Bromhead Institution for Nurses and the Bromhead Nursing Home

In 1864 the Ladies' Nursing Fund Committee was created to supply higher quality nurses to Lincoln County Hospital.^[1] This arrangement ended three years later after a difference of opinion between the hospital authorities.^[1] In 1866 the Bromhead Institution for Nurses opened to supply trained nurses for the sick poor in Lincoln, and to other hospitals, and during epidemics, such as the Lincoln typhoid epidemic.^[1][2]The institute was based in the home of Mrs Anne Fector Bromhead in Greestone Road, Lincoln.^[1][3] Although she was not formally trained as a nurse Mrs Bromhead was the first Lady Superintendent, and after her death, her daughter Henrietta became the second untrained Lady Superintendent.^[1] The institute expanded and in 1887 the Red House was built on the junction of Nettleham Road and Church Lane as a memorial to Mrs Bromhead.^[1][3] This became the Bromhead Nursing Home and cared for wealthy private patients.^[1] The nearby Essendon House was acquired in 1907 to provide for accommodation for the nursing staff, and offices for the Institution for Nurses.^[1] Bromhead Nurses were easily recognised by their distinctive uniform of red flannel waistcoats which they wore over their bodices in winter and white pique waistcoats in summer.^[3] They wore nurses caps with net ruches and two streamers down the back.^[3] This was the same nurses hat and tails as worn by sisters at The London Hospital where the Bromhead's third and fourth Lady Superintendents (also known as a matron) had trained under Eva Luckes.^[4]

In 1937 The Bromhead Maternity Home was opened.^[1] In 1948 the NHS took over the Bromhead Nursing Home.^[1] In 1981 this was taken over by a charitable trust and renamed as the Bromhead Hospital.^[1] Since 2001 it has been a private hospital, and is currently part of the Circle Health Group and now known as The Lincoln Hospital.^[5] Essendon House, the former nurses home and offices is now St Barnabas Hospice.^[1][6]

• Mrs Anne Fector Bromhead (1812–1886), founding member and first Lady Superintendent; she was not formally trained.^[3]
• Miss Henrietta Bromhead ( –1906), second Lady Superintendent. She was involved in a libel lawsuit with another nurse in 1906 which was resolved before the conclusion of the trial.^[2]
• Bessie Stephenson (1872–1960), first trained Lady Superintendent between 1907 and 1910.^[7][8][9] Stephenson trained between 1898 and 1890 at The London.^[4][10] During the First World War she was a Matron in the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Nursing Service.^[4][11]
• Susan Mary Somerset (1876–1962), second trained Lady Superintendent, from 1910 until at least 1939.^{[4][12][13][14][15]} Somerset trained at The London between 1906 and 1908.^[16] She won second prize in her probationers examinations,^[17] and became a Holiday Sister and Matron's Office Assistant after her training.^[18] In 1922 the Somerset Wing of the Bromhead Home was named after her.^[19]

53°14′16″N 0°32′01″W / 53.2377°N 0.5335°W / 53.2377; -0.5335