The Lure of the Stone. The Story of Henrietta Stockdale

(Cape Town: Howard Timmins, 1976) 0869781375. 8vo; original green boards, lettered in white on spine; pictorial dustwrapper; pp. 131, incl. index; plates. Dustwrapper somewhat rubbed and edgeworn, with earlier owner's tape repairs to extremities of spine panel; bottom edges of boards a little shelf-rubbed; occasional foxing. Good condition. "In 1873, after answering an appeal by the Bishop of Bloemfontein for teachers and nurses for the Orange Free State, [Henrietta Stockdale] went to the Clewer Hospital and to the Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital in London to study nursing. ... She started her work at Kimberley in 1876 as a district nurse in the mining camps, but by 1877 was assigned as a sister to the Carnarvon Hospital there, where she started the first training school for nurses in South Africa. ... As a result of Stockdale's vision and drive, South Africa became the first country in the world to provide for state registration of both nurses and midwives ... This remarkable woman, who laid the foundation of professional nursing and modern hospital organisation in Southern Africa, was a singularly attractive person, tall, well-built, with a creamy complexion, soft, dark brown hair, blue eyes and a pleasant voice. She was regarded as a saint by some, and as a keen business woman politician by others. She had a fearless approach to the political questions of the day, and never hesitated to enlist the aid of a Royal Princess when she felt that nursing and the care of the sick were threatened." - DSAB II, pp. 716-7. .