Schools of Nursing Forum

my own collection is tiny compared to some others I am concentrating on Scottish and brummie badges but did get a nice Leicester recently ( photo to appear soon!!).  My hospital badge is unnamed and undated and I'll never part with it As for SEN/ SEAN badges I seem to have a wee collection  slowly building and am watching for matching SRN badges! Oh and just as you think you've got the matching set for a particular hospital another one creeps out of the woodwork  ;D

ps  - bad news ottypup has listed a LH SEN , just love the Victorian Trained Nurse Association Gold Badge but am thinking its Australian and there's a lovely tommies pill box just gone on!!!!! so many items and so few pennies to buy them all!!!! :-*

Barry
Do you have any repeats of your military nursing badges?  I'd love to complete my nursing lot from the military, the Royal Navy ones (not the 2 blue & green round versions that have been popping up recently) from Portsmouth!

Do fellow badge collectors feel that the 'new' batch of LH badges are worthless compared to the older ones?  If you didn't have one in your collection would you buy one?  How does the LH Nurses League feel about them?
Mike

I suppose there are comparisons to be made between the collecting of Nursing badges and that of Military badges(a much larger hobby).Original attributable and named awards are generally far more collectable than unnamed items.The scarcity of some military items has led to them being reproduced and restrikes  and copies abound(this effectively stopped me collecting Polish Military items several years ago)
I wouldn't say the newer badges are worthless because undoubtedly some collectors will buy them,however they should probably be worth less than a named issued item.I would (and probably will )bid but my maximum price will probably reflect that difference.The market is however extremely fickle and I think they may fetch more than we expect,it being a case of supply and demand.If I really had money going spare I would be investing in some of the MilitaryNursing sets coming up for auction at Bonham's in October which I believe will go for far more than their estimates appealing to the military collector

It may be some considerable time before named ones come on the market- and even when named it is not easy to research the person as it will be too recent for work records . Not many of these were issued? 20/year for only 20 years.... ( pupil sets were very much smaller than the set i started in and ? only twice /year)..so it is perhaps an only chance to have one of these in a collection... it is a stunning badge, with or with out a name. I think the more recent LH srn version is not as thick quality/ looks different from mine which is 10 years older, but the SEn ones are by a different company (pinches)and have the original brighter red enamel- which i personally prefer.--
Those Bonhams sets are wonderful-as are the prices... so high, what a collection he had!

Hi.

In reply to myke's question about the value of the current LH badges on ebay.

I would not regard any genuine nursing badge as worthless - someone has often spent considerable time and effort on the initial project; designs and manufacture are often superb and the final product intricately crafted. Even the more modern versions are usually well worth collecting. The question for me personally is quite simply does a badge meet my own collecting criteria? For me:-

1. It must be demonstrably genuine. I would only buy an un-named badge or otherwise un-inscribed badge if I had a very special reason for doing so.
2. I would always seek a badge with some history special (of the nurse or organization) attached. 
3. The badge condition is secondary. Any badge can be graded - rather like coins and medals - but although perfection is a plus I prefer a badge with a history attached - even if I have to find it.

I see nothing at all wrong with collecting un-named badges - there is always the history of a badge itself - it's design and manufacture, and I have seen some excellent reproduction nursing badges which could fill a whole in a collection. Temporarily or otherwise. I really don't know if I would buy a reproduction - I do possess just one but really for the sake of possessing one. An excellent badge let down only by the modern pin finding.

But I agree with Peter 'Original attributable and named awards are generally far more collectable than unnamed items'. It depends quite simply on why one is collecting nursing badges, and in the final analysis on what a badge is worth to the individual collector.  Personally, the LH SEN currently on ebay is not for me, but it may certainly be prized by another - perhaps a nurse who has lost her own.....

Will.

Interesting comments, I am not a nursing badge collector, I'm a magpie and dip in and out of whatever interests me, my main collections were military buttons and medals. I would imagine that for a majority here, as in medal collecting, there is an interest in attributable items. I used to think that un-named items make good gap fillers but there is always that niggle that you want the item that has been touched or worn by the individual and your collection isn't really complete until you find it, the collection stares back at you accusingly. Or maybe that was just me.

Mick

With regards my military medical items I do have some spares however I don't have a great deal of Naval hospital insignia and I know that I don't have a Netley Hsspital S.E.M.N. badge (if they exist), a R.A.F. nurses belt-buckle and the current Defence Dental Service Hygienist badge.

Hi Lizzie
Do you know how the LH Nurses League feel about the 'new' badges?
Mike

Hi Mike, sorry I do not know!

Thanks for that Lizzi.
I just wondered wether the league could lay claim to unissued badges.  Was the London similar to St Thomas' in that hospital badges should be returned from original owner on retirement/death of the recipient  of a LH badge?
Mike

Hi, that is no longer the case- badges are now considered the recipients and then their families property.Lizzie

Hi Lizzie
Re LH pupil nurse training, if I wanted to know exact numbers of those that qualified as EN's, who would I need to contact?
Regards
Mike

The archivists; if you google all contacts on internet.