The Lady Lights Her Lamp
where expenditure on the Hospital was concerned. He had his eye on the balance of the Times Fund to finance the first ever Protestant church in Constantinople. Florence, with her propensity for hasty judgements of the hit-or-miss variety called him 'bad-tempered, heartless, pompous and lazy' Probably four hits in this case. Anyway as was his wont, he sent his wife along. Florence considered her a dizzy society hostess, immune to the practicalities of life, and would have nothing to do with her; shortly after her arrival, Lady Stratford had called, offering to help. Florence told her that a dozen or so transport wagons would be useful - the following day twelve carriages turned up. We might charitably write this incident off as a communications breakdown, as there is much evidence elsewhere that the Ambassadors wife had been helpful and effective in other unrelated situations. Probably a 'miss' here for Florence's judgement.
On this occasion workmen were arranged after a courtyard meeting between Lady Stratford, the Purveyor, universally known as 'Poor old Ward', and Major Sillery, the Military Commandant of the Hospital - such appointments rarely went to the first team, and Sillery had been previously described by Augustus Stafford M.P., a more circumspect judge of character than Florence as 'very nervous and anxious, very much distressed and perplexed." The trio hatched up a scheme to hire 125 Turkish workmen. Presumably Lord Stratford had a say in the pay rates, which were so abysmally low that the men struck for more money shortly after starting work. Florence complained to Stratford, who denied all knowledge. Sillery was as dynamic as ever. What could he do, he protested worriedly, he had neither the authority nor the money. Finally the Royal Engineers, who were officially responsible for building and construction repairs, hired 200 workmen at the market rate - the work was completed in time for the new batch of patients.
Most popular accounts credit Florence with supervising and hiring the final workforce, but she makes no mention of this in any accounts, whereas the Royal Engineers, who included the future General Gordon of China and Khartoum in their Scutari unit, have their participation documented.
Not all the news was good. Worryingly, in spite of all the improvements, there was no sign of the death rate decreasing, if anything it continued to steadily rise. And there were constant battles with the nurses. She considered two to be real
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