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St George's Nursing Collection

  • 406 NU
  • Collection
  • c.1830-2015

Collection charting the development of nursing education at St George's and related institutions from the 19th century to the present day.

The collection includes:

  • Student registers, training and examination records, prospectuses and syllabuses
  • Administrative records, including committee minutes, reports, rules and regulations
  • Publications and printed material including books, newsletters and journals
  • Papers, photographs and artefacts from St George’s Nurses’ League
  • Personal papers, memoirs and memorabilia from individual nurses, including papers of matron Dame Muriel Powell (c.1910s-­1970s)
  • Photographs, including student photographs, group photographs and personal photo albums
  • Artefacts and objects, including items of nurses' uniform, badges, medals, and medical instruments
  • ‘Nurses’ Voices’ oral history project: interviews with over 100 former St George’s nurses and midwives (and related documentation), recorded 2003-2008

From in-­job training at the hospital, nursing education was gradually formalised during the latter half of the 19th century. From 1882 onwards, probationer nurses were offered lectures by the medical school and hospital staff; these lectures developed into a more formal syllabus, becoming compulsory for probationers in the 1890s, and the first formal examinations were introduced in 1894. The archive charts the development of nursing education from the late 19th century to the 21st century, including important changes in the demographics of the nursing staff, such as the arrival of the Windrush generation.

The collection encompasses training of nurses at St George’s and related institutions: for instance, nursing training at Victoria Hospital for Children and Grove Hospital were merged with St George’s School of Nursing in the 1950s, leading to the establishment of a branch of the School of Nursing at Tooting, where St George’s Hospital and Medical School (later university) moved in the 1970s from Hyde Park Corner, central London.

St George's Hospital Medical School, London

Post Mortem Examinations and Case Books

  • 406 PM
  • Collection
  • 1840-1946

The post mortem records contain manuscript case notes, with medical notes both pre and post mortem. These include details on patients’ admission to the hospital, treatments and medication administered to patients and the medical history of patients; the medical histories were copied into the volumes from hospital registers, which are no longer extant. The post mortem cases include detailed pathological findings made during the detailed examination of the body after death. From the 1880s onwards the case books contain original anatomical drawings and photographs.

For more information and updates about the project, see our project page

The following information is recorded for each case. The information is transcribed from the case notes and/or the relevant index and, where relevant, additionally standardised using MeSH (Medical Subject Headings)

• Name of the patient. If a name is not entered in the volume, it is noted in the catalogue as ‘[No name stated]’

• Gender of the patient (female / male / unknown)

• Age of the patient. Usually in numbers, following the original, with the following exceptions: 4/12 = 4 months, 4/52 = 4 weeks, 4/365 = 4 days. If no age is entered, it is noted in the catalogue as ‘[No age stated]’

• Occupation of the patient. Where no occupation is entered, it is noted in the catalogue as ‘[No occupation stated]’. Children are often designated according to their father’s or mother’s occupation and women by their husband’s occupation (e.g. ‘F / Horsekeeper’, ‘M. Charwoman’, ‘Hd Grocer’); these have been rendered in the catalogue as ‘[Child of] Horsekeeper’, ‘[Wife of] Grocer’

• Date of admission and date of death

• The names of the doctors treating or examining the patient. ‘Admitted under the care of’ denotes the senior doctor in charge of the case (usually entered at the top of the page and in the index); ‘Post mortem performed by’ denotes the doctor responsible for the post mortem examination (usually signed at the bottom of the page) and ‘Medical examination performed by’ denotes the doctor responsible for the medical examination prior to death (usually signed at the bottom of the page). The earliest records usually contain only one name, and some of the later ones may contain multiple names in each category. An authority record (name access point) with basic biographical details has been created for each doctor mentioned in the records; these can be used to explore all the cases related to a particular individual

• Disease(s) or cause of death of the patient. Transcribed from the medical case and/or the index and standardised, e.g. ‘Disease (transcribed): Phthisis. Fractured base. Disease (standardised): Tuberculosis (lungs). Fracture (skull)’

• Medical and post mortem notes. Brief summary description or transcription of the case notes relating to previous medical history (not a full transcription of the case notes)

• Note on whether the case includes illustrations or photographs; these can also be browsed via genre access points

• Note on whether the death was caused by trauma, accident or suicide

• Subject access points, using standardised terms from MeSH, with disease type (e.g. respiratory tract diseases, cardiovascular diseases) and anatomy type (e.g. cardiovascular system, musculoskeletal system), which can be used for browsing all relevant cases

Note on transcriptions and abbreviations

Names have been silently expanded, e.g. Jas = James, Wm = William

Some common abbreviations and acronyms

AMCH = Atkinson Morley Convalescent Hospital, Wimbledon
BID = Brought in dead
COA = Condition on admission
F = Father
H or Hd = Husband
HP = House physician
HS = House surgeon
IP = In-patient
L = Left
M = Mother
MR or Med reg or Med r = Medical register or Medical registrar
MS = Museum specimen
OP = Out-patient
OPD = Out-patient department
OR = Obstetric register
PMH = Previous medical history
PH = Previous history
Pt or Pat = Patient
PM = Post mortem
R = Right
RF = Rheumatic fever
Ry = Railway
SR or Surg reg = Surgical register or Surgical registrar
TB = Tuberculosis
VD = Venereal disease

St George's Hospital, London

Kate Whitehead, 23, [Wife of] Labourer

Occupation or role: [Wife of] Labourer
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Date of admission: 21 Dec 1886
Date of death: 9 Jan 1887
Disease (transcribed): Endocarditis. Cerebral softening. Embolism of spleen
Disease (standardised): Endocarditis (Heart); Softening (Brain); Embolism (Spleen)
Admitted under the care of: Cavafy, John
Medical examination performed by: Griffiths, Herbert Tyrrell
Post mortem examination performed by: Sisley, Richard
Medical notes: 'The patient had acute rheumatism in '82, none since. She had had frontal headache for 4

Luther Baker, 27, Commissionaire

Occupation or role: Commissionaire
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Date of admission: 13 Sep 1887
Date of death: 22 Feb 1888
Disease (transcribed): Sarcoma occupying the whole of the left half of the chest and bulging over two inches beyond the median line
Disease (standardised): Sarcoma (Chest)
Admitted under the care of: Rouse, James
Medical examination performed by: Penrose, Francis George
Post mortem examination performed by: Bull, William C.
Medical notes: 'An old soldier: no history of heritable disease. In 1882 he had a chancre which was followed by constitutional syphilis for which he was treated in Army with mercury. In 1884 he got a wound in the palm of the right hand: this healed at once […] In August 1885, the right forearm was amputated in Belfast Military Hospital’
Body parts examined in the post mortem: Body parts examined: Abdomen, heart, lungs, pericardium, heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, testicles
Illustrations or photographs: Yes (see PM/1888/68)
Type of incident: n/a

William Egleton, 62, Labourer

Occupation or role: Labourer
Age: 62
Gender: Male
Date of admission: 31 Dec 1887
Date of death: 13 Feb 1888
Disease (transcribed): Bronchitis
Disease (standardised): Bronchitis (Lungs)
Admitted under the care of: Rouse, James
Medical examination performed by: n/a
Post mortem examination performed by: n/a
Medical notes: n/a
Body parts examined in the post mortem: 'Not examined’
Illustrations or photographs: Yes (relating to case PM/1888/76)
Type of incident: n/a

Albert Brown, 5, [No occupation stated]

Occupation or role: [No occupation stated]
Age: 5
Gender: Male
Date of admission: 14 Mar 1890
Date of death: 2 Mar 1890
Disease (transcribed): Potts disease
Disease (standardised): Tuberculosis, spinal (Spine)
Admitted under the care of: Rouse, James
Medical examination performed by: n/a
Post mortem examination performed by: n/a
Medical notes: See Surgical notes
Body parts examined in the post mortem: No post mortem examination
Illustrations: Yes
Type of incident: n/a

Jane Brown, 24, [No occupation stated]

Occupation or role: [No occupation stated]
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Date of admission: 4 Apr 1890
Date of death: 9 Apr 1890
Disease (transcribed): Otitis media. Cerebellar abscess. Thrombosis of lateral sinus
Disease (standardised): Otitis media (Ear); Abscess (Brain); Thrombosis (Transverse sinuses)
Admitted under the care of: Cavafy, John
Medical examination performed by: Sisley, Richard
Post mortem examination performed by: Rolleston, Humphry Davy
Medical notes: Twelve years before her admission the patient said she had a tumour behind her right jaw. This was removed. For twelve years the woman had deafness of her right ear. Six months before her admission she began to have an offensive discharge from her right ear.
Body parts examined in the post mortem: Brain, larynx, oesophagus, thyroid, lungs, heart, peritoneum, spleen, pancreas, kidneys, bladder, uterus and ovaries
Illustrations: Yes
Type of incident: n/a

George Hayward, 32, Greengrocer's assistant

Occupation or role: Greengrocer's assistant
Gender: Male
Age: 32
Date of admission: 27 Apr 1899
Date of death: 7 Jul 1899
Disease (transcribed): Recklinghausen's disease complicated with a sarcomatous growth involving the brachial plexus
Disease (standardised): Neurofibromatosis 1 (Nervous system); Sarcoma (Brachial plexus);
Admitted under the care of: Rolleston, Humphry Davy, Turner, George Robertson
Medical examination performed by: n/a
Post mortem examination performed by: Lazarus-Barlow, Walter Sydney
Medical notes: 'A man, aged 32 years, had had all his life a mass of molluscum fibrosum covering the back of the left side of the head and neck and upper part of the left front of the chest and left shoulder. This growth had not increased in size except in so far as it had developed equally with the rest of the patient's body. The skin of the body was generally brownish, but scattered all over the trunk, limbs, head, and neck there were areas where the pigmentation was concentrated either into patches of considerable size, as large as a shilling or in a few instances larger, or in small discrete patches resembling freckles'
Body parts examined in the post mortem: External examination, lungs, pleurae, heart, great vessels, great systemic vessels, larynx, trachea, abdominal organs
Illustrations: Yes
Type of incident: n/a

St George's Hospital

Photographs apparently taken at St George's Hospital/School of Nursing or other sites relating to it.

Many of the images have been assigned 'PH' reference numbers, which relate to an older catalogue listing; some also have labels stating 'Chapter' and 'Fig.' numbers, indicating that they were to be used in some written work [not identified – possibly never completed?] about the history of nursing at St George's.

Hospital buildings and work scenes

Black and white (and a few colour) photographs of hospital/nursing school buildings and wards at Hyde Park Corner and Tooting (and possibly other sites?), including scenes of nurses at work or taking breaks. Includes shots of the St George's chapel, the School of Nursing entrance and library, Clare House nurses' home, hospital equipment, operating theatres, classrooms, pathology labs, etc.

Most of these photographs date from the mid-twentieth century, but one is a copy of an image from 1898, and two are printed on postcards from the 1900s (one with writing on the reverse). Note that it is possible that some images of other hospitals have been mixed in with the St George's ones.

S. Jones photo album

Blue album (with a gold 'Photographs' stamp on the cover) containing square-format black and white photographs of nurses, wards and buildings at Hyde Park Corner, including multiple pictures of an 'S. Jones' (apparently short for Sister Jones; other names have an 'N.' prefix for 'Nurse'). Captions have been added, possibly at a later date: the first photograph is dated 1903, but the album has a faint inscription (written by/to an 'Alastair') seemingly dated 1919.

Also includes a set of reproductions of the photographs (larger than the originals, but cropped to a rectangular format) made by Gordon Catford (c.1980s-1990s?).

Group photographs

Black and white and colour photographs of groups of student/pupil nurses and staff at St James' Hospital (excluding those taken at prizegivings, for which see NU/6/2/5/4), including photographs featuring cast members of the BBC nursing soap opera 'Angels', which was filmed at the hospital. Also includes an early sepia image (c. 1910s-1920s?) which is not explicitly labelled as St James', but was stored with the rest of this material.

Note that more St James' group photographs can be found in the albums NU/6/1/1/4-6.

Miscellaneous/unidentified

Miscellaneous photographs without labels explicitly connecting them to particular hospitals.

Note, however, that many of these images presumably relate to St George's or other hospitals absorbed into it.

Student and staff nurse group photographs

Black and white group photographs of student and staff nurses, many featuring matron Muriel Powell. Some are annotated with names or accompanied with a typed list. Includes at least one photograph of nurses from Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton who were based for part of their training at St George's. Also includes two older water-damaged photographs of student and staff nurses (c.1910s-1920s) mounted on oversize boards, which can be identified as St George's from the list of names written on the reverse of one of them (which includes future matron Helen Hanks).

Early nursing photographs

Early black and white photographs (i.e. 19th-early 20th century – mostly reproductions) of groups of nurses and hospital wards, including four images mounted on board and an oversize poster reproducing a series of photographs taken in America entitled 'What It Means to Be a Trained Nurse' (originally published in the Ladies' Home Journal, 1898 – also includes second sheet with accompanying article text).

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