Portsmouth's Pioneering Nursing Hero

To mark International Day of the Nurse, the School's Archivist, John Sadden, celebrates a nursing hero with a PGS connection: Annie Fox, who was the second nurse to be awarded the Royal Red Cross (preceded only by Florence Nightingale).

1881: Survivors of the Battle of Bronkhorstspruit (Annie Fox seated (and overexposed) in the centre)

The Royal Red Cross decoration was introduced by Queen Victoria in 1883 and is awarded to army nurses for exceptional services, devotion to duty and professional competence in military nursing. The first recipient was Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. The following year, a remarkable woman with a PGS connection was equally honoured.

Annie Fox was married to George, a Sergeant Major in the Connaught 94th Foot. She accompanied her husband to the Transvaal in 1880 at the beginning of the first Boer War. In those days a limited number of military wives were permitted to serve their husbands’ regiment by carrying out nursing and other duties.

In the first engagement of the war (known as the Battle of Bronkhorstspruit) the Boers cut the Connaughts to pieces with gunfire. On the battlefield, amid the slaughter, Annie attended to the wounded and dying until she too was cut down, shot in the abdomen.  

The battle – or rather, ambush - lasted 15 minutes during which 156 British soldiers were killed or wounded, with the rest taken prisoner, including Annie. Only seven Boer casualties were reported.

Annie was held prisoner for four months in a Boer camp during which time she nursed her wounded fellow prisoners despite her own very serious injuries. The bullet in her abdomen was never removed.

Eight years later, Annie and George were living in the married quarters at Cambridge Barracks (now the site of the school Sports Hall). Annie had never fully recovered from her wounds and died in January 1888. Prince George, the Duke of Cambridge and Commander in Chief, gave special permission for her to receive full military honours.  

1872: Soldiers of the 88th Connaught Rangers on parade in front of Cambridge Barracks

The funeral cortege was headed by a gun carriage bearing her coffin, drawn by six horses, two military bands and officers and men of the regiment. The procession left through the barracks arch, past the old Grammar School (now the Upper Junior) and on to Highland Road Cemetery in Southsea. Many local people lined the route to pay their respects and honour a national hero.

Six non-commissioned officers, whose wounds Annie had attended to in South Africa, carried her coffin to the grave and three shots were discharged by a firing party. A monument to her bravery was later erected in her memory by the soldiers of the Barracks.

Main sources: Hampshire Telegraph 5 May 1888, The Times 30 Mar 1881, The Star 28 Jan 1888.