Crimea Nursing/Supplies

Question 1

Supplies

Answer 1

• 11/1854, terrible storm.
• Allied camps wrecked.
• Support/supply ships sunk.
• Soldiers suffered from hunger, cold and disease.
• Raglan message = food so scarce, horses not fed unless certain they could feed men. Transport horses died.
• Fire wood scarce .
• Disease killed more soldiers than conflict.
• Road from port at Balaklava to Sevastopol = poor quality, unusable in winter.
• Muddy roads nullified wagons, volunteer doctors had to be used.
• Spring 1855, conditions improved.
• New railway system built linking Sevastopol to Baklava
• British received more supplies

Question 2

Winter 1854-55

Answer 2

• Soldiers had communal tents + blankets.
• Officers lived in comfort in private tents and sometimes houses.
• 40% horses died.
• More than 1/3 of army died from cold and outbreaks of Cholera, diarrhoea, and dysentery.
• Cold killed transport horses.

Question 3

Crimea Nursing

Answer 3

• Raglan limited number of medical staff, needed space on ships for soldiers.
• Medical supplies low priority, sometimes taken off hospital ships to troop transports.
• Army veterans were drafted in as stretcher bearers, ill-suited for the work, becoming sick themselves.

Question 4

Problems with Scutari

Answer 4

• Originally barracks for Turks, not designed for sick and wounded.
• Little clean water available.
• Toilet arrangements inadequate for thousands of wounded men with limited mobility.
• Soldiers treated soldiers.

Question 5

Florence Nightingale

Answer 5

• Arrived, 11/1854, with 38 nurses.
• Didn’t allow her doctors on front lines.
• Frequently at odds with independent-minded nurses (Elizabeth Davis) who went to Balaklava against her wishes.
• Death rates rose under Nightingale, correlate with bad winter?
• Nightingales work reported back to Britain. Heroism in newspapers = celebrity.
• The Times organised a fund of £30,000 to aid the Crimean troops
• Made difference after war, met Queen Victoria + inspired McNeil Tulloch Reform.
• “Angel of Crimea”.

Question 6

Sanitary Commission

Answer 6

• 03/1855.
• Established by government after news of awful conditions in Scutari reached public.
• Blamed bad air.
• Reduced overcrowding.
• Mass cleanup,walls whitewashed, dead animals were removed.
• Mortality rates fell in hospital.
• Nightingale said commission saved the army and worked hard to improve the supply of medicines and basic aids.

Question 7

McNeil Tulloch Report

Answer 7

• Awareness to poor conditions in army.

Question 8

Mary Seacole

Answer 8

• Volunteered as a nurse in Britain but denied. Race?
• Went to Crimea independently.
• Offered to help Nightingale at Scutari, but denied.
• 01/1855, joined Thomas Day.
• Spring 1855, “British Hotel” opened, soldiers could enjoy food + shelter.
• Popular with officers, better quality food.
• Cared for minorly sick but remedies often herbal and didn’t work.
• Gave patients lead poisoning.
• Nothing after Crimea, briefly forgotten.

Question 9

Nightingale After Crimea

Answer 9

• Analysis of what went wrong widely accepted = major changes to healthcare in British Army.
• Set up new systems, laundries & kitchens, reduced cross-infections and improved nutrition.
• Did not save thousands during war but improved life of thousands of soldiers in years to come.
• Gov commissions, British deaths fell from 23% in the winter 1854-1855 to 2.5% in winter 1855-1856.
• French death rates rose from 11% in winter 1854-55 to 20% in winter 1855-56.