Main description:

Lucy Osburn (1836-1891) was the founder of modern nursing in Australia who also pioneered the employment of high status professional women in public institutions. Osburn learned her vocation at Florence Nightingale's school of nursing in London, but her relationship with Nightingale was not the smooth discourse of "Victorian ladies". Godden uses extensive and frank correspondence to build an intriguing picture of life for an independent middle-class woman. Osburn's triumphs and trials in New South Wales typify the struggles the colony faced in its relations with the Mother Country, and with new roles in the workplace for women. An enthralling and enlightening read.

Contents:

Acknowledgements
Foreword

Discovering Lucy Osburn
A Yorkshire childhood
Two women in search of a purpose
Australia and the imperial dream
Lucy Osburn, lady probationer
Preparations for Sydney
A royal welcome
Taking control
Resignation
Letters to Nightingale
Under attack
Desperate love in accident ward
Slander and scandal
Bible burning
Alliances broken and cemented
The Royal Commission, 1873
Defending Miss Osburn
Changing of the guard
Intolerable pressure
Starting again
Conclusion and epilogue

Abbreviations
Endnotes
Index