HIGBEE-LENAH

SECOND  SUPERINTENDENT OF

NAVY  NURSE  CORPS

Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee was a Navy medical pioneer, one of the “Sacred Twenty,” the first group of nurses to become official members of the Navy Nurse Corps.  She was born on May 18, 1874 in Chatham, New Brunswick, Canada.  She graduated in 1899 from nurse’s training at New York Postgraduate Hospital and this same year was married to LTCOL John Henley Higbee, USMC, then worked for a time in private practice before completing further graduate education at Fordham University.

On May 13, 1908, Congress passed legislation allowing for the establishment of the Navy Nurse Corps, the equivalent of the Army Nurse Corps which was established in 1901 and had become highly successful.  The Navy required members to be the graduate of an accredited nursing school, between the ages of 22 and 44, and unmarried.  As LTCOL Higbee had died on April 19,1908, Lenah Higbee was a widow and thus an eligible candidate for the newly established Navy Nurse Corps.  The thirty-six year old Higbee joined with nineteen other females to make up this first group of female Navy nurses who soon became well known as the “Sacred Twenty.”  Following initial training at the Naval Hospital, Washington, D.C., she was transferred in April 1909 to the Naval Hospital, Norfolk, Virginia, where she was promoted to Chief Nurse.  On January 20, 1911, Higbee was appointed as the second Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps and returned to duty in Washington in the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery.  She held this assignment until retiring from the Navy on November 30, 1922.

During her tenure as Superintendent, Higbee focused on developing a professional organization, recruiting qualified nurses, and on publicizing and enhancing the reputation of the Navy Nurse Corps.  She often published articles in professional journals such as the American Journal of Nursing and encouraged other nurses to contribute as well.  By the time the U.S. entered World War One she had seen the Corps grow to 406 and before the war ended, that number grew to more than 1,700 who served not only stateside but also in Europe, the Philippines, Guam, Samoa, Haiti, and the Virgin Islands.  During Higbee’s tenure, the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 occurred and a reported 36 Navy nurses died of the disease.  In 1920 the Navy Cross was awarded to four nurses for their distinguished service during this period, three of whom died of influenza.  The fourth Navy Cross was awarded to Higbee who remains the only woman to do so non-posthumously.

Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee died on January 10, 1941 at Winter Park, Florida, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery beside her husband.  In her honor, the USS Higbee (DD-806), the first U.S. Navy warship to bear the name of one of its female members, was commissioned in January 1945 and served in the fleet until 1986.  In addition, as of this writing the USS Lenah H. Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG-123) has been launched and will reportedly be commissioned in 2021.

NAVY  CROSS  CITATION

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Superintendent Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of her profession, and unusual and conspicuous devotion to duty as Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps

                                 Lenah Higbee is in front row, 6th from left

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)