Eva Luckes

Grainne Anthony looks at the life of an exceptional Victorian woman 

Eva Lückes was single, well educated, upper middle-class woman who had a long and distinguished career in nursing. She was appointed matron of the London Hospital in 1880, at the age of 26, a position she occupied until her death in 1919.

As a friend and disciple of Florence Nightingale, Eva subscribed to the concept of nursing as a vocation and an art and this concept of nursing permeated her all aspects of her work.

At the London Hospital, the largest voluntary hospital in England, Eva created a nursing department which ran two parallel nursing services: a hospital service providing care for the sick poor and a private nursing institution that provided care for the wealthy in their homes. This model was adopted by many of the large voluntary hospitals in England. She established an innovative training school for nurses and her practices were influential in the training of nurses for almost a century. 

Eva was also a leading opponent of controlling entry to the profession by state registration and it is this aspect of her career that has received most attention from historians.

During the 30 year campaign for registration she was publicly vilified for her opposition by the leading pro-registrationist Ethel Bedford Fenwick. Eva’s opposition was based on the belief that it was too soon in the development of the profession to regulate entry, arguing that it would impede progress and lower standards.

She also feared that technical knowledge would take precedence over the personal qualities required in a nurse.

In an era when there were few opportunities for Victorian women to pursue a career Eva Lückes was one of a small group of hospital matrons who were able to carve out respectable careers and have a profound influence on the development of the modern nursing profession. Their achievements have been obscured by the iconic figure of Florence Nightingale and they have been largely ignored by historians of women and feminist historians in particular.