‘A Bright Spot in Their Poor City’: The Work of Gloucester’s District Nurses During the 1896 Smallpox Epidemic

This paper examines the response of the Gloucester District Nursing Society to a major epidemic of smallpox in the city at the end of the nineteenth century. Unable to cope with the high numbers contracting smallpox, the local hospital for infectious diseases descended into chaos forcing people to isolate at home without care. Consequently, the recruitment of a specialist team of nurses was hailed as the one redeeming feature of a largely preventable epidemic. District nurses caring for patients at home are ideally placed to promote the wider public health measures intended to limit the spread of infection. With the ongoing threat from emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and the potential for the use of smallpox in bioterrorism, much can be learned from the pragmatic, organised and compassionate approach adopted by the district nurses in easing the suffering of patients and in helping to bring the epidemic to a close.