The life of Florence Nightingale

by Sarah A. Tooley

Halleck.

“I wish,” wrote Gladstone to Richard Monckton-Milnes (afterwards Lord Houghton) in October, 1855, “that some one of the thousand who in prose justly celebrate Miss Nightingale would say a single word for the man of ‘routine’ who devised and projected her going—Sidney Herbert.”

Acting on such distinguished advice I propose to attempt a slight account of the career and personality of this singularly attractive man, who was at the head of the War Office when Florence Nightingale and her staff of nurses were sent to the aid of the soldiers wounded in the Crimea. No Life of Lord Herbert of Lea has at the time of writing been published, although one is, I understand, in course of preparation. The name of Sidney Herbert is distinguished as that of the War Minister who, in defiance of official tradition, enlisted the devotion and organising power of women on behalf of our soldiery perishing in the pestilential hospitals of the East.

Sidney Herbert was born at Richmond in Surrey on September 16, 1810, and was the second son of George Augustus, eleventh Earl of Pembroke, by his second wife, Countess Catherine, only daughter of Count Woronzoff, Russian Ambassador to the British Court. His maternal uncle, Prince Michael Woronzoff, was a companion in arms of Wellington, and the founder of the prosperous era in the Crimea. Sidney Herbert’s mother, though of Russian birth, was chiefly brought up and educated in this country, and owing to her father’s official position, moved as a girl in the atmosphere of the Court. He owed much to her example and training. She is described as having been a woman of quick intelligence and sound judgment, of large generosity and noble bearing. Her husband, Lord Pembroke, died when their son Sidney was about seventeen, and her influence moulded his early manhood.

He was educated at Harrow under Dr. Butler, and matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, in 1828, where he was counted an elegant scholar and noted as a speaker at the Union Debating Society, when he matched his strength beside Gladstone, Roundell Palmer, and other distinguished young orators. Upon his entrance into public life, as M.P. for South Wiltshire in the first Reformed Parliament of 1832, Sidney Herbert was considered a graceful and accomplished young Tory.

Sir Robert Peel on taking office in 1834 offered Sidney Herbert a post in the Government, and it was characteristic of him that he refused the Lordship of the Treasury because the duties were slight, and accepted the laborious post of Secretary to the Board of Control, which he held during Peel’s Administration. He returned to office with his old leader in 1841 as Secretary to the Admiralty. While holding that position Sidney Herbert set to work to reform the Naval School at Greenwich, which then contained some eight hundred boys and was the nursing-ground for the navy. While thus engaged he exhibited that administrative faculty which was later so conspicuously shown in his efforts on behalf of the sister service.

In 1845 he was transferred to the office of Secretary of War, with a seat in the Cabinet. He gave special attention to the regimental schools and introduced very necessary reforms in their management, and also instituted an inquiry into the state of the Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea. On the resignation of Sir Robert Peel’s Ministry, Sidney Herbert left office, and his work of military reform remained in abeyance.

He remained out of office for six years, and during that period devoted himself largely to private philanthropy in the vicinity of his home, Wilton House, near Salisbury. He had married in 1846 Elizabeth, the daughter of General Aske A’Court and the niece of Lord Heytesbury, a young lady of singular beauty and charm, who entered most sympathetically into his many philanthropic enterprises, and herself instituted several benevolent schemes. She became the authoress of several books dealing with biography and travel.

Florence Nightingale was a frequent visitor at Wilton House and Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Herbert were amongst her dearest and most sympathetic friends. She took a great interest in the home for scrofulous children which they had founded and maintained at Mudiford in Hampshire, and was able to give much practical help in its management. Having heard from Miss Nightingale of a particular bath which she had seen employed with good effect at Kaiserswerth, Mr. Herbert procured the ingredients from that distant institution for use in the Mudiford home. One can readily imagine how useful her technical knowledge was to her friends in their various undertakings, and how congenial interests drew them more and more together.

Humanity in every form appealed to Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Herbert. They erected at Wilton a model lodging-house for agricultural labourers, and formulated schemes for the emigration of poor women. So actively interested were they in the latter that they frequently accompanied parties of emigrants on to the vessel to speed them on their way. Some of their later schemes were for the establishment of day-rooms and institutes in the rural districts around their county town of Salisbury.