Perhaps the ultimate for any collector of nursing badges is the acquisition of a complete set. But that isn't quite the way it sounds and is often difficult to achieve because of the wide range of possibilities in defining 'Set'...
The ultimate (impossible to achieve) would be a complete set of nursing badges for a particular country; step down one - a county; another step down - a town; another step again - a hospital; and again - a nurse. But even within each of these possibilities there are often several multiples. It is not surprising, this being the case, that some collectors aim for the apparently achievable - a set of badges to a particular nurse....
There are number of possible sources. The nurse, who is unlikely to hand over her hard won badges; the family of a deceased nurse; auctions of complete sets; auctions of individual badges...
Auctions are the more likely source for most collectors, as in the case of ebay. Unfortunately sellers often break existing badge sets in the belief, possibly correct, that the financial gain is greater. This of course means the destruction of part of the history of an individual nurse, making the construction of her or his individual of history most unlikely.
The attitude of the (now defunct) General Nursing Councils has been blamed for causing the break-up of badge sets by asking for the return of State Registration badges on the death of a nurse. Some hospitals - St Thomas's (Nightingale School of Nursing) also took that course in relation to the training school badge. Collectors have in the past been asked by the GNC's to return badges they admitted to having collected, albeit for a small amount of compensation.
No wonder, then, that the sets that come onto the market command high prices, for example this recent two badge set sold on ebay - £109.98 over £111 with postage:-
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However, probably
not unreasonable in the light of the rarity of the King Edward VII
Hospital badge and it's superb condition. The GNC badge looks a
little worn on the reverse but the inscriptions are clear, both
badges are original/genuine and it forms a set.
It would seem that the purposes of nursing history are served better
by allowing enthusiastic collectors to own such items, to see the
such photographs shared with other collectors via the internet,
rather than being made unavailable in the hands of official bodies.
Perhaps someone will research Daphne Wicks's nurse history with a
start such as this.
There are many other ways of collecting badge sets of course.
Different fields of nursing over the years - Fever nursing; General;
Sick children's; Psychiatry; Midwifery; Professional organizations
such as the Royal College of Nursing are all examples. The original
College of Nursing, combined with the changing design of the RCN
badges over the years would seem perfect for anyone wanting to
create a badge set based on a nursing time-line.
I know of one early badge set comprising a Silver Medal; hospital badge; GNC badge; and RCN badge from the same nurse working at Chester Royal Infirmary in the early 1920's. The only way I can see that particular being bettered is by a set where the silver medal was a gold and the GNC badge had more than one qualification inscribed, plus a midwifery badge, an original College of Nursing Membership badge accompanied by all the original certificates....
Imagine. That
you had such a set in your attic - And that you only
found out about them from the person you sold the house
and contents to...
Forgive yourself? You never would!....
WB.
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Greetings from the Past
| P.T.S 11 Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service 1965 (1965 - 1968) |
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|
Left to right/Back to front |
The photograph and
information about this group of Royal Naval nurses came from Allyson
Struthers (Allyson Graham in the photograph) who said that she still has
contact with two of her group but has lost touch with the others:-
"I came across your site whilst surfing for
ex-members of my P.T.S. and thought you might like my photo of P.T.S 11
Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service.
Some of us are still in contact and I would be delighted should your
site conjure up some of those we have lost contact with".
Allyson also later supplied a group reunion photograph which can be seen
at her group's photograph in the photo gallery - just go there and place
your cursor on the group's photograph...
| Go to 'Photo Gallery. |
| 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).
All
Copyrights are Asserted
*PPeter
-
'backman' is also creator and webmaster of the 'nursingbadges'
&
'historyofhospitals'
websites.