Kate Marsden

Kate Marsden
Nurse Kate Marsden
Born	(1859-05-13)13 May 1859 Edmonton
Died	26 May 1931(1931-05-26) (aged 72) London
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Kate Marsden (13 May 1859 – 26 May 1931) was a British missionary, explorer, writer and nursing heroine. Supported by Queen Victoria and Empress Maria Fedorovna she investigated the care of leprosy. She set out on a journey from Moscow to Siberia to find a cure, creating a leper treatment centre in Siberia. She returned to England and inspired Bexhill Museum, but she was obliged to retire as a trustee. Marsden was dogged after her journey by homophobia, her finances were questioned as were her motives for her journey. Her accusers almost succeeded in making her sexuality the basis for an "Oscar Wilde"-type trial. She was however elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. She has a large diamond named after her and is still remembered in Siberia, where a large memorial statue was erected at Sosnovka village in 2014.

Marsden was born in Edmonton in London in 1859 to solicitor J.D. Marsden and Sophie Matilda Wellsted and she was named Kate. She became a nurse when she was 16 and went to work in a London hospital. She later became a matron at Wellington Hospital.

She was sent 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 Sistov she reportedly met her first two lepers and they persuaded her that this was her mission.

Marsden returned to England and spent some time helping to treat her own siblings who were suffering with tuberculosis. She travelled to New Zealand with her step-mother to help nurse her consumptive sister. After her sister died she took up the position of Lady Superintendent at Wellington Hospital. The 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. Before Marsden returned to England she established the first New Zealand branch of the St John's Ambulance Brigade.