'The Times' newspaper for 12-14 October 1854, London, 1854 October 12-14

A copy of The Times in which, on 13th October, page 8, column 4, a description of the French medical arrangements mentions the Sisters of Charity nursing in the Crimea.

Quote from an article entitled 'William Howard Russell and the Crimean War' by Eamon Dyas (group records manager) from Times Online dated 19 October 2004:

"Thomas Chenery wrote from Constantinople on September 30, 1854, the report appearing in the paper on October 12...On the October 13, Chenery again commented upon the excellent nursing work being done for the French by the Sisters of Charity and on the 14th a correspondent to the paper was asking "Why have we no Sisters of Charity?".

It would be wrong to claim that the decision of Florence Nightingale to assemble her team of nurses was a direct result of Chenery's exposures (approaches had already been made by Lady Maria Forester to Nightingale offering to pay for a nursing expedition), but there is little doubt that Chenery's and Russell's reports contributed to it. By October 21 she had assembled her first staff of 38 nurses, of whom 18 were nuns."

[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/archive/tol_archive/article496367.ece Accessed 21 July 2010]