Kate Marsden facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kate Marsden
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| Born | 13 May 1859 Edmonton, London
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| Died | 26 May 1931 (aged 72) London
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| Known for | Travelling to Siberia to find a leprosy cure |
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Kate Marsden (13 May 1859 – 26 May 1931) was a British missionary, explorer, writer and nurse. Supported by Queen Victoria and Empress Maria Feodorovna she investigated a cure for leprosy. She set out on a round trip from Moscow to Siberia to find a cure, creating a leper treatment centre in Siberia. She returned to England and helped to found Bexhill Museum, but she was obliged to retire as a trustee. Marsden's finances came under scrutiny as did her motives for the journey. She was however elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. She has a large diamond named after her and is still celebrated in Siberia, where a large memorial statue was erected at Sosnovka village in 2014.
Early life
Marsden was born in Edmonton in London in 1859 to solicitor J.D. Marsden and Sophie Matilda Wellsted. Her uncle was the explorer Captain James Raymond Wellsted. She became a nurse when she was 16 and went to work in a London hospital. She later became a matron at Wellington Hospital, New Zealand, having gone there with her mother Sarah, to nurse her own sister who was ill with tuberculosis. Her sister died within days of their arrival. Marsden's record gained her this senior position but she held that position for just five months. She had an accident on a step ladder which made her unable to work for several months. She resigned to mixed reactions – the governor William Jervois and the management gave her six months' wages when she resigned, although other commentators noted that she had insured herself only days before the accident and she was considered difficult and autocratic by her staff.
Marsden had set up a St John's Ambulance group in New Zealand and she gave lectures there. In her final lecture she announced that she intended to visit Louis Pasteur in Europe, and then go on to work with Father Damien in Hawaii caring for lepers. She was given financial support to continue her work.
She travelled from Tottenham to Bulgaria with others to nurse Russian soldiers wounded in Russia's war with Turkey in 1877. Working at the Red Cross mission, her selflessness and devotion brought her an award from Empress Maria Fedorovna. Near Svishtov she reportedly met her first two lepers and they persuaded her that her mission was to work with sufferers of the disease.
Interest in leprosy
The Wellington hospital had been set up primarily to look after the local Māori population. Marsden would later report that she looked after lepers in New Zealand – but although there was a similar disease there was no leprosy amongst the Māori people.
She continued to work as a nurse whilst also visiting the sick but wanting to leave for the British colonies to treat leprosy. After obtaining the support of Queen Victoria and Princess Alexandra, she travelled to Russia to obtain funding from the Russian Royal family. On this basis, she was able to travel to Egypt, Palestine, Cyprus and Turkey. According to her book On sledge and horseback to the outcast Siberian Lepers, she met an English doctor in Constantinople who told her of the curative properties of an herb found in Siberia. Inspired by this information she resolved to journey to Siberia.
Journey to Siberia
She set sail from England to Moscow on board the merchant vessel Parramatta. She was able to arrange an audience with the Tsarina after she arrived in Moscow in November 1890. The Tsarina gave her a letter encouraging all who read it to assist Marsden with her plans to investigate leprosy in Siberia. Marsden took provisions including clothing so robust that it took three men to carry her into the sledge that carried her part of the way. She said that she could not bend her legs in the outfit. Marsden took 18 kg of Christmas pudding. This unusual addition was justified by Marsden because it was known to keep well and she liked it. She set out three months later with an assistant and translator Ada Field.
Her journey took her some 11,000 miles (18,000 km) across Russia, by train, sledge, on horseback and by boat. She had to interrupt her journey near Omsk after falling ill.
She helped at prisons she encountered on her journey, and gave out food to Russian prisoners as they travelled into exile, with double rations for the women who accompanied them or women who were convicts. Near her birthday in May she arrived at Irkutsk and formed a committee to address the problem of leprosy. She then travelled down the River Lena to Yakutsk where she obtained the herb that she believed might be a cure for leprosy. Although the herb did not bring the cure she had hoped for, she continued to work amongst the lepers in Siberia.
In 1892, she became a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and she was personally given an angel shaped brooch by Queen Victoria. In 1893, Marsden travelled to Chicago to attend the World's Fair. She had a booth in the Woman's Building, and she gave a lecture about her travels (called ''The Leper'') to the Congress of Women, held in the Woman's Building.
In 1895, Marsden founded a charity, still active today, now known as the St Francis Leprosy Guild. In 1897, she returned to Siberia where she opened a hospital for lepers in Vilyuysk. She never fully recovered from her journey but she gave her account of it in her book On Sledge and Horseback to Outcast Lepers in Siberia, published in 1893.
She died in London on 26 March 1931, and was buried in Hillingdon cemetery in Uxbridge on 31 March. Her grave was overgrown for many years and covered in bushes. These have now been cleared, and her grave and the ones nearby are now accessible.
The monument to Kate Marsden was consecrated on 3 September 2019.
See also
In Spanish: Kate Marsden para niños
