Henrietta Stockdale

Sister Henrietta first went across to Kimberley in the winter of 1876, working as district nurse in the mining camps, and then at Kimberley's new Carnarvon Hospital. She returned to England to recover from typhoid contracted at this time, taking the opportunity to train further at London's University College Hospital. It was on her going back to Kimberley that she established Southern Africa's first training school for nurses at the Carnarvon Hospital. "Inspired and guided by her", wrote Dr Charlotte Searle, "Kimberley nurses moved out to wherever they were needed, establishing hospitals, starting nurses' training schools, and providing nursing care."^[2]

Sister Henrietta spent a year as Matron at the St George's Hospital in Bloemfontein (1877), but then returned to Kimberley. In 1880–1881, during the

State Registration of Nurses

Sister Henrietta registered with the

The Carnarvon and Diggers' Hospitals combined to become the Kimberley Hospital in 1892. Subsidised by the Cape Government, it was enlarged and attracted doctors such as Leander Starr Jameson and John Eddie Mackenzie, who took part in the training of nurses. The Community of St Michael and All Angels withdrew from Kimberley Hospital in 1895, whereafter Sister Henrietta established a maternity nursing home and nursing co-operative at St Michael's Home.^{[citation needed]}

Death

Sister Henrietta died in Kimberley on 6 October 1911, aged 64, and was buried at the Dutoitspan Cemetery.

Commemoration

Windows, statues and grave site

A stained glass window at

In 1984 the remains of Sister Henrietta, and of two fellow workers also originally buried at Dutoitspan Cemetery, were reinterred at St Cyprian's Cathedral. The graves (with the later addition of the reinterred remains of Archdeacon Lawson) are within a commemorative garden, alongside the statue.^[3]

Annual commemorations and centenary

Over a number of years, Sister Henriettta has come to be remembered annually in Kimberley. The St Cyprian's Guild at the cathedral, in association with the Historical Society of Kimberley and the Northern Cape, organised services led by cathedral clergy and choir at the Sister Henrietta Stockdale Chapel (at the hospital), on 6 October each year. The anniversary of her death is fixed in the calendar of saints of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, which also provides a collect for Sister Henrietta CSM & AA.^[4]

The centenary of her death in 2011 was marked with a Health and Wellness Day on the lawns at St Cyprian's Cathedral and a Thanksgiving Mass in the cathedral at which Bishop Oswald Swartz presided and preached.^[5] In the spirit of Sister Henrietta's vision, and with links thus rekindled with health and medical services in the city, the cathedral promotes and co-ordinates this new pattern of commemoration through health screening, education and career guidance, combined with a symbolic element of thanksgiving and wreath-laying.^[6]

Institutions and awards

The Henrietta Stockdale Training College for nurses in Kimberley was named in recognition of this pioneer nurse who initiated training courses for nurses at Kimberley Hospital and was instrumental in obtaining state registration for nurses and midwives in the Cape Colony in 1891. It had been through her work that South Africa became the first country in the world to legally recognise nursing education, approve nursing schools and provide statutory curricula and examinations for nurses.

The South African Nursing Association established a prize, the Henrietta Stockdale Floating Trophy at the University of the Witwatersrand, which is awarded to students achieving the highest level of professional maturity during the four-year nursing degree at the university.^[7]

Sister Henrietta Stockdale Chapel

The Kimberley Hospital Chapel, built in her time at the hospital (with a dedication to St Michael), was declared a provincial heritage site in 1963 (now a Provincial Heritage Site) and is known as the "Sister Henrietta Stockdale Chapel".^[8]

In 1887 Sister Henrietta had proposed that the Sisterhood's existing

Dr Charlotte Searle has described Sister Henrietta as a "remarkable woman, who laid the foundation of professional nursing and modern hospital organisation in Southern Africa ... [she] was regarded as a saint by some, and as a keen business woman politician by others. She had a fearless approach to the political questions of the day, and never hesitated to enlist the aid of a Royal Princess when she felt that nursing and the care of the sick were threatened."[2]

Assessing her impact after a hundred years, in October 2011, the Dean of Kimberley, the Very Revd