Louisa Jordan

Louisa Jordan was born at 279 Gairbraid Street (now Maryhill Road) in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, Scotland, in July 1878.{{cite web|url=https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/who-louisa-jordan-story-woman-18026298|title=Who was Louisa Jordan? The story of the woman the SEC coronavirus field hospital is named after|date=2 April 2020|publisher=Edinburgh Live|access-date=3 April 2020}} Her parents, both from Ireland, were Henry Jordan, a white lead and paint mixer, and Helen (or Ellen) Jordan, and among her 10 siblings (of whom 3 died in infancy) were Helen (or Ellen), David, Elizabeth and Thomas.{{Cite web|title=Family of Glasgow hero nurse Louisa Jordan defend Covid-19 hospital honour|url=https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/news/18394739.great-nephew-louisa-jordan-defends-hospital-dedication/|access-date=2020-07-18|website=Glasgow Times|language=en}} The family lived at 30 Kelvinside Avenue (now Queen Margaret Drive in North Kelvin).{{Cite web|title=Census returns 1891|url=https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/|website=ScotlandsPeople}}

In 1901, she was employed as a mantle maker. She began her nursing career in Quarrier's Homes, a Bridge of Weir sanatorium, before moving to Shotts Fever Hospital. She spent 5 years at the 1st Poor Law Crumpsall Hospital in Manchester, where she became sister in charge of one of the wards and gained wide general nursing experience, before moving back to Scotland, first to Edinburgh and then working at Strathaven, as a Queen Victoria Jubilee nurse. From Strathaven she was transferred to Buckhaven, Fife, where she was a district nurse.{{Cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000471/19150320/161/0006|title=The Late Nurse Louisa Jordan|date=20 March 1915|work=Hamilton Advertiser|access-date=7 April 2020|issue=3048|page=6|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000576/19150312/076/0006|title=Scottish Nurses' Death in Servia|date=12 March 1915|work=Aberdeen Daily Journal|access-date=7 April 2020|issue=18777|page=6|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription}}{{Cite news|date=12 March 1915|title=Biographical Notes|page=7|work=Scotsman}}

Working as a nurse in Buckhaven at the start of the First World War, Jordan enlisted with the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service in December 1914.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.scot/news/nhs-louisa-jordan/|title=NHS Louisa Jordan - gov.scot|website=www.gov.scot|access-date=2020-04-01}}

She joined the 1st Serbian unit under the command of Eleanor Soltau. They departed from Southampton in mid-December. On arrival at Salonica, Greece, the unit was deployed to Kragujevac. She initially treated war-wounded soldiers at the Scottish Women's Hospital.

File:Scottish Women's Hospital people killed in WWI 01.png roll of honour]]

During the Serbian epidemic of typhus in early 1915, she was placed in charge of the new typhus ward. Jordan had volunteered to treat Elizabeth Ross, who was dying of typhus, and Jordan herself died of the disease in March 1915. An Edinburgh orderly nurse, Margaret Neill Fraser, is also reported to have died from typhus when treating the sick in Serbia at the same time.{{Cite news|url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000728/19150313/095/0006|title=Nurses' Fate|date=13 March 1915|work=Daily Record|access-date=7 April 2020|issue=21262|page=6|via=British Newspaper Archive|url-access=subscription}}

Jordan was buried at the Niš Commonwealth Military Cemetery, where she is remembered annually in Serbia along with other nurses who served during the 1915 typhus and relapsing fever epidemic. Her grave (D. 5), with no religious emblem, is inscribed "GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN".{{Cite web|title=Nursing Sister JORDAN, LOUISA|url=https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/473557/jordan,-louisa/|website=Commonwealth War Graves Commission}} In Scotland she is commemorated at the Buckhaven War Memorial and at Kelvinbridge Parish Church in Glasgow.{{Cite web|url=https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/story-louisa-jordan-sec-emergency-18022345|title=The story of the heroic Maryhill nurse giving her name to temporary SEC hospital|first1=Christina|last1=O'Neill|date=1 April 2020|website=glasgowlive}}{{Cite web|title=Kelvinbridge Parish Church|url=https://www.facebook.com/Kelvinbridge-Parish-Church-375332459268495/photos/a.428282207306853/1852435658224827|website=Facebook}} Her name is also included in a memorial panel at York Minster.{{Cite web|title=News & Events: A Maryhill Heroine Remembered {{!}} NHS Louisa Jordan|url=https://www.maryhillburghhalls.org.uk/blog/2020/4/15/a-maryhill-heroine-remembered-nhs-louisa-jordan|access-date=2020-07-18|website=Maryhill Burgh Halls|language=en-GB}}

In 2020, it was announced by NHS Scotland that the NHS Louisa Jordan hospital in Glasgow, an emergency critical care hospital built to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, was to be named after her.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-52127493|title=The nurse lending her name to new virus hospital|date=2020-04-01|work=BBC News|access-date=2020-04-01|language=en-GB}}

The Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman stated that "She is a person who has perhaps up until now been better remembered in Serbia than in Scotland. This hospital is a fitting tribute to her service and her courage."

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{{Scottish Women's Hospitals World War One}}

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Category:Scottish nurses

Category:1878 births

Category:1915 deaths

Category:People from Maryhill

Category:People associated with Fife

Category:Female nurses in World War I

Category:World War I nurses

Category:British women in World War I

Category:Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service volunteers

Category:Deaths from typhus in Serbia

Category:British casualties of World War I