Great Britain and Her Queen - by Anne E. Keeling
But other benefits, not of a political nature, arose out of the hideous mismanagement which had
disgraced the earlier stages of the war. It is a very lamentable fact that of the 24,000 good Englishmen
who left their bones in the Crimea, scarce 5,000 had fallen in fair fight or died of wounds received
therein. Bad and deficient food, insufficient shelter and clothing, utter disorganisation and confusion in
the hospital department, accounted for the rest. These evils, when exposed in the English newspapers,
called forth a cry of shame and wrath from all the nation, and stirred noble men and women into the
endeavour to mitigate at least the sufferings of the unhappy wounded. Miss Florence Nightingale, the
daughter of a wealthy English gentleman, was known to take a deep and well-informed interest in
hospital management; and this lady was induced to superintend personally the nursing of the wounded in
our military hospitals in the East. Entrusted with plenary powers over the nurses, and accompanied by a
trained staff of lady assistants, she went out to wrestle with and overcome the crying evils which too
truly existed, and which were the despair of the army doctors. Her success in this noble work,
magnificently complete as it was, did indeed "multiply the good," as Sidney Herbert had foretold: we
may hope it will continue so to multiply it "to all time." The horrors of war have been mitigated to an
incalculable extent by the exertions of the noble men and women who, following in the path first trodden
by the Crimean heroines, formed the Geneva Convention, and have borne the Red Cross, its most sacred
badge, on many a bloody field, in many a scene of terrible suffering - suffering touched with gleams of
human pity and human gratitude; for the courageous tenderness of many a soft-handed and lion-hearted
nursing sister, since the days of Florence Nightingale, has aroused the same half-adoring thankfulness
which made helpless soldiers turn to kiss that lady's shadow, thrown by her lamp on the hospital wall.
The horrors thus mitigated have become more than ever repugnant to the educated perception of
Christendom, because of the merciful devotion which, ever toiling to lessen them, keeps them before the
world's eye. In every great war that has shaken the civilised world since the strife in the Crimea broke
out, the ambulance, its patients, its attendants, have always been in the foreground of the picture. Never
have the inseparable miseries of warfare been so well understood and so widely realised, thanks in part to
that new literary force of the Victorian age, the war correspondent, and chiefly, perhaps, to the
new position henceforth assumed by the military medical and hospital service. To the same source we
may fairly attribute the great improvements wrought in the whole conduct of that distinctively Christian
charity, unknown to heathenism, the hospital system: the opening of a new field of usefulness to
educated and devoted women of good position, as nurses in hospitals and out; and the vast increase of
public interest in and public support of such agencies. Even the Female Medical Mission, now rising into
such importance in the jealous lands of the East, may be traced not very indirectly to the same cause.
The Queen, whose enthusiasm for her beloved army and navy was very earnest, and frankly shown, who
had suffered with their sufferings and exulted in their exploits, followed with a keen, personal,
unfaltering interest the efforts made for their relief. "Tell these poor, noble wounded and sick men
that no one takes a warmer interest, or feels more for their sufferings, or admires their courage
and heroism more than their Queen. So does the Prince," was the impulsive, heart-warm message which
Her Majesty sent for transmission through Miss Nightingale to her soldier-patients. Her deeds proved
that these words were words of truth. Not content with subscribing largely to the fund raised on behalf of
those left orphaned and widowed by the war, she took part in the work of providing fitting clothing for
the men exposed to all the terrors of a Russian winter; and her daughters, enlisted to aid in this pious
work, began that career of beneficence which two of them were to pursue afterwards to such good
purpose, amid the ravages of wars whose colossal awfulness dwarfed the Crimean campaign in the
memories of men.
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