Fanny Eagles

Fanny Elizabeth Eagles (10 December 1836 – 7 March 1907) was a British Anglican deaconess. She led a group of deaconesses and she founded an orphanage in Bedford.

Fanny Eagles
Born10 December 1836
Bedford, England
Died7 March 1907 (1907-03-08) (aged 70)
Bedford, England
Occupationdeaconess

Life
Harpur Place in Bedford

Eagles was born at Harpur Place in Bedford in 1907.[1] Her parents were Elizabeth (born Halfhead) and Ezra Eagles. Her father was a solicitor.[2]

She was a member of St Paul's Church in Bedford.[2]

In 1864 the Tracterian Revd Michael Ferrebee Sadler took over from the Reverend John Donne at St Paul's in Bedford. Sadler was to encourage Fanny Eagles to not be a nun, as she wanted to be, but to become a deaconess.[2] She had readied herself for a life of caring by her work on a fever ward and two years she spent with Nursing Sisters of the Church of England in Brompton Square.[1]

Eagles was made a deaconess by the laying on of hands on 5 February 1869.[1] Eagles decided to wear clothes that made her look like a nun and although she was accused on being a catholic she persisted.[1]

As a result, the Sisters of Saint Etheldreda began to be associated with the parish from 1869. When it was formed there was just her and a trainee but gradually the number of sisters grew. The emphasis initially was on education. Sunday schools and night schools were established with each deaconess taking the lead in a given area.[1] There were at most six deaconesses at any time.[2]

In 1870 and 1871 there was an outbreak of smallpox in Bedford and Eagles volunteered to assist. Despite the risks she helped to care for the living and the dead. As a result of her good works her community earned some respect and the gift of a house as a base from a well-wisher in Bristol. The community had been based at Eagles' house but from 1881 it has at Bromham Road.[2]

A new role for the deaconesses in the community presented itself when Eagles began to offer a home for orphan children. From small beginnings the house in Bromham Road became an orphanage, St Etheldreda's Home. In time a chapel was built next door and a nearby house was purchased to expand the service.[2]

Death and legacy

Eagles died in at St Esmereldas in Bedford in 1907. There is a plaque on 9 Bromham Road in Bedford recording her life and the St Etheldreda’s Home for Orphans which operated there.[3] The local museum had a gallery for famous people from Bedford and the women included suffragist Amy Walmsley, prophet and messiah Mabel Barltrop and Eagles.[4]

References
  1. Antrobus, Stuart (Autumn 2020). "Sister Fanny (1836–1907): Pioneer Church of England deaconess in Bedford" (PDF). History in Bedfordshire. 9 (1): 2–15 – via BEDFORDSHIRE LOCAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION.
  2. Bonham, Valerie (2004-09-23). "Eagles, Fanny Elizabeth (1836–1907), Church of England deaconess". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 1 (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/50001. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. Independent, Bedford (2019-01-04). "Five new blue plaques for Bedford". The Bedford Clanger. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
  4. "Galleries". www.thehigginsbedford.org.uk. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
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