Barts nurses get their own rose
A rose grown to celebrate the anniversary of the St Bartholomew’s nurses league has been planted in the hospital square.
The Barts Nurse Rose was commissioned in 2019 to mark 120 years of the Barts League of Nurses but the official planting was delayed because of the pandemic.
Bred by expert Ronnie Rawlins from Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, the rose is available to League members who can request their own plant via an order form.
The small profit made from the sale of each rose will go towards the running of the League.
It is hoped that in a few years time it will go on general sale to members of the public.
Founded in 1899 by pioneering nurse Isla Stewart, a matron at St Bartholomew's Hospital between 1887 and 1910, the League was the first organisation of its kind in the UK.
Today it has around 2,400 members living across the world each of whom have trained or worked at St Bartholomew’s during their career.
The League’s benevolent and scholarship funds have helped many thousands of nurses over the past 120 years and continue to do so today.
League president Elizabeth Wood-Dow OBE said: "We asked some senior members of the League together with some much younger members to plant the rose, watched on by over 90 other members.
"We plan to install a plaque informing passers by about its significance.
"We are grateful to Rogers Nursery in Pickering for handling the growing and distribution for us."