Catharine Grace Loch, Royal Red Cross, senior lady superintendent, Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service for India : a memoir / with an introduction by field-marshal the earl Roberts / compiled from her letters and papers by Alexander F. Bradshaw.

Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Catharine Grace Loch, Royal Red Cross, senior lady superintendent, Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service for India : a memoir / with an introduction by field-marshal the earl Roberts / compiled from her letters and papers by Alexander F. Bradshaw. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    6/392
    FROM THE INTRODUCTION BY EARL ROBERTS T gives me much pleasure to be afforded an opportu- nity not only of testifying to the good work done by Miss Loch for the British soldier in India, but of paying as a soldier a grateful tribute to her memory. Nearly twenty years have gone by since, when I was Commander-in-Chief in India, Lady Roberts brought to my notice the great need of skilled nursing for the British soldier in that country, and the Government of India con- sented to the formation, at first on a small scale, of the Indian Nursing Service. It was in March, 1888, that a little band of Nui’sing Sisters arrived in Bombay. Miss Loch and Miss Oxley were the two Lady Superintendents. Miss Loch and five Sisters went to Rawal Pindi and Miss Oxley and three Sisters to Bangalore. . . . The Govern- ment of India speedily realized the benefit of the new Service and its members were from time to time increased. As Lady Superintendent Miss Loch’s work was an arduous one, for the greater part of what was in reality the creation of a Service under entirely novel conditions fell on her, while the inspections of the various Nursing Centres, which as the establishment of Nurses was enlarged, in- volved her taking long journeys, her area of superinten- dence including Quetta, the Punjab, and the North-West Provinces. . . . Miss Loch’s friends, both at home and in India, well know the value of the work she did there, and I shall be very glad if the record of her Life in the following pages will make known to an even wider circle what a devoted lady has done in the pursuance of a noble calling.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3