Rosabella Paulina Fynes Clinton

Clinton trained at Leicester Royal Infirmary, and had also briefly worked at Guys Hospital, London.^[8][6][9] She trained as a midwife at the British Hospital, Endell Street in London and obtained the Certificate of the Obstetrical Society of London.^[10] In 1882 she was appointed as a ward sister at The London Hospital by the matron Eva Luckes. Clinton resigned a year later, but returned again in 1884 and remained there until 1890 when she was seriously ill, possibly with influenza which she caught during the Russian Flu Pandemic.^[8] After two years of recuperation Clinton returned to The London in March 1892, and was appointed assistant matron in September 1892.^[8] She held this post until she resigned in June 1895 when she was appointed as a visitor for the Trained Nurses Association to Workhouse Infirmaries.

In February 1896 she was appointed as Lady Superintendent of the National Hospital for Paralysed and Epileptic, Queen’s Square, London.^[11][12] But she only held the post for one month because the committee rescinded her appointment as they had overlooked a current member of nursing staff for the position.^[13][14] Although they offered Clinton a generous £100 settlement she donated it to the hospital funds.^[14]

Clinton learned massage at The London Hospital, and was a founding member for the Society of Trained Masseuses.^{[15][5][16][3]} She collaborated with Rosalind Paget on the Midwives Registration Bill, and following the successful enactment of the 1902 Midwives Act, she was registrant number 3 on The Midwives Roll.^[17] She was also a teacher and an examiner for the Central Midwives Board.^[5] She was a member of the Nurses Club in Buckingham Street where she trained nurses in massage therapy.^[6]

Clinton shared a flat with Rosalind Paget and other friends in Sloane's Court, London, where she died on 16 September and was buried in Brompton Cemetery five days later.^[1][18][19] She died after a short illness but had been unwell for several years prior to her death.^[1] Many colleagues attended her funeral including eminent nurses Alicia Lloyd Still, matron of St Thomas's Hospital and Alice Blomfield, matron of Queen Charlotte's maternity hospital.^[1] Clinton is remembered on Dame Rosalind Paget's memorial stone. After her death the Midwive's Institute inaugurated the annual Fynes-Clinton Memorial Lecture in her memory.^[20]