Sairey Gamp

Picture postcard illustrated with a representation of Sairey Gamp reproduced from Wellcome's Nurse's Diary. Burroughs, Wellcome & Company produced an annual diary for use by professional nurses. Sairey Gamp was the alcoholic and ineffective nurse depicted by Charles Dickens in his publication Martin Chuzzlewit. The caption beneath the image describes Sairey as 'a nurse of sixty years ago' clearly intended to make a distinction between the unprofessional secular nurses of the early Victorian period with the more, highly trained and effective nurses of the early 20th century.