By Jung Min-ho
Margaret Jane Edmunds, a missionary nurse who established Korea's first nursing school in 1903, was posthumously awarded the Order of Civil Merit Friday by the Korean government.
At the International Council of Nurses (ICN) Conference, which began Friday and continues until Tuesday at COEX in Seoul, her two great grandsons ― Russell Frandsen, 36, and Kyle Bandarich, 25 ― accepted the award.
"She would be very pleased," Frandsen said. "I think she never sought recognition. I think, for her, it was more about doing the right thing."
Edmunds (1871-1945) was the founder of the Pogunyogwan Training School for Nurses, which later became the Division of Nursing Science at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. She also helped set up institutions that later became nursing colleges at Yonsei University and Seoul National University.
Imagine a trip from the United States to Korea more than a hundred years ago when there were no airplanes. When Edmunds was asked to train native women to become nurses in a country that she barely knew, she was rightly afraid. But later, she decided to take a leap of faith.
"The first time she heard it, she didn't want to go for it," Frandsen said. "I think, for her, it was more of a calling from God rather than volunteering."
It took her more than six months to get to Seoul by ship. The arrival was the beginning of more hardship to come.
Most Korean women were illiterate at that time. So a language barrier was felt much more than today. To communicate with her students, she taught them languages and used "lots of gestures."
"I think she knew it would be very difficult but made a choice to make sacrifices," Frandsen said. "I believe this entirely came from her faith."
Edmunds' efforts paid off in 1906, when Kim Martha and Lee Grace became Korea's first nurses after graduating from Pogunyogwan. At a time when most women were not allowed to have a formal education or profession, it was a groundbreaking moment.
Before entering the school, Kim was a housewife who was constantly abused by her husband and Lee was a servant for an aristocratic family.
Edmunds translated several English-language textbooks on nursing into Korean and introduced the first nurse uniform here while serving as president of Pogunyogwan from 1903 to 1908.
"Her life inspires me," Bandarich said. "I think people make decisions these days on what's best for them. And I don't think she was thinking about that when she decided to go to Korea."
She married William Butler Harrison, an American pastor who also worked in Korea, in 1908. Then, she moved to South Jeolla Province to help her husband's missionary work there.
Their son, Charles, was born in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, in 1911, and later served as a marine officer during the Korean War.
Edmunds returned to the United States with her husband in 1928 and died there in 1945.