Fenwick, Ethel Gordon (1857–1947)
Fenwick, Ethel Gordon (1857–1947)
English pioneer of nursing reform. Born Ethel Gordon Manson in England in 1857; died in 1947; married Bedford Fenwick (a physician), in 1887.
Following nursing positions at Nottingham children's hospital and the London Hospital, Ethel Fenwick was appointed matron of St. Bartholemew's Hospital, a post she held for six years, until her marriage in 1887. That year, she led a group of nurses in the formation of the British Nurses' Association (BNA), of which she was president. The association sought to raise the standards of the profession by accepting nursing candidates exclusively from the higher social classes. After the BNA was granted a Royal Charter in 1893, Fenwick was deposed as president. In opposition, she and her husband would form the British College of Nurses in 1926.
Fenwick also started the Matrons' Council of Great Britain and Ireland, a group that lobbied Parliament for state registration of matrons (obtained in 1919). To aid her campaign efforts, Fenwick and her husband purchased The Nursing Record, later called The British Journal of Nursing. At the International Council of Women, which met in London in 1899, Fenwick and the Matron's Council organized the International Council of Nurses, the very first organization for health professionals.