{{Short description|British Anglican deaconess (1836–1907)}} {{Infobox religious biography | name = Fanny Eagles | image = Sister Fanny.png | image_size = | caption = | other_names = | birth_name = | birth_date = 10 December 1836 | birth_place = Bedford, England | death_date = {{d-da|7 March 1907|10 December 1836}} | death_place = Bedford, England | education = | occupation = deaconess | employer = | known_for = | parents = | relatives = | website = | signature = | footnotes = | religion = Anglican }}
'''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.
== Life == left|thumb|Harpur Place in Bedford Eagles was born at Harpur Place in Bedford in 1836.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Antrobus |first=Stuart |date=Autumn 2020 |title=Sister Fanny (1836–1907): Pioneer Church of England deaconess in Bedford |url=https://www.bedfordshire-lha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/HIB-9.1.pdf |journal=History in Bedfordshire |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=2–15 |via=Bedfordshire Local History Association}}</ref> Her parents were Elizabeth (born Halfhead) and Ezra Eagles. Her father was a solicitor.<ref name="orb" />
She was a member of St Paul's Church in Bedford.<ref name="orb">{{Cite ODNB |last=Bonham |first=Valerie |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-50001 |title=Eagles, Fanny Elizabeth (1836–1907), Church of England deaconess |date=2004-09-23 |volume=1 |language=en |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/50001|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8 }}</ref>
In 1864 the Tractarian Revd Michael Ferrebee Sadler took over from the Revd William Fitzgerald 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.<ref name="orb" /> 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.<ref name=":0" />
Eagles was made a deaconess by the laying on of hands on 5 February 1869.<ref name=":0" /> Eagles decided to wear clothes that made her look like a nun and although she was accused on being a catholic she persisted.<ref name=":0" />
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.<ref name=":0" /> There were at most six deaconesses at any time.<ref name="orb" />
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.<ref name="orb" />
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.<ref name="orb" />
== 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Independent |first=Bedford |date=2019-01-04 |title=Five new blue plaques for Bedford |url=https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/thebedfordclanger/2019/five-new-blue-plaques-for-bedford/ |access-date=2023-02-12 |website=The Bedford Clanger |language=en-GB}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Galleries |url=https://www.thehigginsbedford.org.uk/Visit_us/Galleries/Galleries.aspx |access-date=2023-02-12 |website=www.thehigginsbedford.org.uk}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== *{{commonscatinline}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eagles, Fanny}} Category:1836 births Category:1907 deaths Category:20th-century British Anglican nuns Category:19th-century Anglican deaconesses Category:English deaconesses Category:Founders of orphanages Category:People from Bedford