In the early nineteenth century nursing all over the world was considered no better work than that of a servant. The nurses scrubbed floors, washed walls and cleaned toilets, assuming the hospital was modem enough to have toilets. Nurses were not trained. They were usually from the bottom rung of society, poor uneducated women, no better than their sisters who walked the streets. In 1859 the matron of the famous Guy's Hospital in London recorded that in one ward she dismissed three out of four nurses and in another ward one was so drunk she was unable to perform her duties.' Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) changed all this during the Crimean War, when she organised the nursing of the soldiers with such care, love and devotion to duty that they called her "THE LADY WITH THE LAMP". She would, for the rest of her life, throw light on the subject of how to nurse; of how to relieve the sufferings of the sick. No longer were nurses recruited from the ranks of the lowly, but from the middle class of society. Nursing became fashionable and many women gave up the idea of marriage to offer their services to such a worthy cause. More and more trained nurses reached the shores of the Cape Colony and helped with the training of the local women. One such group was the Anglican Sisterhood which arrived in South Africa in 1891.

"]

Today South Africa can be proud of a nursing profession of the highest order, which could not have been attained were it not for first-class training and responsible young women.

Miss Robinson, a Robben Island matron in charge of lunatics, was so well thought of that the authorities in Bloemfontein, with permission from the Cape Government, asked her, instead of a doctor, to re-organise the lunatic asylum there. It is fitting to reproduce the letter she received when the job was done:

Landdrost Office,

Bloemfontein, 26th May, 1894.
During the early part of this century the nurses on Robben Island trained on duty, either under the direct supervision of the Medical Superintendent or a skilled matron. A leper colony and lunatic asylum held very little attraction for a young blossoming girl. A very special breed of young woman was required; one who had pluck, determination and was not a mere creature of routine practice. She had to play many roles including those of mother, daughter, diplomat and above all an ever smiling young nurse. These combinations were rare, but Lily Ellen Webber was such a girl.

Lily was 17 years old when she left her parents' home in the Channel Islands and boarded the S.S. Gorka bound for Cape Town. She was suffering from a chest ailment and the family doctor suggested to her parents that she be sent to a warmer climate. South Africa was the ideal place. Lily's mother's sister was married to a Government employee on Robben Island and she would not be alone in a strange country.

 

During the last night of their 25th day at sea a fellow passenger pointed out to Lily Table Mountain which loomed on the horizon. The sight of the Mountain captured the imagination of all the passengers, as it always does, for it meant that they would soon reach "the fairest Cape in all the world". Lily and the other passengers returned to their cabins after the sun had set to complete their packing for in the morning they would anchor in Table Bay. Lily was too excited for sound sleep that night and rose with the dawn when the ship had stopped. Like an eager child reaching for a gift, she jumped to the port-hole to greet the day but when she looked out, all that greeted her was a grey mist, with rain and more rain and it flashed through her mind that with no mountain and no sunshine at journey's end, was this the sunny South Africa she had heard and read so much about? When she finally reached the deck the rain had not abated and the other passengers had already begun to disembark. She patiently waited her turn to enter the basket which would lower her to the waiting tug which would take them to the shore. On the mainland Lily met her uncle and aunt who had come especially from Robben Island in a hired launch to welcome her. Temporarily the rain and mud were forgotten, but soon they made their uncomfortable presence more apparent. Lily's trunk hoisted ashore from the tug, came down with such a thump that the pressure of the luggage on top of it forced the trunk to burst open, scattering all her worldly possessions in the mud and slush. Frantically the customs officers helped to collect all her goods. They replaced them in the damaged trunk and passed her on without further examination. Lily bit her lip. It was too early for her to cry, she had just arrived. What would her aunt and uncle think of her? "I will never forget that day in September 1902", said Lily. "I wanted to cry, but everybody was so kind."

The rain continued for more than a week and they took boarding in Long Street to await better weather. The steamer in the service to Robben Island was too small a craft to brave rough weather. However, it was decided to show Lily the sights of Cape Town, rain or no rain. When finally the rain did stop they received a message from the commander of the S.S. Magnet, Captain Olsen, that he would attempt the journey across to the island, seeing that the weather had much improved. They boarded the vessel at the wooden jetty near the clock tower in Victoria Basin. Both sexes had to jump from the jetty onto the ship, which was especially difficult for the women with their long dresses.

Lily took a particular interest in the passengers to the island as they would be her future colleagues. There was Dr. Jane Waterston and Dr. Murray, medical inspectors of Robben Island, who would return that same day to the mainland. Jack Keet was returning from the Boer War in which he had served with the Robben Island Medical Regiment. He was a very active member of the Robben Island community, who was known for his pleasant personality. He was later nicknamed "Skipper" Jack Keet. The Island Commissioner, George Piers, grandson of Captain Richard Wolfe, former Superintendent of Robben Island 1833-1845, was on board having been absent from the island for a number of months, sitting in judgement of Boer rebels.

 

The draft of the S.S. Magnet was too deep for her to tie up at the Robben Island jetty. So on arrival she would anchor out to sea. The custom was that the officials were first taken from the steamer to the jetty by rowing boat. The other passengers and cargo were then taken to the jetty by a longboat manned by convicts. A tow-line was brought to the S.S. Magnet from the jetty and, hand-over-hand, the convicts would pull the boat with passengers and cargo towards the jetty. This was a tedious and haphazard procedure and in rough seas many near fatal accidents occurred. Passengers would slip while boarding from the S.S. Magnet to fall into the sea between the longboat and the steamer. Were it not for the swift action of the convicts whose strong arms pulled them out, they would be crushed to death. Once a man fell into the sea and was so quickly pulled to safety by a convict that he still had his pipe in his mouth and his hat on. A woman present fainted.

 

Lily's first room in the nurses' quarters was small indeed. It contained an iron bedstead, one wooden chair, a chest of drawers and the floors were bare and unstained. After her first working day she decided to resign. This was not for her. To return after a hard day's work to a lonely, bare, cold room and then have to cook her own rations' was too much. Soon after her arrival she received her next big shock with the news of the death of both her family's parents. Her aunt and uncle on the island would return to England. She remembers, "I felt so rejected and alone that, if it were not for the encouragement of Dr. Benjamin and the others, I would not have remained a leper nurse".

Nurses were paid in those days between £4 and £5 a month with a small food allowance. Their duties were multiple and varied between bandaging the wounds of the lepers for hours on end, to cleaning the wards and hourly recording the condition of patients. One day a nurse in the leper asylum entered a cell of a patient alone, which was against the rules. There always had to be at least two when entering a lunatic's cell. This particular patient had cause to dislike nurse intensely and the moment she was within her reach she grabbed her and about to stab her when Lily came round the corner. She grabbed the nurse's lo hair and, just in time pulled her out of the patient's reach. Then Lily removed the heavy bunch of keys from around her slim waist and threatened the patient with them. She gave up her knife. The nurse was most fortunate that she was not wearing a wig!

 

Many islanders will remember the local midwife Mrs. Chase
Lily, with encouragement, and by her own pluck and determination was to render a loving service to the sick and deformed – the outcasts on the island. In 1908 she, too, was to find happiness. She married the engineer on the island, Charles Ernest Witt, who came from Germany. They raised two daughters and lived a happy contented life on Robben Island until the infirmary was closed in 1931.

 

During the year 1899 lectures were given to the staff by Dr. Black and Nurse Soutar. That same year the Head Attendant, Mr. Nutt, fractured his thigh, in a struggle with a European patient. The Nutt family on the island and mainland could be considered pioneers in the nursing profession in South Africa. Dr. Black records, "Mr. Nutt, the head attendant, had, I am glad to say, almost entirely recovered from the severe injury he sustained when attacked by a patient. He had performed his duties in a most praiseworthy and conscientious manner, and so has the matron, Mrs. Reid."

There were too many nurses on the island to name each and every one, but they all did their duty in a most praiseworthy manner. In 1900 when small-pox made its appearance on the island they performed extra duties into the late hours of the night, having worked a full day shift. They did this without a murmur.

Acknowledgements:
Simon A. De Villiers – Author if Robben Island, Out of Reach, Out of Mind – A History of Robben Island.
REFERENCES
1. Longmate, Norman. Alive and Well, p. 54.
2. Searle, Charlotte. The History of the Development of Nursing in South Africa 1652-1960, p. 75. C. Struik, Cape Town, 1965.
3. The Cape of Good Hope, Report on the General Infirmary, Robben Island, for the year 1894, p. 128.
4. Private letters of Lily Ellen Webber, married Witt, in the possession of her daughter, Miss Elsa Witt.
5. The Cape of Good Hope, Report on the General Infirmary, Robben Island, for the year 1899, p. 91.
6. Ibid., 1900, p. 113.

What is Leprosy?
An infectious disease, known since Biblical times, which is characterized by disfiguring skin lesions, peripheral nerve damage, and progressive debilitation. Alternative names :Hansen's disease.
Causes, incidence, and risk factors
Leprosy is caused by the organism Mycobacterium leprae. It is a difficult disease to transmit and has a long incubation period, which makes it difficult to determine where or when the disease was contracted. Children are more susceptible than adults to contracting the disease.

Leprosy has two common forms, tuberculoid and lepromatous, and these have been further subdivided. Both forms produce lesions on the skin, but the lepromatous form is most severe, producing large disfiguring nodules. All forms of the disease eventually cause peripheral neurological damage (nerve damage in the extremities) manifested by sensory loss in the skin and weakness of the muscles. People with long-term leprosy may lose the use of their hands or feet due to repeated injury which results from absent sensation.
Leprosy is common in many countries in the world, and in temperate, tropical, and subtropical climates. Effective medications exist, and isolation of victims in "leper colonies" is unnecessary.
The emergence of drug-resistant Mycobacterium leprae, as well as increased numbers of cases worldwide, have led to global concern about this disease.

Prevention
Prevention consists of avoiding close physical contact with untreated people. People on long-term medication become noninfectious (they do not transmit the organism that causes the disease).

Symptoms
exposure or family members with leprosy, living or visiting areas of the world where leprosy is endemic (cases are known to occur in that area)

Symptoms include:
One or more hypopigmented skin lesions that have decreased sensation to touch, heat, or pain. Skin lesions that do not heal after several weeks to months. Numbness or absent sensation in the hands and arms, or feet and legs. Muscle weakness resulting in signs such as foot drop (the toe drags when the foot is lifted to take a step)
Signs and tests
Lepromin skin test can be used to distinguish lepromatous from tuberculoid leprosy, but is not used for diagnosis. Skin scraping examination for acid fast bacteria (typical appearance of Mycobacterium leprae).

Tags: Boer, Cape, Cape Colony, Cape of Good Hope, customs, European, George, Long Street, Nightingale, Passengers, PIONEERS, Robben Island, Table Bay