Locomotive renamed to honour nursing pioneers
STEPHEN Middleton’s Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0ST No. 1208 of 1916 Illingworth/ Mitchell was renamed Nightingale and Seacole at the Embsay & Bolton Abbey Steam Railway on April 22.
During the midday ceremony at Embsay station, tribute was paid to the courage shown throughout the pandemic by the current generation of nurses, midwives, nursing associates, and healthcare support workers who continue to tackle the direct and indirect effects.
Mary Seacole and Florence Nightingale are two of the world’s most famous nurses, both being remembered for the advancements in nursing which they developed while caring for injured soldiers during the Crimean War.
Many believe that Mary Seacole did not receive the recognition she deserved; this name will remind future generations of the contribution and sacrifice that nurses and midwives from abroad and from an Ethnic minority have made during the Covid-19 crisis.
Professor Greta Westwood CBE PhD RN, of the Florence Nightingale Foundation, and Trevor Sterling, of the Mary Seacole Trust, unveiled the relevant nameplates before joining guests for a ride in Queen Victoria’s saloon and vintage directors’ carriages.
The invited guests travelled in luxury behind the newly-renamed locomotive to Bolton Abbey for afternoon tea.
For the first time, the three Stately Trains bogie saloons were rostered together – 1913-built LNWR Directors Saloon No. 5318, Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway Directors Saloon No.1 from 1906, and Queen Victoria’s personal coach, the LNWR Saloon No.17, built in 1885.
Stephen said that each change of ownership of the locomotive since 1916 has seen a change of name and he has followed that tradition. As previously, one name is carried either side of the locomotive.