Nurses. Source: Jane Horton.
The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw important developments in the medical professions, medical education and public health. Sheffield’s modern medical school opened in 1828 and the Sheffield Public Hospital and Dispensary, later the Royal Hospital, was founded in 1828. Sewage systems were built, and water supplies and housing improved. There were several crucial discoveries made during the period, including the realisation that cholera spread through water supplies. Attitudes to nursing were transformed after the First World War and nursing came to be seen as a vocation and an acceptable job for the daughters of the middle and upper classes. It was now possible for a woman born in 1897 to achieve the rank of Surgeon Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Navy in 1943.
You can read more about the history of healthcare in Sheffield and biographies of those who worked in a range of clinical and allied professions in the Sheffield General Cemetery publication Post Mortem.
