Betsi Cadwaladr

Betsi Cadwaladr (24 May 1789 – 17 July 1860), also known as Beti Cadwaladr, Betsi Davis, and Elizabeth Davis, was a Welsh nurse. She began nursing on travelling ships in her 30s (1820s) and later nursed in the Crimean War alongside Florence Nightingale.

Her name today is synonymous with the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board , the largest health organisation in Wales. In 2016, she was named as one of "the 50 greatest Welsh men and women of all time"

One of the few sources for her life is the book ' Autobiography of Elizabeth Davis''', published in 1857. This was based on a series of interviews with the author Jane Williams towards the end of Cadwaladr's life.

Background Elizabeth 'Betsi' Cadwaladr was born in 1789 at Llanycil, near Bala, Wales, one of 16 children to Methodist preacher Dafydd Cadwaladr and his wife Judith. She grew up on Pen Rhiw Farm, Llanycil. Her mother died and was buried on 10 February 1800 when Betsi was ten years old. In her interviews with Jane Williams, Betsi said she was given a copy of the Bible as a present from Thomas Charles

Working as a maid and assistant, Cadwaladr claimed she had the opportunity to travel widely around the world. She said she was in France at the time of the Battle of Waterloo, and visited the battlefield where she was moved by the plight of the injured. In 1820, aged 31, she again returned to Bala, which she now considered 'dull', Her sister Bridget tried to dissuade her. Cadwaladr was one of the secular nurses were sent to Therapia until this was resolved. Cadwaladr claims that she met Nightingale and frustrated by the delay said "Do you think I am a dog or an animal to make me over? I have a will of my own.

Works Autobiography of Elizabeth Davis, 1857. Republished as Betsy Cadwaladyr: A Balaclava Nurse Honno, 2015. Hart, JT (1971). "The Inverse Care Law". Lancet''. 1: 405–12. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(71)92410-x.