17 Facts About Betsi Cadwaladr

Betsi Cadwaladr, known as Beti Cadwaladr, Betsi Davis, and Elizabeth Davis, was a Welsh nurse.

Betsi Cadwaladr began nursing on travelling ships in her 30s and later nursed in the Crimean War alongside Florence Nightingale.

Elizabeth 'Betsi' Cadwaladr was born in 1789 at Llanycil, near Bala, Wales, one of 16 children to Methodist preacher Dafydd Cadwaladr and his wife Judith.

Betsi Cadwaladr's mother died and was buried on 10 February 1800 when Betsi was ten years old.

Betsi Cadwaladr was not happy there, though, and aged 14 she claimed to have escaped through a bedroom window using tied sheets, and left Bala.

Betsi Cadwaladr then obtained employment as a domestic servant in Liverpool.

Betsi Cadwaladr later returned to Wales, but subsequently fled to London to avoid marriage, living with her sister.

Betsi Cadwaladr said she was in France at the time of the Battle of Waterloo, and visited the battlefield where she was moved by the plight of the injured.

Betsi Cadwaladr was interviewed by Mary Stanley and Elizabeth Herbert as by this time Florence Nightingale was already in Scutari.

Betsi Cadwaladr went to the Crimea in the second group of nurses led by Mary Stanley, November 1854.

Betsi Cadwaladr was one of the secular nurses were sent to Therapia until this was resolved.

Betsi Cadwaladr was posted to a hospital in Scutari, Turkey, a hospital being run by Florence Nightingale.

Betsi Cadwaladr worked there for some months, but there were frequent clashes between the two; they came from very different social backgrounds and were a generation apart in age.

Betsi Cadwaladr often side-stepped regulations to react more intuitively to the ever-changing needs of the injured soldiers.

Nightingale visited Balaclava twice and, on seeing the changes brought about by Betsi Cadwaladr's methods, gave her the credit she was due.

Betsi Cadwaladr lived in London, again at her sister's house, during which time she wrote her autobiography.

Betsi Cadwaladr died in 1860, five years after her return, and was buried in the pauper's section of Abney Park Cemetery in north London.