Tracing Nurses
A guide to British nursing sources for
researching family and local history
Version 2
February 2023
Review Date: January 2025
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Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................. 4
What to look for: Records at home ...................................................................................................................... 4
Nursing certificates ............................................................................................................................................. 5
Badges ....................................................................................................................................................................... 6
General Nursing Council badges ................................................................................................................... 7
Badges of affiliation ............................................................................................................................................ 7
Buckles ...................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Photographs ............................................................................................................................................................ 9
What to look for: Nursing records ....................................................................................................................... 10
Ancestry .................................................................................................................................................................. 10
RCN membership records ............................................................................................................................... 10
State registration of nurses .......................................................................................................................... 10
The State Register of Nurses........................................................................................................................ 10
The Roll of Nurses ............................................................................................................................................... 11
Nursing registers in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland ...................................................... 11
Physical locations of registers and rolls ................................................................................................... 11
Scottish nursing registers .............................................................................................................................. 13
Nursing and hospital directories ................................................................................................................. 13
London County Council handbooks ............................................................................................................ 13
Hospital records .................................................................................................................................................. 14
Hospital-based archives .................................................................................................................................. 15
Health boards ....................................................................................................................................................... 16
Nurses’ leagues ................................................................................................................................................... 16
Census ...................................................................................................................................................................... 16
Trade and Post Office directories ............................................................................................................... 17
Specialist archives ............................................................................................................................................. 18
Midwifery records ............................................................................................................................................... 18
Defence nursing records ................................................................................................................................. 19
British Army nurses............................................................................................................................................ 19
British Red Cross ‘VADs’ ................................................................................................................................. 20
Poor law and workhouse nursing................................................................................................................ 20
District nursing .................................................................................................................................................... 21
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Mental health and asylums ............................................................................................................................ 21
Additional employers ........................................................................................................................................ 21
Nursing journals ................................................................................................................................................. 22
Oral history collections and personal papers ....................................................................................... 22
Awards, news stories and malpractice .................................................................................................... 22
Migration and Nursing ..................................................................................................................................... 23
Further reading ......................................................................................................................................................... 25
Paid for research services ............................................................................................................................. 25
History of nursing networks ......................................................................................................................... 25
History of nursing at the RCN ...................................................................................................................... 25
History of nursing collections ...................................................................................................................... 26
Appendix One: How to search the nursing registers on Ancestry ......................................................... 27
How to search the registers by personal name ................................................................................... 27
How to search the registers for place names ...................................................................................... 33
How to browse the registers by year........................................................................................................ 35
Common abbreviations used in the registers ....................................................................................... 39
Reasons why you don’t find your nurse on Ancestry......................................................................... 39
Appendix Two: How to search for hospital records on nurses ................................................................. 41
Appendix Three: What to expect from a record office ............................................................................... 47
Appendix Four: How to find a record office in the UK ................................................................................ 50
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Introduction
Welcome to this guide which may help you find your nurse. Health care is a complex landscape
where records may or may not survive, in which your nurse may or may not be named. If you are
lucky, you will trace your nurse and discover significant information about them and what their
life was like.
This guide seeks to help you in your quest. It sets out the records that you should look for, and
some of the reasons why you may not be able to find your nurse. One of the challenges is the
sheer size of the profession. Nursing is the largest profession in the United Kingdom – in 2021
there were over 700,000 registered nurses, not including nursing associates and health care
support workers. With so many nurses it’s not surprising that surviving lists of nurses contain a
lot of repetition or people with similar or identical names. Nursing is a profession
predominantly made up of women. Although there have always been men in nursing the
proportion has remained static at around 90% women to 10% men in nursing for the past 100
years. Women can be challenging to trace, tending to be less documented than men and with
marriage changes to names that can prevent an individual being traced.
Nursing is a relatively new profession – state registration of nurses was approved in 1919 with
the first register of nurses published in 1922. Nurses can be traced in the censuses and other
documents before this time. The definition of what makes a nurse means that many nursing
staff will not be listed in the records we describe below. Bearing that in mind, exploring the
world of nursing, the different care settings, levels of expertise, the diversity of the nurses
themselves, and the life stories that come through, make this research immensely rewarding
when you are successful.
We would love to hear about the stories you find, so please share them with us, email
Stuart Wildman
Chair of the RCN History of Nursing Forum
Not sure where to start?
Try searching the nursing registers on Ancestry,
following the guide on p.26
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What to look for: Records at home
Before you start looking for official records relating to your ancestor, have a look at home and
ask other members of your family for items or memories that may help. As well as diaries and
letters, you should look for the following nursing-specific items.
Nursing certificates
Nurse training, like most other forms of education, awarded certificates when successfully
completed. These outline where and when someone trained and what level they achieved.
Nursing is a profession that requires training to become a “registered nurse” and lifelong
learning with certificates being awarded when further career development is pursued. There
have been many changes as nursing and nurse education have advanced and developed over
time. Certificates are kept by individuals, because they represent proud achievements, but
also because they are the proof required to practice.
Certificates are sometimes framed and hung on the wall, but often are held in files and
carefully stored. You will find them stored in cardboard rolls – sometimes rolled up with
posters to keep them clean.
Images © RCN Archives
Left: Betty Boyce Registered Nurse certificate, Northern Ireland 1938 (Ref C883)
Right: Anne Gee, General Lying in Hospital Lambeth Certificate, Sep 1937 (Ref C678)
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Badges
Nurses often own some small badges or medals. These give vital clues about where somebody
trained, worked, lived, or nursing organisations that they were affiliated with. Badges are also
useful for local history research.
‘Hospital badges’ are very common, awarded at the completion of training. From the 1870s-
1990s most nurses were trained in hospitals, initially undergoing a one-year training which was
increased to three years by the end of the nineteenth century.
Usually made of silver and coloured enamel, these were worn whilst on duty to indicate who
was a qualified nurse. Each hospital had its own unique design; often heraldic in nature, they
include symbols and images specific to the hospital. The designs tend to stay the same over
time. Nurses wore these throughout their careers, including when they moved hospitals.
On the reverse of the badges, you will sometimes find inscribed the individual nurses’ name,
their number, and/or dates of training.
As well as training on the wards in different hospital departments student nurses attended
regular lectures in addition to their practical work. As students and probationers, they had to
undertake a series of rigorous examinations, both written and practical, before they could
progress to the next stage of training.
On successful completion of training, student nurses were awarded their certificate and their
hospital badge.
The Royal College of Nursing Archives has a large collection of hospital nursing badges from
across the UK. The badge will usually contain the name of the hospital.
More details of how to locate hospital records are given further below in this guide.
With the move to university-based nurse training in the 1990s hospital badges ceased, though
some universities have since introduced badges for their alumni.
Images © RCN Archives, left to right
St. Lawrence's Hospital, Caterham, Surrey c.1958 (Ref B_20)
Glasgow Royal Maternity Hospital c.1960 (Ref B_776)
Prince of Wales's General Hospital belt buckle, c.1924 (Ref B_1148)
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General Nursing Council badges
After qualification came registration with the General Nursing Council (GNC). This single
design was awarded to all state registered nurses in England and Wales. Northern Ireland and
Scotland had different badges. If your ancestor was awarded one of these, you should be able
to locate them in the General Nursing Council Registers.
Blue enamel and silver (real silver to 1940 and chrome thereafter), the reverse often had the
name and GNC number of the nurse it was awarded to – though not always. Some badges
came with a short pin and chain to keep it securely fixed to the nurse’s uniform – reflecting the
professional value of these badges in the workplace.
The badge is in the shape of a rose, symbolising England, with daffodils symbolising Wales on
either side of the figure. The figure is Hygeia, the Greek goddess of good health, cleanliness
and hygiene. The inscription is ‘The General Nursing Council for England and Wales’.
The GNC required badges to be returned to them when a nurse ceased practicing, or at the
very least upon their death; such was the importance of protecting the status of professional
nurses. However, many badges were kept by nurses and their families, especially with the end
of the GNC and the ceasing of badges in 1983.
More details of how to search the general nursing registers are given further below in this
guide.
Images © RCN Archives, left to right
GNC Badge (Ref B_30 - C26A_B)
GNC Badge, reverse with inscription (Ref B_1485)
Badges of affiliation
Badges were, and are, produced to show affiliation to different nursing bodies. These might
include the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives, other unions or nursing
bodies such as The Cavell Trust. If your nurse held one of these, you may be able to find
further information about them in that organisation’s archives. You can find surviving archive
records by searching The National Archives whose online catalogue includes details of records
held by other archive offices.
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District nurses were usually affiliated to the Queens Nursing Institute (QNI) founded in 1887.
Like hospital badges some of the early membership badges have a name or membership
number inscribed on the reverse; they were often ornate. In recent years badges for daily wear
have been introduced, these are much simpler smooth designs which can be easily cleaned to
meet infection prevention control guidance.
Images © RCN Archives, left to right
Royal College of Midwives (RCM) (Ref B_39)
District Nursing Institute (Ref B_254)
RCN badge (Ref B_49)
RCN Blue & red hands logo (Ref B_1223)
Buckles
Some hospitals issued simple buckles for the belt that formed part of most nursing uniforms.
You may find an ornate silver belt buckle in your ancestor’s belongings. Upon successful
completion of hospital training, a silver buckle was traditionally given as a present by the
nurse’s family. The buckle was a personal gift and design often reflected links to family
values, beliefs or experiences, as well as to the fashion of the time. It tended not be worn on
regular workdays but was kept for ‘dress uniform’ and special occasions. You may find family
photographs or letters related to the buckle, but not official records.
Image © RCN Archives. Belt buckle on dark red belt c.1985 (ref B_1168)
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Photographs
Look for photographs, these may help date or place your nurse. Look for inscriptions on the
reverse listing names, places and dates.
The photographer will sometimes include their details which can help date and place a
photograph. The Royal Photographic Society has an online guide to Researching Historic
Photographs.
Image © RCN Archives. Papers of Margaret Horn. Night shift nurses at Ancoats Hospital.
March 1915 (ref C_488_P)
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What to look for: Nursing records
Ancestry
Many of the registers described below are available to search via Ancestry This was the result
of a digitisation project between the Royal College of Nursing and Ancestry which went online
in 2016.
Registers included in Ancestry are indicated in the text.
Details of how to search the nursing registers in Ancestry can be found in Appendix One of this
guide.
RCN membership records
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) was established in 1916 as a professional association for
nurses, and later became a trade union.
There is a published RCN membership register covering the period 1916-1923 (available on
Ancestry). This gives each member’s name, joining date, address and qualification.
Beyond the register, the RCN Archives cannot disclose confidential membership information
under the Data Protection Act 2018.
State registration of nurses
Since 2001, the statutory regulatory body of nursing in the UK has been the Nursing &
Midwifery Council (NMC). The NMC was preceded by the UK Central Council for Nursing,
Midwifery and Health Visiting (UKCC), which worked in conjunction with four national boards
and dealt with educational standards (1983-2001).
Before the UKCC, there were three General Nursing Councils (GNCs): one for England & Wales,
one for Scotland and one for Ireland. The GNCs were established in 1921, each with clearly
prescribed duties and responsibilities for the training, examination and registration of nurses
and the approval of training schools for the purpose of maintaining a Register of Nurses.
The State Register of Nurses
The three GNCs each published an annual Register of Nurses from 1922 until the late 1960s –
available on Ancestry. For the period 1922-1947, these volumes list nurses by name (including
maiden name where appropriate), registration date and number, place of registration (always
the GNC headquarters in London, Dublin or Edinburgh), permanent address at that time, and
where they qualified with dates. Please note that England and Wales ran a joint register from
London.
From the 1950s, the GNC Registers only list newly qualified nurses for each year and do not
give their address. They are arranged as quarterly lists, repeating four times in each volume.
They include lists of ‘deletions’ from the Register, through retirement etc.
Originally the Register had a main, ‘General’ part and supplementary ‘mental’, ‘male’, ‘fever’
‘mental defectives’ and ‘sick children’s’ parts. These supplementary parts have changed over
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the years. When searching, check all parts of the Register as well as the late entries list, which
sometimes appears at the end of the ‘General’ part.
Nurses would pay an annual fee to be on the Register. Registration was initially voluntary and
many who chose to register were hospital nurses. After the 1943 Nurses’ Act it became
compulsory to be a State Registered Nurse (SRN) and this is still a legal requirement to
practice nursing in the UK. In Scotland, the term originally used was Registered General Nurse
(RGN).
Publication of the Register ceased in 1968 when it moved to a digital format. The NMC still
maintains the Register which is available to search online. However the register is no longer
an open publication – it is a tool for those with a legitimate interest, such as prospective
employers, to check an individual is currently a registered nurse. The NMC cannot give out any
personal information under the Data Protection Act 2018.
The Roll of Nurses
Another type of nurse appeared following the Nurses’ Act of 1943: the Assistant Nurse, later
known as the State Enrolled Nurse (SEN) or briefly as the State Enrolled Assistant Nurse
(SEAN). This is not the same level of qualification as a SRN or RGN, but Assistant or Enrolled
nurses were recorded in the same way in a Roll of Assistant Nurses, also known as the Roll of
Nurses. The GNC kept the Roll, set the syllabus for the examinations and approved the schools
of nursing within hospitals.
Nursing registers in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland
The GNC for Ireland maintained the Register of Nurses from 1921-1950. In 1922, this body was
replaced in Northern Ireland by the Joint Nursing and Midwifery Council (JNMC), which took
over publication of the Register and later the Roll of Nurses. The current Republic of Ireland
registration body, An Bord Altranais (Irish Nursing Board), was established by the Nurses’ Act
of 1950 in place of the GNC for Ireland and the Central Midwives Board for Ireland.
Physical locations of registers and rolls
Note: The following registers are duplicate print copies of what is held on Ancestry:
Registers held at RCN Archive:
GNC England & Wales Register of Nurses, 1922-1968.
GNC England & Wales Roll of Nurses, 1947-1968 (parts of 1947-1948 missing).
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CMB England & Wales Midwives Roll, 1979-1982.
GNC Scotland Register of Nurses, 1945-1948, 1948 supplement, 1950, 1955 and 1957-
1967.
GNC Scotland Roll of [Assistant] Nurses, 1946 and 1956-1966.
CMB Scotland Midwives Roll, 1917-1968; plus a manuscript Roll for 1981-1984.
GNC Ireland Register of Nurses, 1939, 1943 and 1945-1948. No copies of the Roll held.
JNMC Northern Ireland Register of Nurses, 1943, 1946, 1956 and 1959.
JNMC Northern Ireland Register of Nurses and Roll of Nurses combined, 1949 and 1951.
JNMC Northern Ireland Midwives Roll, 1959.
The National Archives (TNA): a full run of the GNC England & Wales Register and Roll
(Register of Nurses and supplementary registers, 1921-1973: reference DT10). TNA has a guide
to records on doctors and nurses, though as at January 2022 the guide had not been updated
to reflect GNC registers now available on Ancestry.
National Records of Scotland: a full run of the GNC Scotland Register and Roll is held at the,
Edinburgh (Register of Nurses, 1921-1983; Roll of Nurses, 1944-1983; Register of Health
Visitors, 1933-1983: reference GNC 12, 13 and 14). At present, access to the original volumes of
the Register and Roll is closed for 75 years from the date of creation.
Cambridge University Library: GNC England & Wales Register of Nurses, 1922-1968, & Roll of
Assistant Nurses, 1947-1968.
Oxford Libraries Online (SOLO): GNC England & Wales Register of Nurses, 1922-1968; GNC
England & Wales Roll of Assistant Nurses, 1948-1961; GNC England & Wales Roll of Nurses,
1961-1968; GNC Scotland Roll of Assistant Nurses, 1950-1966.
Manchester Central Library’s Technical Library: GNC England & Wales Register of Nurses,
1946-1968 (reference 610.73 GI).
Wellcome Library, London: GNC England & Wales Register of Nurses, 1930-1944 & 1946-1947;
supplementary registers, 1948-1950.
Trinity College Dublin: GNC England & Wales Register of Nurses, 1967-1969; GNC Scotland
Register of Nurses, 1961-1967; GNC England & Wales Roll of Nurses, 1967-1969; GNC Scotland
Roll of Nurses, 1961-1964 & GNC Scotland Roll of Assistant Nurses, 1960.
The British Library, London: GNC England & Wales Register of Nurses, 1922-1968 and Roll of
Assistant Nurses, 1947-1948; GNC Scotland Register of Nurses, 1957 and Roll of Assistant
Nurses, 1959-1964.
National Library of Ireland, Dublin: GNC England & Wales Register of Nurses, 1930 onwards.
No copies of the Roll are held here.
University College Dublin: GNC Ireland Register of Nurses, 1921-1985. No copies of the Roll
are held here.
Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI): Joint Nursing and Midwives’ Council for
Northern Ireland/Northern Ireland Council for Nurses and Midwives, Register of Nurses, 1922-
1983.
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Scottish nursing registers
The National Records of Scotland holds the following early nursing registers, which predate
the GNC Register:
Local Government Board (Scotland). Register of trained sick nurses appointed to
poorhouse institutions, 1905-1927 (reference HH2/33).
Scottish Board of Health. Register of trained sick nurses appointed to poorhouse
institutions, 1906-1930 (reference HH2/34).
Scottish Board of Health. Index to register of trained nurses, 1885-1930 (reference
HH2/35).
Scottish Board of Health. Special register of certified nurses, 1907-1923 (reference
HH2/36).
Scottish Board of Health. Register of nursing examination candidates: appointments
and subjects passed, 1904-1913 (reference HH2/37).
Nursing and hospital directories
Burdett’s Directories - Sir Henry Burdett, a Victorian philanthropist, published Burdett’s Official
Nursing Directory from 1894-1899. The Directory was an annual volume containing the law
pertaining to nurses, the particulars of nursing institutions and training schools in the UK and
abroad, and a list of nurses giving their names, addresses and a very brief résumé. Inclusion
was optional and nurses could pay to appear on the list, which many London-based nurses did.
The RCN Archive has copies of the Directory for 1898 and 1899 (these are available on
Ancestry).
Sir Henry also published Burdett’s Hospital Annual (1890-1893), which became Burdett’s
Hospital & Charities Annual (1894-1930). This publication lists the hospitals, institutions,
charities and organisations then existing in the UK. It contains details of the membership of
hospital boards, the names of senior nursing and medical staff, the training available, the size
of each hospital and its nursing staff, etc.
The RCN Archive holds editions for 1922-1923 and 1928 (available on Ancestry). Physical
copies of additional directories can be located via Library Hub.
Hospital yearbooks and directories - Burdett’s Hospital & Charities Annual amalgamated with
the Annual Report of the Voluntary Hospitals in Great Britain (excluding London) to become
the Hospitals Yearbook (1931-1967). This publication lists each Area Health Authority in the UK
and the various hospitals, clinics and units falling under their administration. After 1967, it was
known as the Hospitals Yearbook and Directory of Hospital Suppliers.
Additional directories, including those only available in physical format, can be located via
Library Hub.
The RCN Archive holds editions for 1977, 1979 and 1985, as well as a copy of its successor
publication, The Hospital & Health Services Yearbook, for 1990.
London County Council handbooks
The London County Council (LCC), now the Corporation of London, included the Metropolitan
Asylums Board (MAB) and employed many nurses across the city. Its annual handbook, LCC
Staff and General Services, contains the names of nurse employees from 1909-1939, and may
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be consulted at the London Metropolitan Archives. See their History of Nursing Guide for more
details.
The RCN Archive holds:
Who’s Who in the Nursing World. The Nursing Yearbook 1929. Professional Publications
Ltd, London.
Guy’s Hospital Nurses’ League Register & Nursing Guide. Ash & Co, London (1937, 1950,
1960, 1997 & 2000).
Royal British Nurses Association Roll of Members 1909.
These and later hospital directories are available from health libraries around the UK.
Hospital records
In general, student nurses undertook training in hospitals until the 1990s when training was
passed to universities. If you know where your ancestor trained or worked, you should see what
records survive for that institution.
Hospital records may include student, probationer and training records, as well as staff
registers. The staff registers may include nursing staff – such as nursing assistants, state
enrolled nurses and health care assistants – who do not appear in the GNC state register of
nurses. As well as staff registers there are often board minutes, staff magazines, photographs,
annual reports, which sometimes mention nursing staff by name. In larger hospitals nursing
committees were created to oversee recruitment, training, discipline, terms of condition and
complaints.
‘Character Books’ are very useful resources where they survive. Originating in the Victorian
period, these remained in use by some hospitals into the late 1960s. The volumes contain
manuscript entries, one for each nurse, often with specific information set out in a form across
a whole page. These entries contain the matron’s views of each nurse’s character, their
hygiene, self-sacrifice, and respectability. Sometimes insightful, the testimonials reflect the
culture of the time as well as individual prejudices; for example black nurses in the Windrush
era were often unfairly judged (see Dr Catherine Babikian’s talk West Park Hospital character
books, 1924 to 1969: overseas nurses in the NHS).
Many hospital records relating to nursing have not survived to the present day, but those that
do can include records that are useful for family historians.
In England and Wales, possible locations include the County Record Office in the area where
the hospital was located. The National Archives has an online directory where you can find a
records office by name or geographic location.
The Hospital Records Database Online held by The National Archives, provides information on
UK hospitals and the location of their records. Although it has not been updated since 2012 it
remains the key resource for locating hospital records. It is particularly useful for changes of
hospital name. If the records are not held at the local record office, they may still be with the
hospital.
Historic Hospitals, an online architectural gazetteer has useful lists of hospitals with dates,
information on where they were located, and what they looked like. It aims to cover all the UK.
This may give a useful overview if you are unsure which hospital your ancestor worked at.
Norfolk County Record Office has an online guide to nursing and midwifery records. In 2021 an
index to the Norfolk and Norwich Nurses' Register, 1900-1928 was made available online. The
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index is an integral part of their online catalogue. To locate a nurse, simply search for the
reference number and a name, for example, NNH 114 Florence. Norfolk have filmed an event
where the archivist gave an overview of local Norfolk records relating to nursing.
In London the records may be at London Metropolitan Archives (LMA). The LMA has produced
a Research Guide to Nursing History The LMA holds the archives of St Thomas’s Hospital,
home to the Nightingale School of Nursing. The first 148 Nightingale nurses, trained 1860-
1870, were listed by Monica Baly in a book chapter ‘The Nightingale Nurses: The Myth and the
Reality’, published as part of Nursing History: The State of the Art by Christopher Maggs
(Routledge, 1987).
Some hospitals have published books on their history, including some specifically on nursing
such as Nursing through the Years: Care and Compassion at The Royal London Hospital by
Loretta Bellman, Sue Boase, Sarah Rogers and Barbara Stuchfield (Pen and Sword, 2018).
These give useful background information on what it would have been like to work there –
sometimes with very detailed information on what it was like to be a nurse in that institution.
The RCN Library holds reference copies of some hospital histories, as does the Wellcome
Library.
Some hospitals have web pages on their history, occasionally with specific history of nursing
content, such as this Nursing History at Northampton General Hospital.
Hospital-based archives
Some hospitals maintain their own archives. These include:
University College London Hospitals NHS Trust Archive - UCL hospitals include: The
Middlesex Hospital; The Hospital for Women, Soho; St Peter’s Group; The Eastman Dental
Hospital; The Hospital for Tropical Diseases and The National Temperance Hospital.
St Bartholomew’s Hospital Archive and the Royal London Hospital run a combined service
at Barts Health Archives - include records for the following hospitals: St Bartholomew’s
Hospital Archives; Royal London Hospital, The Alexandra Hospital for Children with Hip
Disease; The Eastern and the Homerton Hospital; The German Hospital; The Hackney
Hospital; The Metropolitan Hospital; The Mothers' Hospital; St Leonard's Hospital and St
Marks Hospital.
Imperial College Hospital Archives include the records of Charing Cross, Hammersmith,
Queen Charlotte's & Chelsea and St Mary's hospitals.
In Cambridge there is the Addenbrookes NHS Trust Archives.
Oxfordshire Health Archives has a useful historical list of hospitals in Oxfordshire, with
details of any known surviving archives. They hold archives for:
The Radcliffe Guild of Nurses. The alumni organisation for nurses who trained at the
Radcliffe and associated hospitals. Memorabilia 1920-1991, photographs 1897-1975,
uniforms and medical instruments.
The Wingfield League. The alumni organisation for nurses and staff of the Nuffield
Orthopaedic Centre. Records of the League 1955-1996, photographs 1934-1994 and
memorabilia 1917-1996
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Health boards
In Scotland, hospital records were the responsibility of the Health Board (or Service) for each
region. These records have mostly been absorbed into university archives when the
universities took over the role of training nurses, such as:
NHS Grampian Archives held by the University of Aberdeen.
Lothian Health Services Archive, held by the University of Edinburgh which has online
guidance on their records about nurses.
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde Archives held by the University of Glasgow Archives.
Nurses’ leagues
The records of nurses’ leagues are a great source for personal names and details of individual
nurses. The first nurses’ league was formed in 1899 as an association for the trained nurses of
St Bartholomew’s Hospital. It was a great success and many of the larger hospitals had
leagues, which published a regular magazine for alumni to keep in touch. With the movement
of nurse education into higher education, some leagues have become university alumni
associations, and only a few remain. Magazines and records of Nurses’ Leagues may survive in
hospital archives, local record offices and local history libraries.
Few if any Nursing League records have been digitised. There is an incomplete but reasonably
good run of the Stirling Royal Infirmary Nurses’ League magazine which has been digitised. It is
held by the NHS Forth Valley Archive who have made it available on their JSTOR collections
page.
Each magazine contains a full list of the League’s members and there are regular notices of
births, deaths and marriages along with examination results and prize givings. This is typical of
a Nurses League Magazine.
Census
The census is a population survey taken every 10 years, which commenced in 1801. From 1841
onwards, the census records include information on individuals and may indicate or confirm
that your ancestor was a nurse or midwife. The census records their address, which may be a
hospital or a nurses’ home. For many nineteenth-century nurses the census is the only
surviving record of their career. The returns for individual hospitals, workhouses and asylums
list everyone present in the building on census night, although patients or inmates are
sometimes only recorded by their initials.
It is important to note that census returns use a variety of occupational terms to describe
nurses. They are sometimes classed as domestic servants with responsibilities for childcare.
Some of the other terms used include:
Subordinate or Subsidiary Medical Services (abbreviated to SMS)
‘Poor Law Officials’ (sometimes used to describe nurses in Poor Law Hospitals).
Monthly Nurse
Sick Nurse
Attendant or Ward Attendant.
It should be noted that a person recorded in the census as a ‘nurse’ did not necessarily have
any formal nursing training or qualifications.
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England and Wales: The National Archives Census Guide records for 1841-1921 gives an
overview of how to access these online. Local county record offices tend to have the returns
for their own respective county and sometimes for adjoining counties.
There is a useful Guide to Records for searching records of births, marriages, deaths,
adoptions and civil partnerships.
Scotland: The National Records of Scotland’s website Scotland’s People is dedicated to family
history research, including access to the online 1841-1911 censuses.
Ireland and Northern Ireland: unfortunately, little information survives from the Irish censuses
for 1841-1891. 1901 and 1911 census for Ireland are available to search on the web (via the
National Archives). Contact the Public Record Office for Northern Ireland and the National
Archives of Ireland . No census was taken in Ireland/Northern Ireland in 1921 owing to the War
of Independence.
This will greatly add to our knowledge of nursing staff as the 1921 census required information
about the profession and branch within it. It asked for the place of work and their employer’s
name. Marital status, including divorce was required for those over 15 years old. It asked
questions on part time and full-time education which could help track nursing staff.
The 1921 Census was released January 2021 and is available online via FindMyPast, and onsite
at The National Archives, Archives+ in Manchester and the National Library of Wales in
Aberystwyth. In terms of occupation and employment, the 1921 Census asked for details of
the nature of employment, the capacity in which they were employed, to list the employer if
they had one, and the place they were employed. The census makes enquiries about whether
individuals were in full or part time training or education. Some of the nurses’ homes feature as
institutions (owing to the scale of their occupancy) which may be useful for young women in
the early stages of their career. As indicated elsewhere in this guide, nurses often lived onsite
at their workplace, so this census will reflect this in the entries. The data in the 1921 Census is
searchable by occupation so this offers interesting possibilities for research, particularly for
those researching local or hospital histories.
The 1921 census may be used in conjunction with the 1922 state register of nursing to build up
a wider picture of those who registered with the GNC; the Census will include several people
who did not register themselves as nurses with the GNC but who self-identified as nurses.
The 1921 Census is particularly important as the 1931 Census returns were destroyed in a fire
and the 1941 Census did not take place due to the Second World War.
Beginners’ guides to using the census and more specialised publications can be purchased
from the Federation of Family History Societies.
Trade and Post Office directories
Nurses and midwives are sometimes listed in eighteenth and nineteenth-century trade and
Post Office directories. For England and Wales, these publications can be found in most
County Record Offices and some public libraries.
Digital versions of 700 Scottish post office directories for 28 towns in Scotland, spanning the
period 1773-1911, may be searched free of charge.
Selected street directories for Northern Ireland are available to search via the Public Records
Office for Northern Ireland.
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Specialist archives
The Royal British Nurses Association (RBNA). Kings College London holds the records of the
RBNA.
The RCN Archives holds a copy of the RBNA membership register, covering the first 10,000
members from March 1890 to June 1966.
Pioneering Nurses is a free online transcript of the first 1,000 entries in the British Nurses'
Association register. It includes some brief biographies of individual nurses (backgrounds,
training and professional achievements).
The Royal College of Psychiatrists holds the records of the Royal Medico-Psychological
Association, which trained and registered Mental Nurses or Attendants. The RMPA is seen as
the beginnings of learning disability nursing and of mental health nursing. They have an online
overview of their Nursing Examination Records (including Registers of successful candidates
1891-1951).
Midwifery records
The Midwives Act 1902 (England & Wales only) enabled the state enrolment of midwives and
established the Central Midwives Board (CMB) for England & Wales. The Midwives Institute,
established in the 1880s and known from 1941 as the Royal College of Midwives, played a
crucial role in the application of the Act. Practising midwives were given until 1910 to enrol
with the CMB.
A Midwives Act was not passed for Scotland until 1915, but Scotland had by then learned
valuable lessons from the experience of the CMB for England and Wales and drew upon these
in setting up the CMB for Scotland. In each country, the CMB operated independently from the
GNC or from any nursing infrastructure, although many midwives were also qualified nurses.
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) Library has transferred their archive including
midwifery certification and membership to the Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists (RCOG). The archives can be accessed by contacting the RCOG library.
RCOG has a useful midwifery family history guide.
The Midwives Roll, 1904-1959 is available to search on Ancestry. You can locate the
Midwives Rolls by following the instructions in Appendix One but replacing ‘Nursing’ with
‘Midwives’ in the Ancestry ‘card catalogue’ search. This collection was created from the
Wellcome Library’s copies of the Roll. Records include details of the individual's name, address
and date of enrolment. Physical copies of the Roll are held as follows:
o The CMB England & Wales Roll of Midwives, 1902-1983 is held at the National
Archives at Kew.
o The RCN Archives holds copies of the CMB Scotland Roll of Midwives, 1917-
1968; the CMB England & Wales Roll of Midwives, 1981-1984; and the JNMC
Northern Ireland Roll of Midwives for 1959 only.
o The CMB Ireland Roll and Register of Midwives, 1919-1985, and Registers of
Pupil and First Certified Midwives, 1938-1983, are held at University College
Dublin Archives.
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Defence nursing records
In 2021 The National Archives website had six guides related to military nursing. These include
links to online lists of nurses that are available to search and details of physical records
available for research
No Army Nursing Service records dating from before 1902 are known to be in The National
Archives.
British Army nurses.
British Army nurses’ service records 1914-1918 over 15,000 individual nurse records
available to search online.
Royal Air Force nurses.
Royal Navy nurses and medical officers.
Military nursing.
Nurses in the Crimea.
For service records of the Queen Alexandra Royal Army Nursing Corps (QARANC) 1939-1945,
write to:
Ministry of Defence, Army Personnel Centre, Historic Disclosures, Mailpoint 400,
Kentigern House, 65 Brown Street, Glasgow G2 8EX.
The Forces War Records website includes online indices of some nursing units - charges apply
to some of the content in this site
WW1 & WW2 Nurses Records
QA Royal Naval Nursing Service
Service Museums – The following have very interesting collections which give wider context to
your nurse’s experiences, so are worth visiting. However, please note that the Service
Museums do not hold personnel service records.
The Museum of Military Medicine (formerly the Army Medical Services Museum) in
Aldershot
The Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth
The Royal Air Force Museum in London and Cosford.
British Army nurses
The QARANC Association and QARANC Association Heritage Committee manage a website on
British Army Nurses. This is the official site for the history and heritage of the Queen
Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps and its antecedents.
The website has a growing number of resources, including an index of the nurses awarded the
Royal Red Cross.
The website Scarlet Finders has some very useful resources – please note that this website is
no longer being updated.
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British Red Cross ‘VADs’
The Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) were started by the Red Cross and St John’s
Ambulance Service to help army medical services during World War One (1914-1918) and World
War Two (1939-1945). The volunteers were trained in first aid and other skills. During the
Second World War they came under the jurisdiction of the military despite being civilians.
Information on the VADs’ wide range of roles can be found at the Imperial War Museum.
The British Red Cross has its own Museum and Archive. As part of First World War
commemorations, the service records for British Red Cross VADs were digitised and indexed.
This free online resource allows you to search by name as well as by location – a benefit to
local historians.
Poor law and workhouse nursing
Details of individual nurses and the local history of nursing is also found in poor law and
workhouse records. England had a comprehensive system of poor relief, funded by local
(parish) taxes, known as rates, dating back to 1601. Scotland had something similar but more
rudimentary. In England this is referred to as the ‘Old Poor Law’ where individual parishes were
responsible for caring for the sick, infirm and elderly as well as dealing with the unemployed.
Certain parishes had workhouses or poor houses, some of which employed nurses. If records
exist, they can be found in county record offices. Similar records exist for Scotland. The ‘New
Poor Law’ was introduced in England and Wales in 1834, 1838 in Ireland and similar provision in
Scotland in 1845. The new system in England and Wales set up a central administration in
London and over 500 poor law unions (groups of parishes). Scotland maintained the parochial
system with a new national supervisory board.
Poor relief could be given to applicants in the community or within the workhouse. These were
designed to be harsh, forbidding places, to dissuade able-bodied men from using them. Many
of the people who had no choice were the elderly, children, infirm, sick, mentally ill and those
with a learning disability, such as people requiring care. As the nineteenth century progressed
nursing staff were employed as part of poor law provisions, though the quality of care
delivered was variable; often paupers without nurse training or qualifications were utilised.
Workhouses had sick and lying-in wards or separate infirmaries where nurses attended to
patients, under the directions of the Medical Officer. Midwives were employed by some unions.
Surviving records in England are of two types: individual Poor Law union records are held by
local authority record offices. These do include staff registers where they have survived. Few
of these have been digitised, so researchers will need to visit the record office to access the
physical records.
At a national level The National Archives hold staff registers for all unions in England and
Wales (Series MH9) and again they have not been digitised. Recording of nurses mainly
occurred from the 1860s. Series MH12 contains correspondence from Poor Law unions,
including appointment forms for individual nurses from the 1840s onwards. The Workhouse
website run by Peter Higginbotham gives extensive information on workhouses, how they were
run, and details of where local records survive. The National Archives has useful guides on
Poor Law and on Workhouse Inmates and Staff.
The National Records for Scotland has produced a guide to finding poor law records in
Scotland Both the websites of the Public Record Office for Northern Ireland and the National
Archives of Ireland can be searched for poor law records which may include records of nursing
staff.
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District nursing
The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI), founded in 1887 has a useful overview of QNI history on its
website. Believed to be the oldest nursing charity in the world it was established to train and
support district nurses – for example, nurses working in local communities. They have a QNI
Heritage Website which provides useful information and photographs on their history.
The ‘UK & Ireland, Queen's Nursing Institute Roll of Nurses, 1891-1931’ have been digitised and
are available via Ancestry. The Wellcome Trust holds the original registers and additional
records of the Queens Nursing Institute (QNI). These are the records for district nursing in
England and Wales, not for the whole of the UK as Ancestry implies.
The Queens Nursing Institute for Scotland (QNIS) is a separate charity and has its own QNIS
History available online. The RCN Archive holds the records of QNIS including a card index of
the names and service histories of district nurses (deceased).
For Ireland, the Archives of University College Dublin hold Registers of ‘Jubilee’ Nurses, 1890-
1967.
Mental health and asylums
The National Archives has a useful guide to records related to mental health and asylums.
The Asylums List is a useful resource, listing asylums by name, location and county, indicating
which have been demolished and which are still in use.
The Museum of the Mind holds the archives of Bethlem Royal Hospital (south-east London),
the Maudsley Hospital (south London) and Warlingham Park Hospital (Surrey). They have
digitised their staff registers up to 1932 with Find My Past. Digitised patient records to 1913
are available via Find My Past - nurses also appear as patients at Bethlem.
When searching for your ancestor, remember that Mental health nurses were referred to
“attendants” up to at least 1900; after 1900 the term remained in use, especially for men.
Historic Hospitals, an online architectural gazetteer has a section dedicated to Mental
Hospitals in Britain and Ireland. This has useful lists of hospitals with dates, information on
where they were located, and what they looked like. This may give a useful overview if you are
unsure which hospital your ancestor worked at.
Additional employers
Nurses have been employed in a wide variety of settings including prisons, factories, schools,
charities or friendly societies. Nurses have often filled occupational health roles in industrial
and office settings. You may find a mention of your ancestor in surviving records or staff
magazines.
Religious orders often had nuns who were nurses, working within the community or as
missionaries. Check if the religious order has any surviving archives for details of your
ancestor. Check for the archives of the local church nearest to where your ancestor was based
as there is often cross over within the community.
Try by searching The National Archives to find out if any organisational records survive. If you
know the original location of the organisation, ask the local record office if they know of any
surviving records.
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Occasionally organisations, such as Boots (which employed nurses in their shops) or
Sainsbury’s, have large archives where you can find out if there are any surviving staff records.
Many archives have online catalogues available to search for surviving organisational archives.
Remember that you are unlikely to find the name of your ancestor in the catalogue. Instead,
you are looking for places your ancestor may be mentioned, staff records, staff registers,
payroll lists, annual reports or staff magazines.
Nursing journals
Matrons, assistant matrons, superintendents and nursing leaders are often named in the
nursing press. Journals can help to trace awards, military postings, promotions and obituaries.
They also hold a number of stories on workplaces, such as openings, events, or local people.
Many historic nursing journals are available through the RCN Library.
Twenty-two historic nursing journals from the RCN collections are now available online
through a collaboration with Gale’s Women’s Studies Archive programme: Female Forerunners
Worldwide. The full list of national and international nursing journals dating from 1891-1986 is:
Australian Bush Nursing Journal; The Australian Nurses’ Journal; Bedside Nurse; The
British Red Cross; Society Quarterly Review; The Catholic Nurse; District Nursing; Gown
and Gloves; The International Nursing Bulletin; Jamaican Nurse; Nigerian Nurse; The
Nightingale Fellowship Journal; Nurse Education News; Nurses’ Journal of the Pacific
Coast; Nursing Notes; The Nursing Record; Nursing Times; Philippine Journal of Nursing;
Quarterly Journal for Chinese Nurses; Queen’s Nurses’ Magazine; South African Nursing
Journal; The Trained Nurse; and The Zambia Nurse
All RCN members (full, student and retired) can find out more about the RCN historic nursing
journals and access using their membership login details. For non-members, access is mainly
provided through academic libraries including the British Library – you may need to ask your
librarian to arrange access.
One of the oldest journals held at the RCN Library is also freely available to browse and search
online: British Journal of Nursing / Nursing Record 1888-1956.
Oral history collections and personal papers
Many archives hold oral history interviews with or personal paper collections of nurses. Often
these name nurses they were trained by, worked with or became friends with. It is worth
checking catalogues or online indexes for the names of your ancestor, or of people they had
known relationships with just in case you come across a connection. It is highly unlikely that
you will discover a connection this way, but it is worth considering – especially if your ancestor
held a significant position, such as matron or sister-tutor.
Awards, news stories and malpractice
There are many other records where nurses are identified such as:
National awards listed in The Gazette 1665-present. These awards include OBEs, MBEs,
wartime despatches, and similar. Freely searchable by name.
National and local new stories can be found in the British Library Newspaper Archive
these include obituaries, appointments and local news and events. Freely searchable by name,
there is a fee for accessing the online content.
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Mistakes and malpractice occasionally result in court records. These are usually physical
records held in local record offices. One notable exception is the freely searchable Old
Bailey online. This includes testimony given by nurses and matrons as reliable witnesses.
Migration and Nursing
Professional nurses have skills that are often in high demand. Nurses migrate across the
globe, bringing them and their families social and economic benefits. This includes nurses
coming to the UK, but also nurses emigrating overseas.
Useful books about nurses migrating to the UK include:
Family History on the Move: Where Your Ancestors Went and Why by Mark
Pearsall, Roger Kershaw (The National Archives 2006).
Against the Odds, Black and Minority Ethnic Clinicians and Manchester 1948 to 2009 by
Emma L Jones and Stephanie Snow (Manchester 2010).
Many Rivers to Cross – the History of the Caribbean Contribution to the NHS Ann Kramer
(Sugar Media 2006).
Ireland's Loss Britain's Gain: Irish Nurses in Britain Nightingale to Millennium by Ethel
Corduff (Rainbow Valley Books 2021).
Useful online resources about migration to the UK include:
The National Archives Migration Guides.
Moving Here archived website – not updated since 2013, this is remains a useful
resource.
Southwark Guide to Caribbean Family History
The Guardian published an article on Researching your Caribbean family history in 2007
which remains useful.
Exploring Surrey’s Past website February 2022 had a useful page on Black Health Care
Workers in Surrey. Also, the Surrey History Trust hosted a talk in October 2021 by Dr
Catherine Babikian on West Park Hospital character books, 1924 to 1969: overseas nurses in the
NHS.
The Families in British India Society (FIBIS) have produced a nursing guide for searching
nursing ancestry in India during the colonial period. It covers civil nursing (training, hospitals,
registration, associations, journals), religious orders and military nursing. It has useful links to
online and physical resources.
The RCN Historic Nursing Journals include a number of overseas titles, such as
Australian Nurses Journal, Nigerian Nurse or Philippine Journal of Nursing – details are given in
the above section ‘Nursing Journals’. These give details of nurses coming to the UK, but also of
nurses moving or returning to other countries.
Nurse training came with student accommodation in nurses’ homes – this was very attractive
for migrant women. There were strict rules for student homes, which helped make nursing a
respectable career for young women away from their families. Student nursing homes for male
students were less common, except for some mental health nurse training schools. Migrant
male student nurses experienced real difficulties to find accommodation with many facing ‘No
blacks, no dogs, no Irish’ signs well into the 1980s.
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Nurse training schools across the UK taught migrant nurses, not just places like London or
Bristol. For those that came with government backed schemes, their early careers were
sometimes tracked in official records held at The National Archives. This was especially the
case for those who were on schemes where they were expected to pay the British government
back the money for the fare to England. More details can be found in the physical records held
at The National Archives, such as this Ministry of Health file:
MH 55/2157 Nursing recruitment: migration of nurses to and from United Kingdom 1947-1962.
Nurse registration in British colonial countries were sometimes recognised in reciprocal
arrangements. These are detailed in the preface of each GNC register (see image below) and
changed over time. Some nurses trained in the UK, returned home to practice, and joined the
register in their country (or occasionally vice versa). Many British nurses have emigrated,
developing their careers overseas.
Nurses also migrate from Britain to other countries. Records include:
Overseas Nursing Association (previously known as the Colonial Nursing Association)
1896-1966, records of which are held at the Bodleian Library and at the National
Archives
The Colonial Nursing Service 1896-1966, records of which are held at The National
Archives
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Further reading
Tracing Your Medical Ancestors, A Guide for Family Historians by Michelle Higgs (Pen and
Sword 2011).
The RCN History of Nursing Library Subject Guide gives a useful overview of resources.
The RCN Library holds many nursing memoirs from different places and time periods which
you may find interesting.
Paid for research services
If you need help in carrying out research, especially onsite research at archive offices then the
following lists of researchers may be of help:
Register of Qualified Genealogists.
Find A Researcher : AGRA : Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives.
List of Freelance Consultants (archives.org.uk) – search for genealogical research.
History of nursing networks
Royal College of Nursing members are encouraged to join the RCN History of Nursing Forum.
The UK Association for the History of Nursing is open to anyone with an interest in history of
nursing, they hold an annual symposium.
There are some local history of nursing networks in the UK such as the Nottingham Nursing
History Group which was active in 2021 or the Bournemouth group Memories of Nursing.
The European Association for the History of Nursing is useful – their list of member
organisations gives an indication of the wider network of history of nursing groups; there are
similar associations across the world.
Social Media hashtags #HistNursing and #HistMed are useful ways to identify content and
people actively research the history of nursing.
History of nursing at the RCN
The RCN holds significant library and archive collections, mostly dating from the 1860s to
date, focusing on nursing activity in the UK.
The largest library collection is held at the main library in London, and holds the historic
journals, rare books, and historical books. The Edinburgh, Belfast and Cardiff libraries all hold
reference books reflecting the history of nursing in their countries; these are all included in the
RCN Library catalogue.
The RCN Library holds many memoirs and biographies, many of these are self-published and
cannot be located anywhere else. If you want to research more on what life was like for your
ancestor these can be a useful resource.
The RCN Archive has a growing number of brief online biographies for key nurses who were
active in the RCN, or whose papers they hold.
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The RCN runs an exhibition and event programme much of which is open to the public both
onsite and online. Many of the past exhibitions and events are made available online.
History of nursing collections
Museums holding nursing material include the Florence Nightingale Museum, the
University of Chester Riverside Museum and the University of Dundee Tayside Medical History
Museum which has a Nursing History Guide.
The freely available Florence Nightingale Digitization Website allows researchers to search
the original letters of Florence Nightingale – including by personal names.
International archive collections include the Barbara Bates Centre for the History of Nursing in
the USA.
The London Museums of Health and Medicine are all interesting places to visit. Most run
events programmes.
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Appendix One: How to search the nursing
registers on Ancestry
In 2016, the RCN Archive copies of the GNC Registers were digitised via Ancestry; and contain
over 1.6 million names. It is the largest set of historic information on a single profession
available in the UK.
By limiting your search to the nursing registers, you will get better results which are easier to
browse.
The Register was an annual publication. For many years an individual nurse’s name appeared
every year – Ancestry have stripped out most of these ‘duplicate’ entries from the index. You
can browse by year to check for specific names in specific years – you may be able to see the
name in the digital copy even if it does not appear in the index.
How to search the registers by personal name
Go to Ancestry www.ancestry.co.uk
Click on the Search tab in the menu (top left).
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Click on card catalogue and Search for Title = Nursing. You will get these results.
Note - If you are looking for a midwife carry out the ‘Nursing’ Search first; most midwives were
required to first qualify as a nurse. Then repeat this step but search for Title = Midwives and
you will be able to search the Roll of Midwives.
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Most queries will be resolved by choosing UK & Ireland, Nursing Registers, 1898-1968
This collection includes the General Nursing Council Register, the Royal College of Nursing’s
1920s register, and some early Burdett lists of nurses.
You can search by name, which is useful if you are searching for a known individual.
Here’s an example: Sarah Swift: Enter first name Sarah Last name Swift.
Use the dates and places to help you identify the right person.
When you click on ‘view record’, at the top of the frame, it will tell you the date of the volume
you are looking at.
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This is the College of Nursing (later the RCN)’s membership register which contains thousands
of entries. It covers 1916-1919, the years just before the Nurses Registration Act was passed.
Sarah Swift was Registered number 1, given in recognition of her commitment to the College
and the campaign for the state registration of nurses.
The register gives home address and importantly where she trained.
The State Register was published by the General Nursing Council between 1922 – 1968. After
that it became a database, now held by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Being on the
register became mandatory from 1943.
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Women are often known by different names. The GNC Registers included both maiden names
and married names where applicable, and Ancestry have indexed these.
This makes the Registers a particularly useful resource for researching women.
Search first name = Ethel and Last Name = Gordon Fenwick.
The person we are looking, Ethel, for was active c.1922
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Ethel Gordon Fenwick is No 1 on the GNC registers in honour of her work leading the campaign
for State Registration of Nurses.
The register gave her address, the date of her registration, and details of where she trained. It
gives both her married and her maiden (née) names. It’s worth noting that Ethel Gordon
Fenwick was also known as Ethel Beford Fenwick, a variation that does not appear in the
Register.
This result is for Denzil Nurse, a man from Barbados who became a mental health nurse. Men
appear throughout the registers; the mental health nursing registers tend to have higher
numbers of men appearing.
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How to search the registers for place names
For local history searches, you can search by place name. Ancestry has not indexed the
registers by ‘location’, but place names do appear if you search for them as keywords.
Search the registers, for ‘’Keyword = Location = Macclesfield’.
There are 853 results for Macclesfield, which gives huge potential for local history research.
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The register’s entry for Lilian Drewitt, below, shows her as ‘living-in’ at the hospital.
Student nurses were not the only ones to live onsite. At the beginning of the twentieth century
many nurses and matrons still lived onsite in hospital property for their entire working lives.
This slowly changed and was less likely in the latter part of the twentieth century.
Some nursing positions continue to require staff to live onsite for part, if not all, of their time –
such as some defence nursing roles.
A search by place name can highlight links with registered overseas nurses.
The search given below for Keyword = Lagos has 176 results.
The extracts show the early years 1925-1940s, dominated by ‘English names’. This possibly
reflects the number of white ‘expat’ nurses going from the UK to the then British colony of
Nigeria. Though it could be identifying Nigerian nurses with anglicised names.
The later period of the 1960s lists more African names. This probably reflects black women
who came to the UK to train and register but then returned to build what was now an
independent Nigeria.
For some nurses, staying on the UK registers was a matter of status, and career progression at
‘home’. It was also a way to keep the door to the UK open – either for work or to return for
additional training courses and to progress further up the career ladder.
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For family historians this means it is worth searching for nurses trained in Britain who returned
‘home’. Not everyone was on the register; nurses did not have to be on the UK register, but it
may be worth a quick search.
How to browse the registers by year
Repeat the steps that take you to the list of nursing registers. Choose the nursing register you
wish to browse.
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On the right-hand side there is a drop-down menu which gives a further breakdown of the
types of registers available within the collection.
Using the Register of Nurses as an example, if you choose that collection underneath an
option to choose and browse by year will appear.
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Select the year you want to browse, such as 1950. It will take you to the first page, use the
arrows at either side of the image, or the page number at the bottom to move through the
register. As it is in alphabetical order by surname it is relatively easy to browse.
Check the contents page which usually appears in pages 1-6. This will outline what the
sections are. Occasionally an appendix of General Registered Nurses appears at the end of the
volume. Each section is in alphabetical order.
Although male nurses were usually listed separately for general nurses you will find men in the
other sections, such as mental nurses.
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Common abbreviations used in the registers
Cert = Certificated
Conj Cert = Conjointly Certificated
EN = Existing Nurse
Exp = Evidence of experience in line with the Rules. Only in the supplementary registers for
Mental and Fever nurses.
FNA = Fever Nurses Association
MAB Metropolitan Asylums Board
MPA and RMPA = royal Medico-Psychological Association
NT = Nurse in training before issue of Rules
AE = After Examination (Nurse who has passed the Council’s Examination)
RFN = Registered Fever Nurse
RMN = Registered Mental [Health] Nurse
RNMD = Registered Nurse for Mental Defectives (sic) [now referred to as Learning Disability
Nurses]
RST = Registered Sister Tutor (holder of Certificate of Registration as a Sister Tutor)
SB of H Scottish Board of Health
SRN = State registered nurses (on the General part of the register), this included men who
were state registered nurses
Tr = Trained
Reasons why you don’t find your nurse on Ancestry
The most common reason is that the name on the register differs from the name you are
looking for:
Your nurse could have used a different name, such as a second name or a nickname (i.e.
‘May’ instead of ‘Martha’ or ‘Nan’ instead of ‘Ann’)
The name was entered or indexed incorrectly on the register
Double-barrelled names and married names often cause confusion
Names are ‘anglicised’ with the spelling, or even the entire name, changed
The nurse could have been an SEN (State Enrolled Nurse) or a QNI nurse (Queens
Nursing Institute – which is district or community nursing) or a midwife
Your nurse registered after 1968
Your nurse lived before registration was introduced in 1922
Your nurse appears in the register but is not indexed. Due to the size of the dataset
Ancestry have not yet indexed every single year of the register. If you have an exact
year when your ancestor was actively nursing, you can still look them up on the register.
See the section in Appendix One on ‘How to Browse the Registers by Year’
o There is often a time lag in people appearing on the register. If you know the
year of registration, but cannot find your nurse, browse the register and the
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supplementary registers for that year. If your nurse is not listed, browse the
register (and supplements) for the following year.
During the occupation in Jersey nurses had an enforced separation from the GNC and
although they continued training, they were only allowed to join again in 1946
While the 1943 Act made it compulsory for practising nurses to register, it was not
rigorously enforced; many nurses simply did not register
Implementation of registration for SENs appear to have been only lightly implemented.
Nurses employed for casual work or short contracts were unlikely to be caught if they did nor
register. Nurses on casual contracts would have been low paid and loath to pay the
registration fee
There was no difference in fees regardless of whether you were a fully registered nurse
or a state enrolled nurse
If the nurse only worked in wartime, then they would more likely be registered with
organisations like the British Red Cross, Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service
(QAIMNS), The Territorial Force Nursing Service or Queen Alexandra’s Royal Naval Nursing
Service (QARNNS)
Your nurse was a student nurse who subsequently did not register. Occasionally
successful student nurses left nursing due to life events – such as getting married.
Your nurse migrated. Nurses only joined the register when they had qualified and were
working. Many nurses successfully trained in the UK but then moved overseas. Some nurses
came to the UK specifically to train as a nurse before returning ‘home’. This was particularly
true for Britain’s (former) colonies. Some nurses paid to stay on the register to enhance their
status and their ability to find work. But many would not have applied to be on the register
Your nurse was on a nursing register for another country. In the early and mid-twentieth
century, Britain had reciprocal arrangements with a few of its colonies, recognising state
registers of nursing which were agreed to be at a similar standard. These arrangements are
sometimes listed at the front of the register. New Zealand was the first country in the world to
maintain a state register of nurses, first collated in 1902.
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Appendix Two: How to search for hospital
records on nurses
The National Archives holds a database with information on the existence and location of the
records of UK hospitals. There are over 2,800 entries. The dataset has not been updated since
2012 but remains a key source for identifying surviving records quickly. Go to the home page of
the Hospital Records Database.
Click the option on the right-hand side to search the database.
If you know the name of the hospital, type this into ‘Hospital Name’, for example, Royd.
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Results will be listed, select ‘Details’ for the hospital you want to find out about, for example,
Stanley Royd in Wakefield.
Alternatively, you can search for the location of the hospital you are looking for, for example,
Wakefield.
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The Search for Wakefield gives 11 results, select ‘Details’ for the hospital you want to find out
about, for example, Stanley Royd in Wakefield.
Each entry has five sections: Name, Administration, Status/Type and Records, scroll down the
web page to read the details for each section:
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Name: The alternate names are useful as people often refer to a hospital by its previous name,
so you may have heard that your nurse worked at the Asylum long after it had been renamed.
A significant number of nurses would have registered whilst it was known as West Riding
Mental Hospital. The address and the opening/closing dates are all helpful for understanding
where your ancestor may have worked.
Understanding the administrative authorities helps research. Hospital administration records,
such as annual reports or financial records, may have been retained as part of the ‘parent’
archives. It’s useful to see who the Hospital reported to and the changes of name.
Even now, not all UK hospitals are NHS hospitals. It’s useful to understand what sort of
hospital it was, especially as it will tell you more about what type of nurse your ancestor was.
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An overview of records is then given. This is very summary – it may list nursing registers, or
character books. Your next step is to look at details of the archive service and look at their
online catalogues.
Click on the (i) to the left of the named archive service for more information. This step takes
you out of the Hospital Records Database
The last step took you into The National Archives Directory of Record Offices. This can be
searched as a standalone resource; you can search for the name of a record office or for the
place name where it is based.
Using the (i) link from the Hospital Records Database, it gives you contact details for the
record office for your hospital, in this case the West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS) which
holds the Stanley Royd Hospital Records.
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Most record offices will have an online catalogue. Since the Hospital Record Database was
last updated in 2012, individual record offices have made significant progress in adding to
their online catalogues. Catalogues may give you more information about what records survive.
Before contacting the record office have a look at their website and any catalogues or
research guides to see if you can find out more.
The National Archives Directory usually includes a website link for the record office. This link
takes you away from The National Archives website.
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Appendix Three: What to expect from a
record office
Most Record Offices will have a website which, like West Yorkshire Archive Service (WYAS)
include:
an online catalogue
guides to collections (these usually include a family history guide)
contact us
opening hours / how to arrange a visit
events and sometimes exhibitions
details of social media.
Following our example of Stanley Royd Hospital, WYAS has a useful Family History Guide
which includes a short section on hospital staff records.
WYAS, also have a guide to accessing Mental Health Records – as Stanley Royd was a mental
health hospital, it is useful to look at this guide.
The guides include useful information to help you understand the restrictions that may be
placed on records that you would like to access.
It is likely that you will need to arrange a visit to the record office and physically view relevant
items, so doing some research before you visit is vital.
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Searching a Record Office catalogue
It is highly unlikely that your nurse is individually named in the online catalogue, or that the
records have been digitised and made available to search online. It is always worth searching
for your individual nurse’s name but be prepared to be disappointed.
Records that may contain your nurse’s name and additional details are more likely to be in
physical records; these records may not include the word nurse in the catalogue description.
So, what records should you be looking for? Stanley Royd Hospital Records at WYAS is a
typical example. Records that could be useful include:
staff service registers
staff wages and salaries
photographs and newspaper articles
hospital magazine
service register – salaries.
Records that helpfully include the word nurse or matron include the following, (i.e. be aware of
the sources listed above or you may miss out on key sources for your ancestor):
student nurses prize-givings
assistant matron's or night superintendent’s report book
nurses' resignation registers.
Records, such as the salary registers, change names over time. Check the dates to see if any
relevant records survive for your nursing ancestor. For example, the file ‘Nursing Resignation
No 4’ covers the dates Aug 1928-Mar 1936. The catalogue tells you that it is indexed. This is a
physical index which is probably at the front or the back of the volume. Registers with indexes
will save you time when physically checking for your nurse and help you manage your time
when you visit the record office. Records without indexes, or which are not in alphabetical
order by surname, will take you longer to look through.
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When you have looked through the online catalogue and guides you may have identified some
records you think could be useful. You will have questions. Catalogues can be confusing, and
you may not know where to start. Becoming more familiar with the catalogues and guides may
help answer your questions or will at least help you open up a conversation with the record
office.
At this point, contact the record office so that they can help.
When asking for help you may find it best to write an email. Focus on what records you want to
look at and what you are hoping to find. Do tell them that you are looking for a nurse, give the
name, dates, and how you think your nurse had a connection (were they a student at the
hospital, did they work there, or was it the nearest hospital to where they lived?). Ask the
archivist whether the records you have identified are likely to help your research, or if they
have any advice.
The archivist will want to help and should be able to point you at relevant records if any
survive. Sometimes no records will survive for the dates your nurse was active.
There are some practical restrictions that you may not be familiar with that the record office
team will need to work within:
Some staff records will be closed – the record office will be complying with legislation
that protects personal data (GDPR/DPA)
Some record offices have limited opening hours, or limited spaces for researchers
Record offices will need time to retrieve the records you wish to research in time for
your visit, hence booking in advance
Most record offices will request a form of identification from you – their collections are
unique and they are obliged to protect them
Record offices will have ‘rules’, most commonly to leave bags outside the reading room,
to use a pencil or laptop, not to eat or drink.
Have a look on the website to find out how the record office works, and if you have any
questions ask the archive team. Record Offices are very proud of the records they hold and are
keen for researchers to access them.
You can find out more about the work of the record office by following them on social media –
most now have accounts on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. This may help you discover the
range of services they provide.
Record Office websites will often have links to local (family) history groups or talks and events
which you may find useful.
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Appendix Four: How to find a record office
in the UK
The National Archives has a Directory that enables you to Find an Archive Office.
This has options for you to browse or search by location. For example if you choose North East,
and then Teeside you will be able to browse the record offices in that location.
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It allows you to search by organisation name. If an organisation maintains its own archive it will
be listed here.
For example, type ‘Unilever’ into the search box.
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Some organisations, like Uniliver, hold a surprising number of records related to nursing, either
because they employed (factory) nurses or because they made products for nurses who
appeared in promotional material.
However most archives that survive will be held in local record offices, so it’s best to start your
research there, before delving into more specialist archives.
