Louisa Jordan

Louisa Jordan was born in the Maryhill area of Glasgow, Scotland in July 1878.[3] Her father was Henry Jordan, a white lead and paint mixer, and her mother was Helen Jordan. Her siblings were David and Thomas. They lived at 30 Kelvinside Avenue.[1]

In 1901, she was employed as a mantle maker.[1] She began her nursing career in Quarrier's Homes, a Bridge of Weir sanatorium, before moving to Shotts Fever Hospital. She moved to work at the 1st Poor Law Crumpsall Hospital in Manchester before moving back to Scotland, first to Edinburgh and then working at Strathaven, as a Queen Victoria Jubilee nurse. From Strathaven she was transferred to Buckhaven, Fife, where she was a district nurse.[4][5]

Working as a nurse in Buckhaven at the start of the First World War, she enlisted with the Scottish Women's Hospital for Foreign Service in December 1914.[6]

She joined the 1st Serbian unit under the command of Eleanor Soltua. They departed from Southampton in mid-December. On arrival at Salonica, Serbia, the unit was deployed to Kragujevac. She initially treated war wounded soldiers at the Scottish Women's Hospital.[6][1]

During the Serbian epidemic of typhus in early 1915, she was placed in charge of the new typhus ward.[6][1] Jordan had volunteered to treat Elizabeth Ross who was dying of typhus, and Jordan died of the disease in March 1915.[5][7] An Edinburgh orderly nurse, Margaret Neill Fraser, is also reported to have died from typhus when treating the sick in Serbia at the same time.[8]

Jordan was buried at the Chela Kula Military Cemetery in Niš, being remembered annually in Serbia along with other nurses who served during the 1915 typhus epidemic. In Scotland, she is commemorated at the Buckhaven War Memorial and at Wilton Church in Glasgow.[7]

In 2020, it was announced by NHS Scotland that the NHS Louisa Jordan hospital in Glasgow, an emergency critical care hospital built to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, was to be named after her.[9]

The Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman stated that "She is a person who has perhaps up until now been better remembered in Serbia than in Scotland. This hospital is a fitting tribute to her service and her courage."[6]