Agnes Hunt

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Dame Agnes Gwendoline Hunt DBE RRC (31 December 1866–24 July 1948) is generally recognized as the first orthopaedic nurse.

She was born in Baschurch, a village in north Shropshire, England and was disabled from osteomyelitis of the hip that she suffered from as a child following septicaemia.^[1] In 1887 she began training as a nurse at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Rhyl and opened a convalescent home for crippled children at Florence House in Baschurch in 1900 which espoused the yet-unproven theory of open-air treatment.

In 1903 she sought treatment for her own condition from a Liverpool surgeon, Robert Jones.^[2] She invited him to visit the convalescent home and he eventually began travelling there on a regular basis to provide treatment to the children. By 1907, they had built an operating theatre and introduced the diagnostic use of X-rays in 1913. During World War I Florence House was used to treat wounded soldiers.

In 1918 Agnes Hunt was awarded the insignia of the Royal Red Cross for her contribution during the war.^[3] In 1919 the British Red Cross Society and the Shropshire War Memorial Fund provided financing to move the facility, renamed the Shropshire Orthopaedic Hospital, to a former military hospital at Park Hall. The hospital also provided traing for nurses. Later, a school begun for the children developed into a training college for disabled adults, Derwen College. The hospital was used once again to treat wounded soldiers during World War II. It was later moved to Gobowen, Oswestry and developed into what is now called The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic and District Hospital.

She was created a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE) in 1926.

The memorial to Agnes Hunt in Gobowen states: "Reared in suffering thou shalt know how to solace others' woe. The reward of pain doth lie in the gift of sympathy."