User:Ipigott/Inès de Bourgoing

Inès de Bourgoing (1862-1953) was an early French nurse who was head of the Red Cross in France at the beginning of the 20th century. She went on to develop nursing under the Red Cross approach in Morocco. For her important work, she was named a Grand Officer of the French Legion of Honour.

Early life
Inès-Marie de Bourgoing was born into a noble family in Paris on 5 Janaury 1862. She was educated at a school for noble girls. When she was 18, she married Joseph Fortoul, an army officer. The couple had three children but one died before he was two years old. After her husband died from an illness in 1900, she trained in the newly opened school for nurses in Paris.

Work as a nurse
Shortly after qualifying as a nurse, de Bourgoing joined the SSBM (Société de Secours aux Blessés Militaires), an organization for treating injured soldiers which later became the French Red Cross. As a result of her success while working at the Beaujon Hospital in Paris, she was named head of the SSBM.

In 1907, de Bourgoing went to Morocco with military forces under General Antoine Drude. Heading SSBM volunteers, she opened a treatment centre in Casablanca for soldiers wounded in the fighting between the French and the Moroccans. She later continued her work in Oran, Algeria, and in Messina, Italy. It was here that in 1908 she helped to take care of the 80,000 people who had been injured in an earthquake.

In 1909, de Bourgoing married General Lyautey. The couple returned to Morocco which became a French colony. She created support for women and children, including nurseries, child-birth centres and homes for the recovery of soldiers and their families. In 1915, she arranged for children in Casablanca to receive milk or powdered milk and opened similar centres throughout Morocco.