Georgina Haines
Georgina Phoebe Herbert 'Haines,' R.R.C.. Haines was a wartime military nursing leader, and nursed King Edward VII during and after his emergency operation for an appendiceal abscess, and became known as the King's Nurse.
Early life
Haines was born in Mallow in Co.Cork, Ireland in 1868. She was one of at least five children born to Charles Haines, a gentleman farmer and his wife Anne. By 1891 Georgina and another sister were living with one of their married brother's who was a general practitioner and surgeon near St Pancras in London.Career
Haines trained at The London Hospital under Matron Eva Luckes between 1893-1896. Haines became a private nurse for The London, and nursed influential individuals including William Amelius Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans, who was a member of the Privy Council. In 1902 Sir [Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet|Sir Frederick Treves] specifically requested that she care for King Edward VII during an emergency operation for a appendiceal abscess, which delayed his coronation. Haines became known as ‘The King’s Nurse’. She drove in the delayed coronation procession, and went on the royal yacht with the King and Queen Alexandra, patron of The London Hospital. Later, the King requested that Haines became matron of Osborne House for Naval Officers and she held this post from 1903 and during WW1 until 1917. Whilst she was matron at Osborne House Haines was awarded the RRC by the King in 'recognition of her special devotion and competency in nursing invalid soldiers of His Majesty's Navy and Army'.In 1918, she was appointed matron of St John's VAD Hospital, a large military hospital in Hull and worked there until 1919. Later, she opened a nursing home in Bexhill. She was a founding member of the College of Nursing, having joined in 1919. One of her sister's Marcella Olive had trained as a nurse in Ireland, and was registrant 601 on the General Register for nurses.