Catherine Black (nurse)
Catherine Black | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 12 June 1878 |
| Died | 7 October 1949 (aged 70) |
| Known for | Nurse to King George V |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Nurse |
| Institutions | Royal London Hospital |
| Sub-specialties | Field hospital nursing |
Catherine Black, MBE, RRC, SRN (12 June 1878– 7 October 1949), also known as "Blackie", served in World War I and was the private nurse to King George V.
Family and early life[edit]
Catherine Black was born on 12 June 1878 in Ramelton, County Donegal in Ardeen House on the outskirts of the town.[1][2] Her father was a linen draper with a prosperous shop in the town.[3][4] Black went to Royal London Hospital to train as a nurse, and it was whilst there that she became friends with Edith Cavell.[5]
World War I service[edit]
Black was working as a private nurse in Royal London Hospital when the outbreak of World War I was declared.[6] She joined Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, first serving in Cambridge Hospital in Aldershot and then the No. 7 Hospital in St Omer where she treated soldiers suffering from shell shock.[6] Black was then sent as a replacement for a nurse who was killed at a casualty clearing station at Poperinghe, Belgium, and subsequently went on to serve at the 41st Stationary Hospital at Sailly-Lorette, nursing soldiers with self-inflicted wounds. She was moved to the No. 5 General Hospital in Rouen and various other clearing stations until the end of the war.[6]
King George V[edit]
Sister Black was the private nurse of King George V from 1928 until his death in 1936.[1] She began her service in late 1928 following a serious bout of illness for the King.[7] Black was made permanent in 1930; she was given her own chambers within Buckingham Palace.[8] She was known as "Blackie" to the members of the royal family.
Black objected to the actions of the King's doctor Lord Dawson of Penn in administering a lethal combination of morphine and cocaine to hasten the King's death.[9][10][11] The King's final words, "God damn you!", were addressed to Black as she gave him a sedative on the night before his death.[9]
Later life[edit]
Black wrote of her life in the Palace in her autobiography King's Nurse, Beggar's Nurse, in which she also recounted her childhood in Donegal,[12] nursing in Australia, as well as her service in WWI.[1] In reflecting on the experiences of nurses in the war, Black recounted "you went into [a casualty-clearing station] young and light-hearted. You came out older than any span of years could make you."[13]
She died on 7 October 1949 in London.[2]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c "Catherine Black". Ramelton. Archived from the original on 27 February 2016. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ a b "1916 Education Study Pack" (PDF). Donegal County Council. Retrieved 18 February 2016.
- ^ "Nurse Catherine Black writes about her childhood in Ramelton in the late 1800s From her book 'King's Nurse, Beggar's Nurse'". Ramelton Tidy Towns. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ "Life story: Catherine Black, RRC Mvo Mbe | Lives of the First World War".
- ^ Newman, Vivien (2014). We Also Served: The Forgotten Women of the First World War. Pen and Sword. pp. 159–160. ISBN 9781473845275.
- ^ a b c Cook, Bernard A. (2006). Women and War: A Historical Encyclopedia from Antiquity to the Present. California: ABC-CLIO. pp. 65–66. ISBN 9781851097708.
- ^ Edwards, Anne (2014). Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor. London: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442236561.
- ^ "History". Ardeen House. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ a b Watson, Francis (1986), "The Death of George V", History Today, 36: 21–30, PMID 11645856
- ^ Ramsay, J. H. R. (28 May 1994), "A king, a doctor, and a convenient death", British Medical Journal, 308 (6941): 1445, doi:10.1136/bmj.308.6941.1445, PMC 2540387, PMID 11644545 (Subscription required)
- ^ Williams, Kate (2012). Young Elizabeth: The Making of our Queen. UK: Hachette UK. ISBN 9780297867821.
- ^ "Catherine Black". Ramelton Tidy Towns. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
- ^ "1918 The Great War: Quotations". 1918: Ireland and the Great War. Retrieved 20 February 2015.