Mrs. L.S. Higbee at her desk, photograph by Harris & Ewing, 1918.
All reporting U.S. Navy :Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee was born in Chatham, Canada, on 18 May 1874. After immigrating to the United States, she completed her nursing training at New York Postgraduate Hospital in 1899 and later received further training at Fordham Hospital. On 1 October 1908, she became one the first twenty nurses in the newly-formed Navy Nurse Corps (commonly referred to as The Sacred Twenty). She became the second superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps in 1911.
Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee served in the United States Navy from 1908-1922. For eleven of her fourteen years of service, Higbee was Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps. Chief Nurse Higbee received the Navy Cross for her leadership of the Navy Nurse Corps during World War I. She was the first female to be presented the award.
Navy names next destroyer after pioneering nurse Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee Follow Us
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By Mike Glenn - The Washington Times - Friday, April 23, 2021
The Navy‘s newest guided-missile destroyer will be named after a pioneering nurse who became the first woman awarded the Navy Cross, military officials said Friday.
The USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123) will be christened on April 24, 2021, during a ceremony in Pascagoula, Mississippi, the service said.
She joined the Navy in 1908 as one of the “Sacred Twenty,” the first 20 women to become part of the service’s new Nurse Corps and went on to serve in World War I. In 1911, Mrs. Higbee was named the second superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps. She was awarded the Navy Cross, the service’s highest award, for “distinguished service in the line of her profession and unusual and conspicuous devotion to duty.�
Navy to Christen Guided-Missile Destroyer Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee > United States Navy > display-pressreleases navy.mil - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from navy.mil Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
U.S. Department of Defense
The Navy will christen its newest Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, the future USS Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee (DDG 123), during a 6:30 p.m.
CDT ceremony Saturday, April 24, in Pascagoula, Miss.
The ship’s namesake, Lenah Sutcliffe Higbee, served as the second Superintendent of the Navy Nurse Corps in 1911, and was also the first living woman recipient of the Navy Cross.
When she entered naval service in 1908, she was one of the first 20 women, known as the “Sacred Twenty,” to join the newly established Navy Nurse Corps and contributed her nursing skills to the Navy during the First World War.