Eliza Roberts: The Nurse History Almost Forgot

Eliza Roberts: The Nurse History Almost Forgot

During the Crimean War, nursing was still finding its self and the women who stepped into those overcrowded hospitals entered a world that very few civilians could ever imagine. Supplies were scarce, wards were packed tightly with wounded men, and the air had a constant smell of infection. Nurses were needed to work long hours on very little rest, washing linens, preparing food, comforting the dying, and trying to maintain some sense of order in the chaos. Many soldiers arrived with terrible injuries and also with diseases, exhaustion, and they were often frightened. In this environment, practical skill and emotional strength was just as important as compassion.

Today I want to discover more about Eliza Roberts, a woman who helped shape modern nursing long before it was properly recognised.

Roberts was born in 1802 in Shadwell, East London, into a working-class family where survival depended on work rather than on status. Nursing was not a respected calling at the time, especially for women of her background, but by 1829 she was working at St Thomas’ Hospital as an assistant nurse in a men’s surgical ward. Hospital work in this period was brutal and very unglamorous. Over the next two decades, Roberts learned by observing surgeons closely, and managing the daily realities of injury and disease. By 1840 she had become a ward sister, specialising in surgical accidents and lithotomy cases.

Those who worked with her recognised just how formidable she was. Senior doctors described her as having more practical knowledge than almost anyone else, male or female. She did though struggle with management, her ward experienced high staff turnover, perhaps due to her temper and uncompromising standards. By 1853, after twenty-four exhausting years,her failing health forced her to retire. She was in her early fifties.

When the Crimean War broke out soon after, Roberts’ health recovered just enough for her to volunteer. She joined the team of nurses led by Florence Nightingale, arriving at Scutari Hospital in October 1854. The conditions were appalling: filth, overcrowding, disease, and overwhelming numbers of wounded men. For many nurses, the shock was paralysing. For Roberts, it was grimly familiar. Within days, Nightingale recognised her value, describing her as “worth her weight in gold” and appointing her Head Nurse. That recognition likely brought a mixture of pride and pressure.

Roberts was no social ideal, but she was compketely reliable when lives were at stake. Her experience allowed her to work fast and with confidence. Something few others could. She dressed wounds and fractures with exceptional skill, often better than junior surgeons, and shouldered workloads that would have broken most people. During Nightingale’s illness in 1855, Roberts nursed her tirelessly, even standing firm up against senior military figures who attempted to interfere.

But Roberts was not easy to live with. She was barely literate, outspoken, prone to getting angry and she was proud of her rough edges. Her language and manners clashed sharply with Nightingale’s upper-class expectations, and tensions often flared up. Roberts knew how indispensable she was and did not hesitate to remind Nightingale of it, even threatening to resign if she was criticised. Behind this defiance may have been insecurity: a working-class woman navigating elite spaces, she may have felt valued for her labour but never fully accepted. Nightingale, chose competence, tolerating Roberts’ flaws because the work mattered more than keeping up appearances.

Roberts returned to England with Nightingale in 1856, her contribution though was not celebrated like Nightingales was but she was acknowledged. Nightingale remembered her as a splendid nurse and an excellent woman, which was high praise from someone who rarely gave it. Roberts died in 1878.

Her story raises a question. How many essential contributors to history have been remembered only through the shadow of someone more famous, and how differently might we view the past if we centred in these lesser-known people?

Image info:

Artist: Jerry Barrett

Date:1857