And perhaps a little serious magic - for wear on a nurses cape...
A, for me at any rate, utterly fascinating - and very old - almost exactly 100 years - a 1914 nurses cape badge from the Prince of Wales's General Hospital. These badges were worn on the outside of those superb woollen capes issued to every nurse for at least 90 years. I don't have a description of the actual cape worn with this badge, but at a guess it could have been deep navy blue with a red lining, or, perhaps more likely, that superb military grey cape of the QAIMNS. Perhaps someone will produce a photograph - perhaps with the same badge attached! I really would like to know more about it...

But it was not this angle that excited me most. And I may be quite wrong about this - but there was an Agnes E. Pavey who was once a Sister Tutor at several hospitals - the Middlesex County Hospital, London; the East-Suffolk Hospital, Ipswich; Queen Mary's for the East-End; and the Government Hospital, Southern Rhodesia. That lady wrote "The Story of the Growth of Nursing, as an art, a vocation, and a profession". (Faber & Faber, London. (1937). I have a copy. Mine was printed on wartime 'economy paper' in 1944. The first edition was published in 1938. But my excitement (possibly misplaced) goes much deeper than those facts....
 

If this badge was once owned by such a distinguished lady then I owe her my very belated and sincere thanks. She would be one reason that for the last twenty years or so much of my life has been spent at our second home here on Crete!  To explain. I became besotted right at the beginning of my nurse teaching career when I first read chapter II - (2). It is the real beginning of the book (the first chapter being an overall introduction) and is headed, quite simply, 'CRETE'.

There is no room to reproduce it here, but anyone really interested in our professional history should read it. Pavey was, and probably still is, truly inspirational. Perhaps someone will find time to write a review. It is the totally hypnotizing! As are the remaining eleven very illuminating, totally memorable chapters. From Hammurabi and the sun gods to almost 1940...

If indeed I am now the custodian of Agnes Pavey's cape badge, I am indeed fortunate.

The badge.
'E. Agnes Pavey'. The prince of Wales's General Hospital. April 1914. No makers name. Military pin fitting. Material uncertain, but it appears to be a base metal. Enameled. That the recipients name is given as E. Agnes Pavey is not I think of great consequence in relation to the author name of the book (Agnes E. Pavey). The changed position of the 'E' of the Christian name between badge and book for me denotes only that "Agnes" was that favoured...

Imagine, that Agnes Pavey was walking between wards with her cape folded tightly around her when that military pin worked loose and the badge fell off! You found and returned it to a gracious acceptance.... Forgive yourself - you never would! Well, you just might - finders was never really keepers!...
WB.

Another photograph from the past - this one
from May 1944

Royal Liverpool Children's Hospital & The Royal Liverpool Hospital Staff
 
*Training Hospitals/Details *Not Available.        

'Sincere thanks to member 'barrysutton'...  **Regrettably we could not locate the appropriate badges to display above....
Well, that is yet another very pleasant note upon which to end the 31st Schools of Nursing Site News.