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Emma Maria Pearson (1828–1893), the daughter of Captain Charles Pearson, RN, of
Great Yarmouth Great Yarmouth ( ), often called Yarmouth, is a seaside resort, seaside town which gives its name to the wider Borough of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, England; it straddles the River Yare and is located east of Norwich. Its fishing industry, m ...
,
Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
, was a writer and one of the first British women to serve as a nurse for the
Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...
. Both the French and Germans awarded medals to her for running ambulances (as
field hospital A field hospital is a temporary hospital or mobile medical unit that takes care of casualties on-site before they can be safely transported to more permanent facilities. This term was initially used in military medicine (such as the Mobile ...
s were then called) during the
Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
of 1870. She also gained the Gold Cross of the Order of the Takova for work in the Serbo-Turkish war, the prelude to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78).


Life

An account of Emma's nursing career is given in the article on her partner Louisa McLaughlin (1836–1921) who shared the same wartime adventures. Later they jointly set up one of London's only two private nursing homes where they assisted the originator of antiseptic surgery Joseph Lister in many operations.


Works

Louisa co-authored with Emma two narratives of their battlefront experiences ''Our Adventures During the War of 1870'', and ''Service in Servia Under the Red Cross''. They also wrote a brief history of wartime nursing as a series of papers in the St. James's Magazine, reprinted in book form in 1872 with the title ''Under the Red Cross.'' The last two chapters document a multitude of failings in Colonel Loyd-Lindsay's chairmanship of the National Society for Aid to the Sick and Wounded in War (precursor to the British Red Cross). Facsimiles of the original two volumes (364 & 418 pages) of ''Our Adventures'' are available as eBooks. There is also an eBook of ''Service in Servia.'' Between wars Emma wrote two three-decker novels ''His Little Cousin: A Tale'' (London, 1875) and ''One Love in a Life'' (London: 1874). The latter, available as an eBook, is dedicated to "the dear friend, 'tender and true,' who shared hardship and danger by my side, Louisa E. McLaughlin, in loving remembrance of 1870." The story demonstrates that women's rights are not needed for good women to overcome their problems, while the rest cannot organize themselves owing to petty rivalries. ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' review said: "The tone is elevating, and the descriptions of scenery and society excellent." Emma was also the author of ''From Rome to Mentana.'' In 2002 a facsimile reprint of this 354-page travel book was published as an Elibron Classic by Adamant Media Corporation of London. When ''From Rome to Mentana'' originally came out in 1868, it was praised by an anonymous reviewer in the ''
Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1907, ceasing publication altogether in 1922. It was the first to use the term '' ...
'', which at that time was edited by Edward Walford, who also happened to have edited the book. Walford was an eminent writer of local histories, and the compiler of Walford's '' County Families.'' He was the uncle of Emma's sister Harriet's husband, John Desborough Walford. Emma's work often appeared in the ''St James's Magazine'' and in ''Temple Bar,'' both literary periodicals with eminent contributors such as
Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope ( ; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among the best-known of his 47 novels are two series of six novels each collectively known as the ''Chronicles of Barsetshire ...
. She twice reported seeing ghosts to the '' Journal of the Society for Psychical Research''.Vol. III. p. 20, and Vol. VI. p.76.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, Emma Maria 1828 births 1893 deaths English nurses Female wartime nurses People from Great Yarmouth Red Cross personnel Serbian–Turkish Wars (1876–1878)