One of the last "Nightingales" - The Zambezi Expedition (6)

Anyone who was born in 1831 and died in 1933 at the ripe old age of 102, would have been witness to some of the most remarkable developments in human history. They would have seen the worldwide expansion of the railways, motor cars and commercial air flight. And then there were the amazing inventions of electric lighting, telephones, radio and motion pictures, as well as the great medical advancements, including the discovery by Dr Ronald Ross that the malaria which had so blighted the Zambezi Expedition was caused by mosquitoes. Jessie Lennox was one such person, and her story rounds out those of the women of the Expedition. 

Initially, most of what I was able to find out about Jessie followed on from newspaper obituaries and this one from the British Nursing Journal of February 1933. As will be seen, her experiences on the Zambezi are not really detailed and it is mostly about her later career in nursing and her friendship with Florence Nightingale.

THE PASSING BELL [British Journal of Nursing, February 1933] 

Miss Jessie Lennox, who was a personal friend of Dr. Livingstone and Florence Nightingale, has died in Edinburgh at the age of 102.

She first went to Africa as a missionary in 1858, and after a period in England, she went out again in 1862. She then accompanied Mrs. Livingstone from Durban to the mouth of the Zambesi, and witnessed the meeting between the great missionary and his wife there.

Returning again to England, Miss Lennox was associated with the Nightingale Training School for Nurses in London and became a close friend of Florence Nightingale. She was one of the first six Army Sisters appointed by the War Office to the Royal Victoria Hospital at Netley. These Sisters were received by Miss Nightingale, that she might give them parting instructions. She lay in bed, pencil and paper always beside her, that everything of interest might be noted down. Miss Lennox described her bedroom as a large, airy room - “with plenty of ventilation, even in those days!” In giving the Sisters advice, Miss Nightingale exhorted them that they were never to say they were unable to do anything!

For 18 years she was matron of the Sick Children’s Hospital in Belfast, and after her retirement she was honorary matron for ten years of the epileptic colony at Bridge of Weir, Scotland.

When the Scottish War Memorial was opened in Edinburgh in 1927, Miss Lennox was an honoured guest wearing a nursing uniform similar to the first issued to the British Army, and she was presented to the King and Queen and the Prince of Wales.

Miss Lennox has related the circumstances which brought about her first visit to Miss Nightingale’s house. From all over the world she was receiving applications for advice and assistance in nursing matters. On that occasion the German Empress - mother of the ex-Kaiser - had requested that a complete set of probationer’s uniform be sent to Germany as a model, and Miss Lennox was the nurse deputed to convey it to Miss Nightingale’s house in Park Lane.

After years of devoted service the pioneer “Nightingales” are passing to their rest.

 

Florence Nightingale surrounded by some of her nurses

While searching for images online of Jessie Lennox, I was very pleased to come across the Hole Ousia blog which carries a post about a family connection to her and adds much more information from private sources. It states that Anne Mackenzie, to whom she was maid-companion in Durban, had this to say about her:

Alice [sister of Anne Mackenzie] has brought us a treasure in Jessie, who is the brightest creature I have seen for many a day ...

and 

Jessie is a perfect delight, so ready to make herself useful, and she has volunteered how very happy she is already.

Anne Mackenzie encouraged Jessie into nursing after their African experiences and she had a long career. References to her progress and also extracts from her letters appear in the Collected works of Florence Nightingale but they also indicate there were periods when she was sick. She had to resign from Netley in 1870 due to ill health and again from the Belfast Children’s Hospital in 1891 for the same reason. Although she lived to a great age, even by today’s standards, one wonders if the deprivations and malarial fevers that she and the other women suffered all those years earlier on the Zambezi may have been a contributing factor to those episodes of ill health. 

One newspaper reported that Jessie was buried in the North Merchiston Cemetery, now in a sad state of disrepair, but I have been unable to discover whether she has a traceable tombstone. [Addendum - thanks to recent comment, discovered this is incorrect and she is buried at Morningside Cemetery in Edinburgh.]

Jessie Lennox - these images from Hole Ousia

Postscript:

There is one other white woman who journeyed up the river with Jessie, Anne Mackenzie, Emily Burrup and Mary Livingstone, who remains a mystery. All the published sources and references on the Expedition only ever refer to her as "Sarah". Unlike her companions she does not seem to have left her mark in any way and, like mist over the Zambezi, has simply evaporated into history.

The Bishop's Sister - The Zambezi Expedition (4)

Conditions were horrendous enough even for the toughest and hardiest of men, and the last thing David Livingstone would have wanted on the Zambezi Expedition was a group of white women. But when one of them happened to be his wife, the long-suffering Mary, who was tired of years of enforced separation from her husband, he had to give way.

He also had pressures being exerted on him by the leaders of the Universities Mission to Central Africa (UMCA) to bring out their womenfolk, being Bishop Charles Mackenzie's sister, Miss Anne Mackenzie, and the wife of Reverend Henry de Wint Burrup - nee Eizabeth Mary Tudway - who will be the subject of another post.

At least with her background, Mary Livingstone was probably the only woman in the group who knew exactly what she was getting herself into, unlike the others.

From the various accounts relating to her, the character of Anne Mackenzie suffers from two extremes. She comes across as either a gossipy, complaining and ageing hypochondriac - with a touch of the racist thrown in - or a good-humoured, sturdy and sensible Scotswoman, prepared to put up with anything. So which was she? Or did she start out as one and turn into the other as a result of her experiences and extreme privations up the Zambezi?

A short biography entitled An Elder Sister written in 1877 is available at Internet Archive, but Anne is a second-fiddle subject and most of this book is really about her baby brother, Charles, who was to become the Bishop.

In modern eyes, Anne's obsessive devotion to Charles might seem to border on the unhealthy, but she was a typical ultra-religious, dutiful and high-minded Victorian who had accepted that her main purpose in life was to dote on, guide, and generally look after this youngest brother who had many noble and admirable qualities but was unworldly and impractical as well and whom she thought was easy prey for exploitation by sharp or unscrupulous individuals. She was probably right to some extent, given the general folly and blunders that attach to the UMCA's first attempts to found a mission. 

Anne and another sister, Alice, had travelled to South Africa to help Charles with teaching girls at the church school and keeping house when he was the Rector of Durban and later Archdeacon. What now seems rather strange terminology, Charles called Alice his "black sister", on account of her enjoying her work with Africans while Anne was called the "white sister", as she preferred European colonials, although she eventually overcame her difficulties relating to black people and in fact spent the latter years of her life supporting schools in Zululand and in raising funds for them.

Alice never made it to the Zambezi Expedition as she decided to get married in Natal. Anne was said to be terrified of all the deadly creatures, savages and discomforts she would encounter, but went along out of duty and worry over her brother. But she made sure she packed lots of home comforts, including arm chairs and a donkey called Katie who would be used to carry her over the rough ground when necessary.

Like the other women on the journey, Anne was to suffer terribly from the prevalent fevers and skin diseases and was lucky to survive, especially given her age and semi-invalid status. One can't imagine how she felt early in March, 1862, when so desperately ill herself she discovered that her precious brother had succumbed several weeks earlier and that they had unknowingly passed by his grave as they sailed up the river intent on the great reunion. But despite this shattering blow, Anne proved her fortitude and recovered; enough, according to some reports, to still find time to gossip about Mary Livingstone's behaviour with the Reverend James Stewart. 

Meanwhile, David Livingstone made the comment that Anne "... bears up very well: people who have a competence hold out wonderfully ..." only to be followed by remarks about Bishop Charles' "lack of control" and that:

"... this sad loss will have one good effect: better men will be sent out and no-one hereafter come for a lark or to make a good thing of playing the missionary for a few years and then reaping laurels."

Livingstone was never one to mince words or avoid calling a spade a shovel if need be, so one wonders what Anne thought of this opinion of her adored brother Charles being on a "lark"? Maybe privately she had to agree.

The original cross on Mackenzie's Grave placed there by David Livingstone.

From sketch by Dr. Mellor. Drawn by Mrs. R. Mountain. Bowells Anactastic Press, Ipswich. [c.1863.]

When Anne finally returned to England, she became a writer and editor of a religious newspaper called The Net Cast in Many Waters and she devoted all her energies in supporting the missions in Africa. She died aged 64 in 1877 and had lived most of the fifteen years after her brother's death at Woodfield House, Havant, which still stands today but has now been subdivided into flats

. 

Woodfield House as it is today

Bishop Charles Mackenzie