1906. Ruled notebook, 4to, ff. [21] of which 12 leaves used, penned in a single neat hand on both recto and verso in black ink; first leaf detached, some light foxing and browning throughout; stitched in the original glazed black cloth backed stiff card covers, edges stained blue, book block a little loose, spine with split at head and slightly cracked at tail, with some scuffing and scratching to covers. A neatly penned manuscript case book recording close to one hundred patients cared for by private society nurse, Mary Regan, in both France and England over a period of nearly 20 years. For each case, Regan provides the patients name, address, date of her arrival, the illness treated, whether the patient recovered (or not), and the date of her departure. The names of attending physicians are also often cited, including leading contemporary physicians and surgeons such as Christopher Heath (1835-1905), the royal physicians Sir Thomas Barlow (1845-1945) and William Broadbent (1835-1907) who both attended upon Queen Victoria, and William Murray Dobie (1828-1915), Gladstone’s medical attendant in his final days.
It becomes clear that Mary was caring for some wealthy and influential patients, including members of the aristocracy, as well as high ranking military men. She appears to have regularly accompanied patients to Cannes in France, often spending months at a time there, and frequently enjoying a ‘holiday’ before returning to England. Many patients received end of life care, yet others required straight recuperative nursing, such as from a dislocated shoulder, measles, pneumonia, and nervous hysteria. Whilst the majority of her patients were female, she also cared for infants and young children, including after care after a circumcision, together with a number of prominent men, notably W.E. Gladstone, whom she first treats on January 3rd 1898, staying until February 16th. Gladstone was to pass away on May 23rd of that year. It is interesting to note that she returns to look after Mrs Gladstone at the end of January 1899, and again in March for six months, and subsequently to care for her ‘senile decay’ between Jany and May 1900.
Far from being just a dry record, Mary adds the occasional comment, providing a glimpse into her personality, and in a number of instances, no doubt echoing common emotions and complaints of nurses throughout time and the world over. Of her time caring for a gastrotomy patient at the Great Northern Hospital in June 1887 she notes ‘Hospital disgustingly dirty’. Of a period spent in Cannes treating ‘Miss Rogers’ a spinal case, Regan says ‘a trying but good case. Drs too many to count’. Some jobs were clearly more straight-forward than others, and it is clear that she developed quite strong connections with several patients and their families, noting for example ‘such nice people’, or ‘delightful patient’, or ‘an ideal patient all through’. On more than once occasion, Mary either accompanied the patient back home if they had been taken ill whilst away, or else took them on recuperative trips to the coast, to places such as Eastbourne and Westgate on Sea. Others were clearly more complicated, and indeed at times traumatic. ‘Mrs Cobb, Walton Aylesbury, May 21st [1890] Septicaemia after child birth. Death. Most distressing Case. Left June 5th. Drs Broadbent & Parrott’. In 1892 she cares for ‘Lady J. Goldsmid. Villa Florentina. Peritysphylitis. Pelvic Abscess. Colotomy performed by Christopher Heath. Four other incisions by Dr Blanc. Did well surgically, but went wrong mentally. Had to give it up March 31st as I was quite worn out’. Mary spent more than once stay with a ‘Miss Pearson’, and so the note on May 24th 1897 is particularly heart-breaking: ‘Lost my dear friend from influenza April 1897’. The perils of the job are also revealed. In 1898 she notes ‘had influenza with complications obliged to give up work for 10 months’. A fascinating account.