No Place for Ladies: The Untold Story of Women in the Crimean War

by Helen Rappaport

Rereleased in time for International Nurses Day, No Place for Ladies celebrates nurses and their contribution throughout history. In support of the healthcare professionals and caregivers now working tirelessly amid the COVID-19 pandemic, a portion of proceeds will be donated to Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity.

In a war that has been remembered for its incompetencies and atrocities, the stories of the everyday heroes are often forgotten. But in her praiseworthy account of women in the Crimean War, Dr Helen Rappaport shines a light on those women, both famous and unknown, who risked their lives to help the dying and wounded.

From the legendary Florence Nightingale to the under-celebrated Mary Seacole and the many nameless nurses lost to history, Rapport weaves a poignant, yet objective, portrait of the selfless and vital contribution many women gave to the war effort.

Based on meticulous research as well as diaries and letters, No Place for Ladies vividly explores the haunting experiences of these nurses, cantinières, and military wives amidst the brutality of war and champions the accomplishments of ordinary women flung into extraordinary circumstances.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Russia, Audiobook, British Literature

ebook

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Helen Rappaport is a historian specialising in the Victorian period, with a particular interest in Queen Victoria and the Jamaican healer and caregiver, Mary Seacole. She also has written extensively on late Imperial Russia, the 1917 Revolution and the Romanov family. Her love of all things Victorian springs from her childhood growing up near the River Medway where Charles Dickens lived and worked. Her passion for Russian came from a Russian Special Studies BA degree course at Leeds University. In 2017 she was awarded an honorary D.Litt by Leeds for her services to history. She is also a member of the Royal Historical Society, the Genealogical Society, the Society of Authors and the Victorian Society. She lives in the West Country, and has an enduring love of the English countryside and the Jurassic Coast, but her ancestral roots are in the Orkneys and Shetlands from where she is descended on her father's side. She likes to think she has Viking blood.

Helen is the author of 14 published books with 2 forthcoming in 2022:

"In Search of Mary Seacole: The Making of a Cultural Icon" - Simon & Schuster UK, 17 February 2022

"After the Romanovs: Russian Exiles in Paris through Revolution and War" - St Martin's Press USA, 8 March 2022

For her next project she is working on a biography of Juliane of Saxe-Coburg aka Grand Duchess Anna Feodorovna of Russia

Follow her also on Facebook at:
HelenRappaportWriter

Reviews

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

While the book's focus is the experiences of women during the Crimean War, it works just as well to illuminate the stunning lack of planning and organisation that went into the war. The hardship and deprivation suffered by the wives and nurses on the ground, and equally that of the lower class soldiers, was due in large part to the failure of those in power to produce anything close to the amount of resources necessary to wage a war, or deal with its effects. After the first hard winter, the Crimea was allowed to turn into something like a tourist destination, with its own high society social calendar and the arrival of luxury goods and London stores, whilst those who needed assistance the most got the least and people died in the background. That this war ushered in reforms of medical and nursing practice as well as within the Army itself is hardly surprising, the inadequacies of both and the disgusting waste of human life which resulted is evidenced on every page.


ARC via Netgalley

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot, but I felt sections were a bit unclear. The chapters of the book could have been used to give clarity, for example to distinguish between Russian, British and French nursing methods.

You learn about the Crimean War, and I haven't read much about this war so that in itself made it very interesting. The battles are covered, but there is only a little about the cause of the war. The central theme is the role women played - Florence Nightingale, the colored Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole and others. Not only British nurses but also French and Russian counterparts are discussed. A thorough description of the conditions that prevailed during the war is also given. The conditions were appalling - high fatalities, disease (particularly cholera and typhoid) and generally medical, logistical and tactical mismanagement. The book is well researched. There are many direct quotes; you get the feel and the language of Victorian times and also Queen Victoria's role in the war. This is the last war where women were allowed to accompany the men to the front. This is the first war covered by the press, relying on modern technologies, the telegraph, railways and explosive naval shells. This is the first war women were officially organized as nurses, although French nuns, the Sisters of Charity, had in times past followed their men into war, giving them succor and aid. In fact this was an embarrassing point to the British.

Not only were the war conditions appalling but that the war became a tourist attraction was for me even more appalling. I had a hard time comprehending why women even contemplated following their men into war! Perhaps to care for them, given that medical aid was so lacking?!

This book is an eye-opener about the role Florence Nightingale actually played. She was based at the British hospital in Sutari, which is in Turkey, not the Crimea. Her primary task was much more organizational than actually caring for the sick or wounded. She vehemently opposed all and any interference. She didn't work well with the other women, neither with Mary Seacole nor the nuns. Why has so little acclaim been given to the other nurses who functioned independent from Nightingale? Why is it that Nightingale alone has received recognition and acclaim? Militarily the French and the English fought together against the Russians, but in caring for the sick and wounded there was a complete schism. I sense an underlying discord between Catholicism and Protestantism that is not openly discussed, and I wish this had been more clearly analyzed. Nightingale avoided recruiting nurses of the Catholic faith and she did not want them proselytizing. Does religion explain why so little has been said of the other nurses and why so little recognition has been given them?

The narration by Eunice Roberts is clear and fits the Victorian language of the numerous quotes.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have long been an admirer of the author Helen Rappaport, especially the books "The Romanov Sisters" and "Magnificent Obsession." So I was very excited to be chosen to read this book by this author by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for a review. I found the book to be excellent reading with not only a narrative of what happened to women who bravely followed the fighting men to the Crimea but the book also had many excerpts of letters and diaries to make the experience more "real" for the reader. Also, Ms. Rappaport also talked about Russian women at the front which I have never read about before and a different account of Florence Nightingale other than the fawning accounts usually given. When we're not wanted by the British army at the front with good reason. They got in the way and there was no provision for them in the regulations. That means no food, clothing, or lodging. However, a soldier's wife and children left at home were left to starve as no provision was left for them either. A lottery was set up and 6 wives with no children were picked to go with their husbands to go but they had to shift for themselves. They usually washed for the men or acted as servants for the officer's wives who of course had different rules. The women suffered on the ships. Suffered on the marches. Lived and died with their men. If their men died they were truly lost. Remember, no food, shelter, or clothing from the army. They turned to drink to cope. Washing, mending, cooking, and prostitution to survive. Their children died in drives. After battles, the British had no real medical care. A few orderlies and surgeon and a filthy hospital in Scutari. The French had the Sisters of Charity. Word got back to Britain that their beloved soldiers were dying for lack of care and incompetence. Enter Florence Nightingale. Florence went to the Crimea to care for the wounded with a group of nurses and what they found was appalling. The filth, vermin, lack of bedding, clothing, eating utensils, etc. was appalling. The women set to work. Florence was demanding and difficult to work for. Many women turned to drink to come. Florence was inflexible and refused to understand others could not work as she could. She sent many women home. Several nurses died. Florence made a difference but at a cost. Mary Seacole went to the Crimea at her own expense. She was from the Caribbean and was a doctor and a herbalist and nursed many a soldier bank to health. More soldiers died from disease than from wounds. Cholera was endemic. Mary also set up a canteen and did a lot for British morals. The French had this covered already. The British officer with their class system had nothing but contempt for the common soldier and let them die in droves. Although Crimea was no place for women the few heroic women who did come save thousands of British soldier's lives. The French nuns worked tirelessly to save the wounded French soldier. One of the more interesting stories is the British surgeon who turned out to be a woman. Very interesting reading. Then there are the Russians. A group of fearless Russian young upper-class women heard about the British nurses and wanted to help and the Russian military brass did not want there help either. However, a Russian surgeon, needing help, could see their value enlisted their help and these brave young women worked through the war caring for the wounded soldiers eve during the shelling. One nurse was even killed during the shelling. After the war, not one British woman was recognized or given a medal. The Russian women were recognized and given several medals. Florence Nightingale founded a nursing school. This book does not hold back from the horrors of war. After reading it you just again always have to ask why?

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed after receving an ARC of the updated version due to be released May 12th 2020, for Nurses Day, a portion of the proceeds being donated to Guys and St Thomas Charity.

Everyone knows about Florence Nightingale and her role in nursing through the Crimea War, what few know about are the other women who were in the Crimea, and the region at the same time supporting their husbands as wives "on the strength", other nurses running hospitals in other locations, or those independent sorts like Mary Seacole who moved herself out there and set up a business.

While I have connections to the British Army I had little knowledge of the Crimea itself or how the idea of wives travelling to war with their husbands worked, though I knew it had been common.

What I enjoyed about this was that it covered these things in enough detail that it was interesting but not enough to feel like drowning in detail.

The problems faced by the wives left at home were covered in the early parts of the book, those who were married as the Army considered it legally and those who were married without their husband obtaining consent having very different experiences - a system which to a degree exists today, wives are recognised but anyone unmarried essentially doesnt exist as far the the British military system is concerned - and the origin of the still existing tradition of asking permission to marry from your superior officer. Those married without the army's permission recieving no assistance after their husbands left, while those married with permission could access some help.

The desperation of wives to travel with their husbands makes a lot more sense in the light of the problems faced by those left at home, but it was far from an easy experience for them. The military was characteristically unprepared for the scale of the deployment with problems moving supplies from the harbour to the front leaving items in ships holds for far longer than was ideal, weather - a harsh winter and the Great Storm of 1854 (described as a hurricane in the book) and of course the day to day harsh life of an army at war.

Once the book starts to cover the nursing aspects Rappaport makes it quite clear that the legend of Ms Nightingale is not the whole truth of her which is refreshing and as I worked for a period at a place she was known to have frequented due to family connections before she became so well known as a nurse particularly interesting to me. But regardless of her personal clashes with other people she did make a huge difference to the care of her patients in incredibly difficult circumstances.

There was also mention of James Barry the military surgeon who after his death it was discovered was actually born female and named Margaret Ann Bulkley, who himself (as that is how he identified and chose to be known) was the second highest ranked military medic who established a hospital for treatment and recuperation for Crimea wounded.

Overall the book is a good way to learn more about another side of war and a war which these days seems, to me, to be little known about barring Florence and The Charge of the Light Brigade.

Well worth reading as an exploration of the lives which were lived relatively without acknowledgement at the time.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

'No Place for Ladies' is a brilliant book, which aims to explore the place of women in the Crimean War, but in fact works as a primer for anyone who lacks familiarity with the conflict. Author Helen Rappaport does not delve deep into the political motivations of the war, but paints a strong picture of the key battles, the chief problems, and the social issues brewing back in Britain as the war is waged - all while showing the part that women played both on and off the battle-field.

Books on 'women's history' are often let done by the lack of available historical resources available to researchers: often women did not write about their own lives, or their writings were not considered valuable enough to keep, and their voices are absent from men's accounts. From the beginning, this is not the case with 'No Place for Ladies'. Rappaport draws from the diaries of the lady-wives of officers, and from reports and personal accounts of the wives of soldiers. Nurses and doctors' memoirs, letters to newspapers, Queen Victoria's own correspondence; the books is rich with the voices of women, as well as the men who interacted with them.

Importantly, while the work of Florence Nightingale, Mary Seacole, and other medical women is a key part of the book, nursing is only one of the many roles women play in the war. While Rappaport focuses on British women, she is able to draw a line between how they were often undervalued and overlooked by the military machine with their French allies - whose women had very distinct and important roles - and even their Russian foe.

One of my few disappointments with the book is that we see more of the rivalries and hostilities between women in the war than the ties that bind them. Importantly, Rappaport draws out the classism, racism, and religious divides that often split the women whose stories she tells, but I felt like there were too few stories that showed the opposite; a mention of how soldiers' wives living with their husbands on the battlefield banded together is immediately countered with an anecdote of one left to fend for herself as an outsider to the rest of her community. And Fanny Durbley, whose prolific diaries are most often drawn on, simply had no time or care for other women.

'No Place for Ladies' has, as the author puts it, been reissued 'against the backdrop of the 2020 coronavirus pandemic'. It is easy to draw a parallel between the Victorian public's deep appreciation of the women nursing their soldiers and the current gratitude to NHS staff for their hard work and sacrifices. But there are parallels, too, to be drawn between the mismanagement of British troops, their wives and families, and the medical provision they needed during the Crimean War, and the mismanagement of the pandemic we're now seeing. Like all good history books, 'No Place for Ladies' allows us to reflect on how far we've come - and how little has changed.

An ARC was generously provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

[Jeannine Healy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mostly read fiction books but very much enjoy anything regarding historical events and history in general. I loved that this book focused on women in the Crimean War and we all know one very famous woman who is associated with it, Florence Nightingale. However, this book doesn't just give you an insight into Florence herself, it tells the story of other women who were just as important to the war effort.

I was genuinely shocked to hear of the horrendous conditions these women endured, having to lie in ditches giving birth and get used to living a life surrounded by horror and death. Rappaport painted a very vivid picture of what life was like during the war and the suffering that both men and women endured.

I found the resilience of the women amazing, from the wives of soldiers, the nurses and even up to the ladies in the camps. The fact that these women willingly gave up their lives and followed their husbands to war or nursed in the almost derelict hospitals with such triumphant attitudes was just so inspiring.

I think the book was very insightful and well written however, I found it jumped too much from one subject to another without much reason. It was confusing in places to follow.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the Crimean War or history. It gave me a great insight into the war and held my interest. It wasn't too heavy and and it didn't feel bogged down in small details.

I recieved this ARC from Agora Books and Netgalley on exchange for an honest review.

[Rose Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating stuff, takes you through the Crimean campaign from beginning to end and introduces you to women from a wide range of backgrounds, each of whom had different experiences of the conflict. Doesn't shy away from the horrors of war, disease and death, and shows the sexist nonsense nearly all of these ladies had to deal with in some form or other...sigh.

PS: The French cantinières (here mostly referred to as a sort of collective foil to the Englishwomen rather than as individual players in their own right) sound badass and personally I would love a book (fiction or non-fiction) dedicated to their story

[Maggie Mooha · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have any interest in a) the fortitude of women, b) the hopeless disaster that was the Crimean War c) what some women will do for love or d) the accomplishments of a woman of color under dire circumstances and so much, much more, please read this book. I used it as a reference for my upcoming novel In the Eye of the Beholder, and I truly couldn't put it down. Helen Rappaport brings the era to life. If you like non-fiction and even if you don't, give this book a try. The stories will uplift you and tear at your heart. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

[Zosi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe closer to a 3.5 in terms of execution but rounded up due to the scope of the story told, especially as it touches on a little explored subject-and the author herself admits that we know nothing about many of the women who served and died in the Crimea as even their graves no longer survive. A compelling though painful read that touches on the many ways women went to the Crimea and what happened to them there. The chronology of the chapters was a bit unclear and some characters and events were not explained in full depth-the book could have benefited from a little stronger organization.

[Laura Noakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched and clearly written, this book reveals the highly interesting story of the women--army wives, lady tourists, and nurses, who participated in some way in the Crimean War. As someone who knew little to none about this conflict going in, this was a very informative read that really taught me a lot beyond the mythological 'lady of the lamp' story that every child is taught in school. A brilliant historical book, will definitely be reading more of Helen Rappaport's work.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this because I think one of my ancestors may have gone with her husband's regiment to the Crimea - or at least to one of the camps where they left most of the women. There are plenty of books about Florence Nightingale and the other nurses, but none that I know of about the rank-and-file army wives. This book covers both, and it was fascinating. They had terrible lives and terrible deaths out there!

[Julie MacKay · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It was interesting to hear about the Crimean war and the involvement of ladies. The book was good in giving some background details about the Crimean war, as I didn't know much about it, so that was helpful. At times there was a bit too much detail about things and it sometimes lost my interest.

[Madeline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting at points but failed to ever fully capture my attention. I found myself bored and struggling to stay alert a lot of the time. I would recommend maybe reading something about just the Crimean War before reading this, as Rappaport doesn't really provide much background, or at least not enough for me. I wish I had read a book just about the basics of the war before reading this one.

[Jane Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best kind of history writing. It really is an "untold story", and the more fascinating for that. It's thoroughly researched but written in a very accessible way. I'm puzzled by the comments that it isn't well organised, since I don't see any better way of organising the material.

[Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very informative, but slightly dry and lacking in a cohesive presentation. The progress of the Crimean War is followed along with how different developments affected various women. There is wide coverage of women from various levels of society, but the relatively chronological coverage made it hard to get to know any of these women.

It would be difficult to tell the story of women in the crimean war without going into the history of the war. However, I feel it would have been better to divide the book into at least two sections. The first section could have followed the progress of the war, with perhaps one-off quotes or examples of women in general being affected by the specifics discussed interspersed with bullet points and/or a different font. This would have taken care of the quotes or references which are included regarding women about whom there is very little information, which contributes to the somewhat bumpy feel of the narrative.

A second section could have included short biographies of those women whose life stories and their connection with the war are sufficiently known.

Definitely inferior to the last days of the Romanovs.

[Asera · Rating 1 out of 5]

= Read this book from NetGalley UK in exchange for a fair review. =

DNF at 18%, at the end of Chapter 3

Documenting the happenings on the ground during the Crimean War. It is a record of the presence of women and roles they played in that duration. Overall, this book feels impersonal. Context and the facts are weaved into narrative, quoting from letters and diaries of various people. There is a lot to take in.

No discerning eye on the subject either as the book goes on chronologically.

My observation: Romanticised ideals of having women on the ground at wartime because they are an excellent multitasking workhorse? Please! That sentiment might have prevailed in the end because it worked in favour of the majority’s (government & military) expectations.

A dry read.

1 star

[Jada Roche · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read about a war I know too little about. Looking forward to reading more about Mary Seacole...would have liked to see more about her and the "lady tourists"

[Maryanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting to a degree but it wasn't written in an organized manner so a lot of it went over my head.

[Gaylynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read. Plenty of well-researched facts but presented in an entertaining and digestible way!

[Mr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent account of women's role during the Crimean War