Jane Catherine Shaw Stewart

Jane Catherine Shaw Stewart (22 September 1821 – 14 March 1905) was a leading British nurse in Crimea. At one point she was designated to take over from Florence Nightingale. She was the first woman to appear on a British Army List. She had to stand down from her leading position after an investigation revealed her bullying.

Life Stewart was born in the Marylebone area of London in 1821. She was the first of six children born to Eliza Mary (born Farquhar) and Sir Michael Shaw-Stewart, 6th Baronet. Her parents owned slaves in Trinidad and Tobago as well as estates in Renfrewshire in Scotland. When her mother died in 1853, she used her inheritance (from slave owning) to construct St Mary's, a new Episcopalian church in Port Glasgow.

She met Florence Nightingale in 1854 and resolved to work in Crimea. However, she lacked experience, so she went to work at Guy's and Westminster Hospitals before she left with Mary Stanley for Crimea. but Nightingale soon promoted Stewart.

Florence continued to support her by asking that Stewart might receive more training and identifying her as the person to lead the army nurses.

Stewart was later employed as the sister-in-charge of the British hospital ship Carthage during the Anglo-Egyptian War in 1882.