Agnes Hunt
Dame Agnes Gwendoline Hunt | |
---|---|
Born |
London, England, UK | 31 December 1866
Died |
24 July 1948 81) Baschurch, Shropshire, England, UK | (aged
Education | Royal Alexandra Hospital, Rhyl, Wales |
Medical career | |
Profession | Nurse |
Institutions | The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital |
Specialism | Orthopaedic nursing |
Notable prizes |
DBE Royal Red Cross |
Dame Agnes Gwendoline Hunt DBE RRC (31 December 1866 – 24 July 1948) was a British nurse, who is generally recognised as the first orthopaedic nurse.
She was born in London,[1][2] daughter and sixth of eleven children[3] of Rowland Hunt (1828-1878) of Boreatton Park, Baschurch, a village in west Shropshire, England, and his wife, Florence Marianne, eldest daughter of Richard Buckley Humfrey of Stoke Albany, Northamptonshire, England.[4]
Hunt was brought up at Boreatton Park until 1882, then at Kibworth Hall, Leicestershire before her widowed mother took the children to Australia, where they lived on a small farmstead.[5] She was disabled from osteomyelitis of the hip that she suffered from as a child following septicaemia.[6]
In 1887, she returned to England and began training as a "lady pupil" nurse at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Rhyl, Wales. She opened a convalescent home, attached to the Salop Infirmary at Shrewsbury, for crippled children at Florence House (a family property) in Baschurch in 1900 which espoused the theory of open-air treatment.[7]
In 1901, she sought treatment for her own condition from a Liverpool surgeon, Robert Jones.[8] She invited him to visit the convalescent home and he eventually began travelling there on a regular basis to provide treatment to the children. By 1907, they had built an operating theatre and they introduced the diagnostic use of X-rays in 1913. In 1910 it was approved as a training school by the Chartered Society of Massage and during World War I, Florence House was used to treat wounded soldiers.[9]
In 1918, Hunt was awarded the Royal Red Cross for her contribution during the war.[10] In 1919, the British Red Cross Society and the Shropshire War Memorial Fund provided financing to move the facility, renamed the Shropshire Orthopaedic Hospital, to a former military hospital at Park Hall, near Gobowen, Oswestry. The hospital also provided training for nurses. Later, a school begun for the children developed into a training college for disabled adults, Derwen College. The hospital was used once again to treat wounded soldiers during World War II. Following an extensive fire in 1948,[11] the hospital underwent a period of reconstruction and expansion, developing into what is now called The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital.
Honours
She was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1926.
Death
Hunt died in 1948 aged eighty-one. Her ashes were interred in the parish churchyard at Baschurch, where there is also a plaque inside the church, which reads: "Reared in suffering thou shalt know how to solace others' woe. The reward of pain doth lie in the gift of sympathy.".[12]
References
- ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 28. Oxford University Press. 2004. p. 832.
- ↑ General Registration Officer, Register of Births England and Wales, Index for January, February and March 1867: registration district St George, Hanover Square (Middlesex)
- ↑ Brown, Yoland (1989). Boreatton Park from Dame Agnes Hunt to PGL Adventure Holidays. Yoland Brown. p. 19. ISBN 0-9515015-0-X.
- ↑ Boreatton Park from Dame Agnes Hunt to PGL Adventure Holidays. p. 9.
- ↑ Boreatton Park, from Dame Agnes Hunt to PGL Adventure Holidays. pp. 19–24.
- ↑ "Agnes Hunt". Shropshire Routes to Roots. Archived from the original on 29 December 2006. Retrieved 5 December 2006.
- ↑ Boreatton Park, from Dame Agnes Hunt to PGL Adventure Holidays. pp. 25–26.
- ↑ "History". Institute of Orthopaedics. Archived from the original on 19 November 2006. Retrieved 5 December 2006.
- ↑ Boreatton Park, from Dame Agnes Hunt to PGL Adventure Holidays. pp. 26–29.
- ↑ "Timeline". Shropshire Routes to Roots. Archived from the original on 29 December 2006. Retrieved 5 December 2006.
- ↑ RJAH Historical Factsheet no. 10
- ↑ "Family Memorial to Dame Agnes Hunt". Shrewsbury Chronicle. 29 September 1950. p. 4.
Sources
- "Famous nurses: Dame Agnes Hunt". Nursing Mirror (ENGLAND) 148 (13): 37. March 1979. ISSN 0029-6511. PMID 370802.
- Glupker, D F (1984). "The yesteryear of orthopaedic nursing (Agnes Hunt)". National Association of Orthopaedic Nurses (UNITED STATES) 3 (6): 48. doi:10.1097/00006416-198411000-00007. ISSN 0744-6020. PMID 6393005.
- Ellis, Harold (November 2008). "Dame Agnes Hunt: pioneer of orthopaedic nursing". Journal of Perioperative Practice (England) 18 (11): 510. ISSN 1750-4589. PMID 19051965.
External links
- Shropshire History
- OsCell is a dedicated website to The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital for the medical and science teams to provide information available for patients and current work
- Orthopeadic Institute is a charity that helps The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital in Oswestry and also runs medical courses and books for doctors
- The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital
- Shropshire Hospitals in World War II
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