SchoolsofNursing.co.uk

Site News
June 2020
(Vol 14 Issue 3) 

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Welcome to our fifty-third news page here at Schools of Nursing.   This is our third issue this year for 2020.  Much of the News everywhere is still dominated by the Coronavirus outbreak and actions taken by governments to try to overcome it.  The current lockdown is now being relaxed in most of England. We can only hope that our governments are selecting the correct course of action and follow the rules of the current lockdown. There is still no certainty about an end being in sight. Our history will, no doubt, reflect the outcomes.

Publishing errors. We do have one or two. Please - if you do see errors, just say so, I will be offended and remove them asap!!

The article links in this column - No Change. Three from Will B - 'Badge Manufacturers' and 'Nurse belts & buckles & Badges' - one continued from Sue Barker - photographs in progress (Ann Braddick) are below.

1. Schools of Nursing NEWS PAGE 51 - 'A News Page Outline' - is a brazen attempt to show the origins of schoolsofnursing.co.uk - hopefully it will be of interest - Link.

2. Badge manufacturers and their Maker Marks. (No Change)
Link.

3. Miss Ann Braddick - Military Nurse/Hospital Matron - QA/Bristol Southmead Hospital/Matron  St John's Hospital, Towbridge, Wilts. Link

4. Nurse Belts and Buckles.
 *(New addition - SEN Belt/Buckle) Link.

The Nursing badges public gallery - New Addition - Barry Sutton's Gallery start.
We now have 4 galleries which are open to the public without login.  Barry Sutton's gallery is the latest.  They take a LOT of time:-

1. Eric's Gallery - The original and much neglected gallery still awaiting update.
CLICK LINK...
2. Peter's 'backman' gallery - 50 pages of 24 badges per page and 1250 pages  - (2400 photographs). CLICK LINK...
3. Mike's 'myk1066' gallery - 17)pages of 24 badges per page and 34 pages - (816 photographs) *with more in progress.
CLICK LINK...  
4. **Barry Sutton's gallery is now started and updates will follow as soon as possible - many more badges - en-route.... CLICK LINK...  

(*Temporarily - You may need to use your browser 'back' button to get back here).

Our original aim is unchanged.  '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'. Reverse sides being added to each badge wherever we have the photographs.

In short, everyone who has agreed to our publishing a public gallery will have one - using their own photographs wherever possible. We must surely have a copy of almost every UK nursing/hospital badge ever produced.

Click a badge photograph to see the single page!  The links can take you back and forward - a page at a time (24 badges per page) - for all 1310 pages if you like.  Or go to the 'Gallery Start" page at the bottom of any individual badge to get back to the numbered 24 badge page. Sound complicated but you will quickly get the hang of it - promise!

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, *But please note: We simply cannot respond to transcript requests individually:- 

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 5909 nursing/hospital badge photographs encompassing all areas of the UK; 594 photographs (buildings/people/ephemera); and 179 photographs (nurse uniforms), both civilian and military. We have achieved 6681 already! By the end of 2020?  7000 is a target. 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. New additions continue, albeit slowly...
 


National Galleries
-
Member Uploads

Photographic rights

OPDbarry@SoN

 

 South African Nursing Badge

School of Medical Laboratory Technicians Ibadan

We are now at 6681 - 7000 now seems a possibility. We are on the way and just maybe, we will see another magic number 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 (42) 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 us. 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.

Failed Registration. 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. **Please note that we cannot supply transcripts of training.

Collecting... Admissions, Admissions!! And the confession!!

Not one single new item added...

So - oh', what am I going to write about? I feel like a travel writer without having done any travelling!  Well, being locked down does not lend itself to waxing lyrical about the road to Mandalay - when the furthest distance travelled is less than 100 yards... Especially after those recent superbly desirable recent nurse belt buckles feature on this page....

Genuine solid silver nurse belt buckles with clasps!....Bristol Eye Hospital 1953; 'Nightingale' - St Thomas Hospital London 1954; St Bartholomew's Hospital 1897. The superbly crafted buckles are so unbelievably rare today.  That I have become the temporary guardian of the latter two shown below I find almost unbelievable.  Each one is featured in the immediately preceding news pages....

   

So, where does a collector without a recent additions go from here? No point trying the library - we already have more than any you might find there!

No, the right place is that old standby  - Badges of the General Nursing Council for England and Wales - yes, GNC badges! Bet you thought that there were no more to talk about after our early articles....

State Registration Badge - General Nursing Council for England and Wales

State Registration Badge - Reverse - General Nursing Council for England and Wales

But  oh' - how wrong you would be if you though that. The register opened on 30th September 1921. The first state registration badge was issued to Ethel Gordon Bedford-Fenwick (nee Manson) who was registered as SRN (State Registered Nurse) on 30th September 1921. The registration number was '1'. The final resting place of this badge is unknown.*

SRN RSCN RFN RMN RNMD
Early GNC SRN Badge reverse side -1922 Early GNC RSCN Badge reverse side -1926 Early GNC RFN/SRN  Badge reverse side -1927/1930 Early GNC RMN Badge reverse side -1922 GNC RMND Badge reverse side -1944
   1922 - 1983 / 600,000+ (*) 1922 - 1983 / xxx (*) 1922 - 1967 / 21,505 1922 - 1983 / xxx (*) 1922 - 1983 / xxx (*)
(*)Final numbers not yet available - shown in red.

There must have been at least 700,000 produced including all variations, duplicates et al. 

a) The name of the recipient - possibly the same for more than one nurse. Duplicates may exist.
b) Qualification gained - possibly the same for more than one nurse. Duplicates may exist.
c) Nurse Registration number - always differs unless the badge is a duplicate.
d) Nurse Registration date - possibly the same for more than one nurse. Duplicates may exist.
d) Manufacturer marks - possibly differ on pre - 1940 badges.
e) Fittings - standard possibly differ on pre-1940 badges - plus may have been customized. (safety chains added or replaced).

   

There are innumerable differences between what seems to be a basic item but in reality there were only two versions silver, chromium plated, and un-plated (SEN) badges. But there were even exceptions to this - including an un-plated SRN version...

Collecting.
During the lifetime of the GNC collecting these badges was something of an underground activity.

The council laid claim to every badge issued from the outset. On the death of the original recipient the badges were to be returned to the council. Presumably that also applied to badges issued to a living nurse 'struck off' the register for any reason. There were of course good reasons for this, as a GNC badge could possibly be used to fraudulently lay claim to be a registered nurse. That title 'Registered Nurse' has been a legal designation since 1919. What happened to returned badges is not clear, but it is difficult to imagine that all were destroyed - particularly in the cases of  the badges of the more prominent members of the profession. Following the 'disestablishment' of the council a large number of GNC badges have entered the public domain and are easily purchased, many for quite small sums of money. Auction sites, sale rooms, flea markets and car-boot sales up and down the county are some common sources. Some of these badges, however, will probably remain in the possession of the original recipients descendants for generations as family heirlooms. Many of these enter the open market eventually for various reasons. That may well change if the growing popularity of genealogy - tracing family roots - continues.

Possible Transitional GNC Badge face side.

But there seems only one verifiable example of this GNC badge.


"A collection of all GNC State Registration badges is not possible (unless the successors of the GNC inherited one) for the simple reason that there were no set issue dates. A Registration badge could have been issued for every weekday on the calendar (minus public and special holidays) between the first issue in 1922 and the last in 1983! The information just isn't available and any attempt to build such a collection more than likely doomed to failure. Millionaires only.

My own belief is that a whole collection, including all the nursing specialties, in excellent original condition from first issues to the last, including 3 issues per year from 1925 could be put together for between £3000 - £5000. Perhaps less if current market conditions (June 2020) changed adversely. But any such collection would be worth a considerable amount more, could cost a considerable amount more in time and effort, and would really be worthwhile for only a national collection - or a very wealthy private collector with infinite patience".

Imagine, that there seemed nothing more to collect now. So you continued growing giant pumpkins (!) - in your  rented first floor flat! Forgive yourself? You never would!.. But then, that isn't very likely, is it? Best carry on collecting!
WB.

Another photograph from the past

Fire Escape Practice

Uncertain Origin

*Training Hospitals/Details *Link

*Sincere thanks to SoN member 'backman' for the supply of this photograph. I wonder if this photograph  can still be identified? It is really so long ago..  Perhaps a descendant or friend of will appear with a name - but it does seem only a very remote possibility.

Well, that is yet another very pleasant note upon which to end the 52nd 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. Dr Patricia Mumford
50.
dedsure@yahoo.com
51.
steve@lloy.ball
52.
R STRINGFELLOW@ebay
53
.bobstish1709@ebay
54.
phillipsbay@ebay.
54.
backintday@ebay).
55.
sallybosley.com
56. armyoutfitters@ebay.com
57. The Welcome Institutue
58. Val Smyth.
59. Rebbeca D.
60. Sue Sullivan (SoN)
61. 'backman'@schoolsofnursing.

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