SchoolsofNursing.co.uk

Site News
June 2015
(Vol 9 Issue 3) 

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Welcome to our Thirty-Seventh news page here at Schools of Nursing. Our second edition for 2015.

New Nursing badges public gallery opening at schoolsofnursing.co.uk - Current update.
"When our website was first envisaged (we actually opened November 2007) one of our esteemed members, ('eric') suggested that our photograph galleries, then private, could be made public"...

And our 50 fifty (50) pages of 24 badges per page - (1200 photographs) - have come along considerably since the last news page - with much detail being added to the actual labels. Individual hospital/school locations have been (and are still being) added; badge shapes; materials used; badge weights; type of fixings; central design (picture) ; inscriptions on the rear (nurse names/dates/maker marks/hallmarks where applicable); designer/s; manufacturers; number made; and dates first awarded are all salient points in our quest being addressed.

Last time I said - "This is the start - the catalogue - of our new galleries. Open to anyone who has an interest - and hopefully the start of an increasing number of interested people. More pages will follow quickly - first catalogue completion is envisaged by the end of June this year". But no, we simply could not finish in time for this news page, apologies. The best laid plans.... But - we are within 6 pages of the first complete revision (around 150 pages left out of 1200) so we are not too far away...

The present link is repeated - "By the end of the project we will have a new book on nursing badges. We are already working hard on the content and format. There are omissions. There will be errors. By the end, with your help, we will have a new definitive and up-to date 'Nursing Badges II' (perhaps the title?)".  Please, have a second look . If you feel that you can help with details let me know - Heraldry and badge weights are particular needs. Please remember copyright. LINK HERE  

And another two new articles
from Sarah Rogers.

 
http://www.schoolsofnursing.co.uk/Collections1/Collections51
http://www.schoolsofnursing.co.uk/Collections1/Collections52

The links are all above - enjoy!

Ms Barbara Tyler - St Thomas Hospital - Scrapbook Part 8 (including all links to previous pages) is here.

You may have noticed -
Our increasing use of multiple  pictures "Hover your cursor' and 'Point you cursor at images to see alternate image'.  An attempt to include more images in the same space - in order to make the news more detailed and enjoyable. Not all images include this feature yet - but try them all anyway.  Hopefully we are correct and are not attempting the proverbial 'quart into a pint pot' - do let us know - it is extra work, but then we enjoy that!

Email messages - Training Transcripts - Qualified Nurses.
In our experience it has not been possible for nurses seeking transcripts from schools which no longer exist to obtain copies. However, we can offer a couple of links which may help in your search:- 

http://www.nmc-uk.org/Registration/Leaving-the-register/Planning-to-work-overseas-Obtaining-a-copy-of-your-transcript-of-training/ 
http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/rcn_archives/research_advice_-_tracing_nurses/nursing_records
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ 

Member Photograph Galleries.
Still accumulating, albeit now more slowly. The 'National' galleries now contain 4162 nursing/hospital badge photographs encompassing all areas of the UK; 552 photographs (buildings/people/ephemera); and 131 photographs (nurse uniforms), both civilian and military. Will we achieve 5000 by the end of 2015? It is possible, we continue to make solid progress and will perhaps achieve the largest collection in the UK if we are not already there....  Point you cursor at images to see alternate image.


National Galleries
-
Member Uploads

Photographic rights
myk1066@SoN
 

     Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital

Roy Hartley Maternity Unit
Billinge, Nr Wigan, Lancashire

We are already at 4846 - 5000 now seems a definite possibility. We are well on the way and just maybe, we will see another magic number very shortly, thanks to our many contributors. And it is not just a matter of quantity but rather a combination of quantity and quality. The quality of additions made to the site - both in the way of photographs and contributions to our forum has created an irreplaceable contribution to nursing history. We can now claim to have a mini photographic museum here at schoolsofnursing. Sincere, heartfelt, thanks...

But the photographs are not our be all/end all. Our online articles (36) are gaining too, to say nothing of our nursing histories and news pages. There is a great deal of research involved. Someone's time. Someone's money. All given selflessly without thought of gain. What we have here are the seeds of success.

But please, don't break copyrights when uploading/sending photographs. If you are ever uncertain please ask. Most copyright holders we have met so far have been only to keen to assist.

And if you want to join - welcome to the Forum and Member Galleries - Register Here.

Please be aware, our site is rated on Google by Norton Internet Security as being absolutely safe. We intend to keep it that way. You can help by using a reasonable ID and your own genuine email address. Anything that appears dubious may result in failed registration. Our site is free to users. It is hosted by the largest ISP in Europe at commercial rates - with highly professional back-up. Safe and secure!

Worldwide..
Certainly our visitors are wide ranging - from 44 countries worldwide... Australia & New Zealand and Canada are well represented in addition to the UK and USA. There are also some more esoteric sounding countries - China; Russia; Cayman Islands; Japan; Malaysia; plus Romania and Spain.

E-Mail Contact - 'contact' link (here and throughout the site) arrives directly on the webmaster's desk. Use it to communicate directly with the site. All mail is considered confidential unless the contents are stated to be otherwise. Stated to be for public consumption by you. Publication itself is an editorial decision.

Collecting... But then - A bonanza!!
And then, almost before I had finished bemoaning my lack of success (last News page) and declared that I did, however, have a very nice old Rochdale badge to start this year with, my luck changed completely. Badges, buckles and other memorabilia that I wanted to collect began to tumble (apparently) from the sky. As if by magic!

So here we go with some of that magic.....

In the last news I asked - "And who wouldn't mope at the thought of being unable to possess this superbly beautiful nurses belt buckle? St Peter perhaps?" Well, if it was St Peter to the rescue he must have worked through another SoN member 'barrysutton' who emailed me a few days later to point to a buckle for sale...  Not the actual one I had coveted - but identical in every other way.  114 gms of solid silver....

Copyright  'Middletonmasonic Ltd'

A Masonic buckle could have been just that - a Masonic buckle. This one was definitely for a nurse. I bought it within the hour. When I received it - well, I was over the moon. Absolutely stunning. Solid silver, perfect intricate design, superb craftsmanship, magic!

One main objective in my collecting is to obtain items with which I can claim some direct connection - a strong association with something I would really like. Easier with badges than buckles but in this case a geographical location - Rochdale, Lancashire, where my wife once worked, became a clinical teacher and started her RNT course..

All images copyright  'petersnursingcollectables " @SoN

She did not train there and so did not have a Rochdale badge.  The one above is an old design and appears to be silver. The start of a new geographical collection for me? Maker - Thomas Fattorini; no hallmarks and no nurse name/inscription. No real means of tracing much history but a strong link with the past non-the-less. Nice.

Then, by pure chance, we discovered that a friend who trained with my wife for a year at Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, had been on a combined course from Westminster hospital - my wife trained at GOSH also did the same Addendrooke's course at the same time as our friend.  55 Years ago! Neither was aware of that at the time. Yet here we were, so many years later, over a meal on the holiday Island of Crete in 2015, discovering a new link - the Westminster Hospital. Collecting Nursing badges, buckles and other memorabilia is nothing if not interesting!  I lost no time in introducing schoolsofnursing.co.uk, but much to our surprise, little relating to the 'Westminster' appeared in our search.

 

All images copyright  'petersnursingcollectables' @SoN

Excepting - in a short thread on nursing buckles there was a photograph..... Which led me to "Peters Nursing Collectables' and the purchase of the two Petersham belts, complete with buckles. Peter's site says:- 

"The Westminster Hospital was one of several that did not award a hospital badge to it's nurses upon success at final examination. Rather it awarded a (originally silver and later silver plated) Belt buckle featuring the portcullis emblem of Westminster. I believe that this brass version would have been awarded for Enrolled Nurses Training"....

The version illustrated left and above centre is silver plated, whilst the centre/below is the brass version.  The right hand photograph shows the rear fastenings.  Out there somewhere must be a silver version....

So what more could there possibly be to add to my collection this time?  How about a small dose of ephemera to eat up what remained in the bottom of my very nearly empty bank balance - not really enough for a decent badge, but two nice items in their own right...

The first - A pair Of pewter Quaich's engraved with the badge Of St Bartholomew's Hospital. I already have a similar Quaich - engraved 'The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh' - so  this was really an addition to my collection and not just a one-off. Nice in it's own right. The St Bartholomew's badge? Just hover your cursor over the Quaich photograph. The St Thomas' Tea Towel?  Pristine - I can display my Nightingales badges on it!! 'Nightingales'? - Hover your cursor on the tea towel...!

 
images copyright  'ladywegnall'@ebay images copyright  'janine*1967''@ebay

A bonanza? Well perhaps not quite in numbers, but a very fair selection in terms of nursing history - and the quality? Have another look yourself - I certainly can't complain...

Imagine, that whilst walking in London, you heard two nightingales singing about free badges outside St Thomas' Hospital. But when you looked around you could only see a couple of nurses heading for Berkley Square. Nurses - not Nightingales. You decided you had been mistaken and not to ask them. But if it had been true - forgive yourself - you never would!.....
WB.

 

Another photograph from the past - this one thought to be
nurses from Tredegar House, London, in 1932

Was this their badge and School ? (Point cursor)

*Training Hospitals/Details *Not Available.

It always seems impossible that a photograph will never be identified - but who knows?         Gallery Photo Here

*Sincere thanks to SoN member and Moderator 'backman' for the photographs used... 

Well, that is yet another very pleasant note upon which to end the 37th Schools of Nursing Site News.
 

Would you like to see your PTS or training group featured here? We desperately need more photographs to feature. Can you help?  If so please Contact us.


We express our grateful appreciation to those people who have contributed the original photographs
used to produce the News Pages.

1. News heading photo (all dates) - John Reeves
2. Bristol Southmead Gold (April) - John Reeves
3. St Bartholomew's Gold (April) - Ruth Watkin-Jones
4. Haygarth Silver (April) - 'ukhistory' (ebay)
5. Newcastle LS (April) - Peter Backman (Nursing badges)
6. RRC Medal (April)  photo's- 'Caulgisbo' (ebay)
8. 'catandfrog' (July) - (ebay).
9. bokojnr (Dec) - (ebay).
10. blue.bottle (Dec) - (ebay).
11. 'backman' - (ebay).*
12. Hotminicooper (Jun) - (ebay).
13. Right-one50 (Oct - (ebay).
14. jcollinsmedals (Dec - (ebay).
15. Brittania Medals (Dec 2009).
16. elaine3080 (Feb 2010) - (ebay).
17. Fran Biley (Feb 2010) - schoolsofnursing.
18. St Andrews Children's Hospice - Grimsby.
19.themedalcentre - (ebay).
 20. Christmas 1923 - Eric Wilkinson, schoolsofnursing.
21. past-modern - (ebay).
22. susie1156 - (ebay).
23. redsunshine525 - (ebay).
24. nbarton8 - (ebay).
25. magpieantics - (ebay)
26. rayofhope0 - (ebay).
27. Anotherluckyb - (ebay).
28. Helen M Coan.
29. yazandlaz - (ebay).
30. delroyb - (ebay).
31. Burmeseblue - (ebay).
32. amersham417 - (ebay).
33.Bethesda - (ebay).
34. nikkibarnard - (ebay).
35. madeinireland - ebay.
36. jamesmcg - (ebay).
37. pugwash - schoolsofnursing.
38. Sarah Rogers - schoolsofnursing.
 
40. Bill, schoolsofnursing.
41.
alastaircox - (ebay).
42. Margaret Maxwell - (ebay).
43. soisjack - (ebay).
44. blubberlover - (ebay).
45. the collectique - (ebay).
46.
mandacollectables@hotmail.co.uk
47. Dart Silver Lid - ebay
48. 'gawincole' - ebay
49. 'Middletonmasonic Ltd' - ebay
50. 'petersnursingcollectibles'.
51. 'ladywegnall' - ebay.
52. janines*1967' - ebay
All Copyrights are Asserted

 

 
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