry for active service at the front, and the lightning
response that came to this appeal from all quarters and from all grades
was the silver lining shining brightly through the black clouds that
hovered over the British Empire during that dread winter. Thus the
loyalty of the men of Britain was proven, and among the women who
yearned to be up and doing were Lady Georgiana Curzon and Lady Chesham.
Not theirs was the sentiment that "men must work and women must weep";
to them it seemed but right that they should take their share of the
nation's burden, and, as they could not fight, they could, and did,
work.
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