Ellen Frances Dwight

Born 1863, died 1936
Probationer Night Nurse at Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse 1891-1893
Researched by Dauna Coppin

Ellen Frances Dwight was born in the March Quarter of 1863. She was baptised on 8th March and her parents were James, an army instructor, and Mary Ann, née Ruggins. In 1871, the family lived on Hartford Road, Nantwich, Cheshire. Ellen was then 8 years old and had three younger siblings, one of whom became a schoolteacher.

The 1881 census shows Ellen, then 18 years old, was working as a housemaid in the home of the Powles family of 9 Bridge Place, Chester St Mary.

Sadly, in 1884, Ellen’s father, James, died, aged 61 years and, by 1891, Ellen had moved back home to live with her mother and siblings. They then lived at 18 Merridale Road, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire.

From November 1886 until April 1888, Ellen worked as a Waiting Maid for Miss Challice, Bolton Studio, Radcliff Road, South Kensington, London. She left for a better salary and then worked for  three years, from October 1888 until 29th October 1891,  as Waiting Maid to Harriett Frazer, 4 Nottingham Terrace, Regents Park, London. She left to qualify for the position of nurse. 

Ellen received a recommendation letter from the Workhouse Nursing Association, in London. She probably approached them for a job and they would have vetted her for suitability, despite no previous experience. This letter of recommendation secured her employment at the Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse from 12th November 1891. The Guardian’s Minutes recorded on 30th November state: “Resolved that Ellen Frances Dwight be and is hereby appointed Probationer Night Nurse at this Workhouse from the 12th Day of November 1891 she having been performing the duties from that date at the salary of £10 per annum with Board, lodging and washing the engagement to be terminated with one months notice on either side.”  Ellen was employed as a Probationer Nurse for both Day and Night duty and her appointment was approved by the Local Poor Law Board in February 1892.

In October 1892, there was another mention on Ellen in the Guardian’s Minutes. Dated 3rd October, the Clerk recorded a “...letter dated 26th September last...from Probationer Nurse Dwight as to her absence on attendance to her brother.”  Sadly, Ellen’s brother Albert, who needed her attention and care, finally died, shortly afterwards, in the December Quarter 1892. He was just 24 years old.

Ellen left the Gressenhall Workhouse in January 1893, for a “better situation at Notts”. She worked at Nottingham for some time and was mentioned in the Nottinghamshire Guardian newspaper on 7th December 1895, when she appeared as a witness at an inquest. The unfortunate death of one John Stainsbury had occurred at the Nottingham Union Workhouse on 28th November. The man had been taken there on 12th November, bleeding and unconscious, having been drinking the night before. The paper reported “Ellen Frances Dwight, nurse in the Workhouse hospital said that during the time he was in the hospital the deceased never recovered perfect consciousness, but spoke once or twice, and told her his name.”

Ellen remained at Nottingham Workhouse Infirmary, Beech Avenue, Nottingham,  in 1901 when she was working there as a trained nurse, aged 35 years. By 1905, Ellen had been promoted to the post of Superintendent of Nurses at Bagthorpe Infirmary, Nottingham. She had signed her name, along with 17 others from hospitals across the country, to a letter to the Editor of the Morning Post Newspaper. The letter, which appeared on 6th March 1905, was from various Matrons and Superintendents to highlight the general public to the need for a Professional Association for Nurses and they had applied to the Board of Trade to become “An Association of the Incorporated Society for promoting the higher education and training of nurses” The letter included the following statement:

“We, who are trained nurses hold the firm belief that such powers affecting our status should be trusted only to professional people….and we protest most strongly against any scheme placing the control of nurses in the hands of untrained laymen… All workers have the right to representation in the management of their own affairs”

From 1911 -1922, Ellen, worked as Infirmary Matron at Nottingham. It is not certain when she retired but she died, aged 72, in Wolverhampton in the March Quarter 1936.