Month: July 2022

Who is this?

Listed as ‘State Registered Nurse No.1’ after the introduction of the Nurses Registration Act in December 1919, she is known for her campaigning role in improving the quality and status of nursing in Britain, having launched the National Society for the Registration of Nurses in 1902.

Why did her attempt to improve professional standards take so long?

Well, it was more controversial than it might at first appear. Florence Nightingale opposed it, fearing the introduction of such standards would work against more poorly educated ‘vocational’ nurses. And if you think about it, there remains a similar discussion today about whether nursing should require a degree level qualification…..

So with whom do your sympathies lie, with Florence Nightingale or our mystery guest?

Find out more on the ‘Magnificent Marylebone’ walk at 2pm on 30^th July.

Two weeks ago the blog featured three young women discussing their ambitions. They were Elizabeth Garret Anderson, (medicine) Millicent Garret Fawcett (women’s suffrage) and Emily Davies (education-Girton College, Cambridge)

In 1859 in fornt of a bedroom fire, three young women were brushing their hair. As they brushed, they discussed current affairs. ‘Women can get nowhere’, said one, ‘unless they are as well educated as men. I shall open the universities.’ ‘Yes,’ agreed the second, ‘We need education but we also need training and a profession. I shall reform medicine. And the third? They agreed that the young teenager should fight for the parliamentary vote for women.

All three succeeded. Who were the three women?

Find out on the walk at 2pm on Saturday 16^th July.

The Remarkable Women of Marylebone

John Okey, 1606-1662. From working in a brewery he rose through the ranks and became colonel of the dragoons who played a major part in defeating the royalist troops at the battle of Naseby in 1645. He was a signatory on the death warrant of Charles I.

On the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, he was one of those exempted by Charles II from the general pardon granted to his father’s enemies. Okey was then betrayed by a former confidant, arrested, and taken to Tower Hill where he was hanged, drawn and quartered. It is thought he was left hanging for twenty minutes so he may have already expired before the drawing and quartering.

So who was the man who betrayed and arrested him?

Discover the answer and lots more on the walk this Sunday at 2pm:

‘Samuel Pepys and the Personalities of 17th century Westminster’, a fascinating walk right in the centre of this wonderful city.

Samuel Pepys and the Personalities of 17th Century Westminster