Look up for WW1 nurses please COMPLETED THANKS

[Coxon]

Hello
I am looking for two nurses who, according to family tradition!! served in WW1.  We also thought they were in the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing.

I have tried to find them myself on two web-sites but with no luck. 

The first nurse is May West b.1876 Oulton, Yorks.  She also served in the Boer War, I have found that.  In 1911 she was a Matron in Morpeth. 

I did find a May West in the Royal Red Cross Register who was in the Army Nursing Service Reserve.  She was an Assistant Matron in Malta and was awarded a medal by the King in 1917 but there isn't enough details to know if this is our May West.  She also isn't in Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service!

The second nurse is Nellie West born in 1880 in Oulton Yrks.  We do know, from family rememberance!, that she went on to become a theatre Sister.  Both ladies lived until the 1950's so we know they didn't die in the war.


If anybody can find out anything  about these two nurses in WW1 I should be very grateful.

Yours in anticipation

Louise

[cath151]

hi,
There appear to be records at National Archives Online for a May and Nellie West in the Army Nursing Records. I thinkmit might be worth looking at the records, downloadable for a small fee (around £3 I think).
Best wishes
Cathy

[Scarletwoman]

As Cathy says, you need to look at the two service files for May and Nellie West - the charge is now £3.36 per file.  It's possible that one or both are not relevant, but a very good chance that they are. You can search and download the files from here:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/army-nurses-service-records.htm

 Although May West is given as 'Army Nursing Service Reserve' in the RRC Register, it follows that she was serving with Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service Reserve.  Most British nurses who served in the Boer War were members of the Army Nursing Service Reserve, and during the peacetime that followed they continued to have their names on the ANSR Register.  On the outbreak of WW1 these women were mobilised with QAIMNS Reserve, but sometimes their status is still given as ANSR - they had a sort of dual attachment and May could not have served in Malta other than with the official military nursing services.  There are medal index cards at TNA for both May and Nellie West as members of QAIMNS Reserve.

The General Nursing Council Register for 1928 shows them both still registered as nurses. 
May West trained as a nurse at Beckett Hospital, Barnsley, 1896-1899
Nellie West trained as a nurse at Royal Albert Edward Infirmary, Wigan, 1899-1902
The permanent home address for both sisters is given as: 3 Wellington Crescent, Worsbro' Dale, Barnsley.

Sue

[Coxon]

Dear Cathy and Sue,

Thank you for letting me know where the service records were for May and Nellie, after looking on two well known sites and not finding anything I was beginning to wonder if there were any records at all.
Louise

Dear Sue,

Thank you for the extra information on where the girls trained.  I am going to be cheeky now, please forgive me.
I am also looking for information on a Rhoda E.  Harper who was also a nurse, but not in the Boer or First War.  I am asking as you mentioned the 1928 General Nursing Council Register and while this would be too late for Rhoda I wondered if you had/or knew of any earlier ones.
Rhoda E. Harper was born in1865 in Cawood, Yrks.  She was not a nurse in 1881 but she was a nurse in1891 but I don't know where as she was visiting in Tottenham.  In 1901 she was a nurse living in Headingley, Leeds and in 1911 she was living in  a nurses home at 9 Lovell Street, Leeds and describes herself as a sick nurse for the poor.  She died at The Victoria Home, Kirkstall-lane, Headingley, Leeds a Spinster in 1936.  An older relative thinks she was a Queen's nurse as the relative had a similar uniform to the one Rhoda is wearing in the photograph she has.

I hope you are able to help, if not thanks for your help on May and Nellie.
Louise

[Scarletwoman]

Hello again Louise

This is a difficult problem.  There was no registration of nurses until after the Nurses' Registration Act of 1919, and the first printed registers appeared in 1921, although many nurses didn't actually register until a year or two after that date.  To be accepted by the General Nursing Council for registration you had to jump through a number of hoops, but on the whole a woman needed a full three-year training in an approved hospital.  There were other ways around this though, which depended on getting references from doctors and matrons to say you were suitable, but there were many nurses who could not register for one reason or another.  There is a full run of GNC Registers (England and Wales) at The National Archives, Kew, and it is possible that Rhoda Harper might appear in an earlier edition, but if she was never registered, or gave up nursing prior to 1921, then she won't appear.  Unfortunately, before 1922 census returns are often the only source that give any information at all.

Regards   ---   Sue

[Coxon]

Thank you for answering Sue,

Rhoda would be 56 in 1921 so it could be she never did register, but I will go, sometime in the future, and have a look at the early GNC Registers just to make sure.

Thanks once again for your help,
Louise

[macintosh]

I appreciate the thread is complete but an interesting book on the subject is available, The Roses of No man's Land by Lyn MacDonald ISBN 0-14-017866-X


James

[Coxon]

Thanks for that James,

I have written the name and ISBN no. down.  I shall enjoy reading that.  I love looking at the types of lives people lead and not just writing down a list of names.  I know nothing of nurses during the wars - everything seems to concentrate on the men and I know that the sister of May and Nellie West died in Pretoria during the Boer War.

Louise

[boerwarnurses]

Is this Sister Mary Jemima West died October 20th 1900? I have this lady on my Boer War nurses database at www.boerwarnurses.com

cheers
Keiron