Today in Kimberley's History
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(Photo by Richard Jones)
Sr Henrietta Stockdale died - 1911
In South Africa, Srockdale’s image has been carefully cultivated by Charlotte Searle (1910 -2001), who trained at the Kimberley Hospital and became the first Professor of Nursing in South Africa in 1965. Searle propagated the notion that Stockdale ‘bequeathed to the nurses of South Africa a tradition as exalted and as powerful as that which Florence Nightingale bequeathed to England. In life, a living legend, her ideals, her example, and her teaching, live on in South Africa’. (Bhengu, 2016) Stockdale’s legacy is very much in evidence in South Africa; a nurse training school in Kimberley is named after her, there is a memorial stone at Kimberley Hospital, and her statue stands in the grounds of St Cyprian’s Cathedral, Kimberley.
There can be no doubt that Stockdale made a significant contribution to nursing, however, it is important to consider the context and time frame in which her life’s work took place. She was the first to introduce model professional training standards, for white South African nurses and provided the profession with its founding charter. The training was however, as Shula Marks (1994) notes, constructed on a model of patriarchal British imperialism, resulting in subordination to an authoritarian medical profession and the reinforcement racial and class social hierarchies. Formal nursing training for black African women emerged later in South Africa and was segregated. The first black nurse to register in 1909 was Cecilia Makowane who trained at the Victoria Hospital, Lovedale. Stockdale’s life in many respects is only the beginning of a rich, albeit complex history, of South African nursing which was impacted by apartheid.
Stockdale remained in post at the Carnarvon Hospital as matron until 1895, when the sisters were withdrawn and she returned to her order at Blomfontein. There she established a midwifery training school and nursing agency on behalf of her religious order. She died in Kimberley on the 6 October 1911 aged 64 and was buried in Dutoitspan Cemetery. A memorial mass has been celebrated at Kimberley Hospital every year on the 6 October and since 2016 there has been a Henrietta Stockdale Memorial Lecture.
First published by The Ethel Gordon Fenwick Commemorative Partnership (www.ethelgordonfenwick.org.uk)
In South Africa, Srockdale’s image has been carefully cultivated by Charlotte Searle (1910 -2001), who trained at the Kimberley Hospital and became the first Professor of Nursing in South Africa in 1965. Searle propagated the notion that Stockdale ‘bequeathed to the nurses of South Africa a tradition as exalted and as powerful as that which Florence Nightingale bequeathed to England. In life, a living legend, her ideals, her example, and her teaching, live on in South Africa’. (Bhengu, 2016) Stockdale’s legacy is very much in evidence in South Africa; a nurse training school in Kimberley is named after her, there is a memorial stone at Kimberley Hospital, and her statue stands in the grounds of St Cyprian’s Cathedral, Kimberley.
There can be no doubt that Stockdale made a significant contribution to nursing, however, it is important to consider the context and time frame in which her life’s work took place. She was the first to introduce model professional training standards, for white South African nurses and provided the profession with its founding charter. The training was however, as Shula Marks (1994) notes, constructed on a model of patriarchal British imperialism, resulting in subordination to an authoritarian medical profession and the reinforcement racial and class social hierarchies. Formal nursing training for black African women emerged later in South Africa and was segregated. The first black nurse to register in 1909 was Cecilia Makowane who trained at the Victoria Hospital, Lovedale. Stockdale’s life in many respects is only the beginning of a rich, albeit complex history, of South African nursing which was impacted by apartheid.
Stockdale remained in post at the Carnarvon Hospital as matron until 1895, when the sisters were withdrawn and she returned to her order at Blomfontein. There she established a midwifery training school and nursing agency on behalf of her religious order. She died in Kimberley on the 6 October 1911 aged 64 and was buried in Dutoitspan Cemetery. A memorial mass has been celebrated at Kimberley Hospital every year on the 6 October and since 2016 there has been a Henrietta Stockdale Memorial Lecture.
First published by The Ethel Gordon Fenwick Commemorative Partnership (www.ethelgordonfenwick.org.uk)