Sophie Mannerheim

Baroness Eva Charlotta Lovisa Sofia (Sophie) Mannerheim (21 December 1863 – 9 January 1928) was a famous nurse known as a pioneer of modern nursing in Finland.

She was a daughter of count Carl Robert Mannerheim and a sister of former Finnish President, Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, and of the artist and writer Eva Mannerheim-Sparre.

[1] Mannerheim worked as a bank employee for six years until she married in 1896.

After her divorce in 1902[2] she was trained in nursing at the Nightingale School at St Thomas' Hospital[3] in London.

Returning home she was appointed head nurse of Helsinki Surgical Hospital and later elected president of the Finnish Nurses' Association, a position she held for 24 years.