16..01.1832 – 24.12.1878
Dorothy Pattison accomplished in civilian duty."
Sr. Dora was an Anglican Religious sister and nurse whose pioneering life equals that of Florence Nightingale. The eleventh of twelve children born to Jane Pattinson, her father was the Rev. Mark James Pattinson (Rector of Hauxwell, a remote parish in Swaledale, Yorkshire).
Influenced by the Evangelical Revival which had swept the county her father believed in the subjection of women and became bitter at his lack of advancement which affected his mental health. Consequently, Dora had little formal education and, partly because of her father's ill-health, the family were exceptionally isolated. Her brother, Mark, eventually went to Oxford where he pursued an academic career and was ordained. Attracted by the Catholic Revival (and to the annoyance of his father) he introduced his sisters to many of its teachings of Newman and his followers. Dora was coerced to remain at home to care for her parents until she was almost thirty when she went to be schoolmistress in Little Woolston in Buckinghamshire and in 1864, joined the(Anglican) Sisterhood of the Good Samaritans in Middlesbrough which later became the Community of the Holy Rood and devoted her life to nursing. In 1865 she was sent to work at Walsall’s hospital in Bridge Street and spent the rest of her life in that town, dying of breast cancer on Christmas Eve 1878 having worked there mostly as the sister in charge for almost fourteen years. Having never been released from her Religious Vows she died a sister of the Holy Rood.
She was not well-trained nurse but, throughout her life, sought to develop her skills. When her life was ending, she travelled to London to understand Lister's new, controversial thinking and practice in antiseptic surgery. She ordered everything needed to follow Lister's methods in the new hospital that nearing completion in Walsall. Doctors she worked with were willing to train her to take on more of the work that would otherwise fall to them, mostly in connection with appalling industrial injuries especially those concerning the eyes and connected to the vast railway network in the area. When circumstances demanded she was prepared to switch from her normal nursing specialty and it was said that she had single-handedly stopped the cholera epidemic of 1875 from being much worse, gaining her immense prestige.
In the early days people were suspicious of the Sisters but that was quickly overcome by Sr. Dora's tolerance of their prejudice. People noticed that she was ready to nurse whoever was in need, regardless of their beliefs. Her faith in Christ had a profound effect on her ministry and she had been particularly struck by the parable of the sheep and the goats and Jesus’ statement: “Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.” “It is hard”, she said, “to see the Master in these poor degraded people, and yet the ‘Inasmuch’ holds good for them as for all men.” “Look up on your work as a privilege”, one of her Sisters had said to her, “Do not look upon nursing as an art or a science but as work done for Christ. As you touch each patient think it is Christ himself, and then virtue will come out of the touch.”
After a short period of doubt, she remained deeply faithful to the end of her life and prayed for her patients as well as nursing them, but she was determined not to use the influence given to her by their dependence to press her faith on them. She is one of several Religious Sisters whose devotion to nursing is recalled every time the name ‘Sister’ is spoken in a hospital.
Her nursing ability was aided by her commitment to absolute cleanliness which she had learnt as a novice in the Community and she showed immense energy accompanied by a joyful and positive character. She knew how to relate to the working men who were most often her patients and managed her hospitals efficiently and economically whilst raising large donations towards the hospital. The vow of poverty, taken by Religious, informed her personal lifestyle and, whilst forming at least one personal relationship with a man, she never married. What personal skills she did have she used to help relations between the medical profession and those in the town they depended on for finance which soon deteriorated after her death.
She is remembered in a host of
ways by the people of the west Midlands. Apart from a memorial in
her church (St. Paul’s, Walsall), hospitals named after her (Dorothy Pattison
Hospital)
https://www.streetcheck.co.uk/nhs/hospital/dorothy-pattison-hospital-ws2-9xh and a statue in one of them,
there have always been railway engines named ‘Sister Dora’, a mark of the
respect the railway industry still has for her consequent to the way she nursed
their workers. The official Walsall Town Council website includes a
long article on the ‘History of Walsall’s Sister Dora and the steam
engine’ https://go.walsall.gov.uk/history_of_walsall_s_sister_dora_and_the_steam_engine
Recently a model has been
produced of the latest engine:
www.hattons.co.uk/21304/graham_farish_371_103_class_31_31430_sister_dora_in_br_blue/stockdetail.aspx and
details of other locomotives can be found here:
https://oakparkrunnerssnippets.wordpress.com/2019/06/24/sister-dora-named-locomotives/
In October 1886 a statue by Frances John Williamson was unveiled which is possibly the first in the UK for a non-royal female and may be the world’s first for a nurse, pre-dating that for Florence Nightingale in Pall Mall by almost thirty years. Many articles about her appear online: http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/Walsall/sisterdora.htm and in 1977 a three-part TV series (‘Sister Dora’) was made about her life featuring Dorothy Tutin in the leading role https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5272538/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast.
Her most vivid memorial is the
living tradition of the annual ‘Sister Dora Day’ in
Walsall. Organised by the church this is still supported not only by
civic leaders but by many local people as shown in this film made in 2013 of
the annual Sister Dora Service in Walsall Town Square
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnSU5JvZUIg Her Holy Rood cross is kept in the British Museum (http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/-50NJgrhTJGHaDdec1GZ7w)
When she died Florence Nightingale paid her this tribute: “May every nurse, though not gifted with Sister Dora’s genius, grow in training and care of her patients, that none but may be better for her care, whether for life or death.”
When she died, Florence Nightingale paid this tribute: “May every nurse, though not gifted with Sister Dora’s genius, grow in training and care of her patients, that none but may be better for her care, whether for life or death.” Her merits are clear and her contribution to modern nursing almost unrivalled, yet outside her hometown few know of her and the church she served has yet to grant recognition to her life-times sanctity and service in the name of her Master. If she had joined the Roman Catholic church, which she considered just before dying of cancer, the cause for her beatification would have begun long ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment