IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0100 SJH/FP
Held at: King's College London College Archives
Title: St John's Hospital (Lewisham) Student Nurse Records
Date(s): 1955-1969
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 2 volumes
Name of creator(s): St John's Hospital | Lewisham
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Sisterhood of St John the Divine - an Anglican Sisterhood developed in close association with King's College Hospital, London. It was modelled on the Lutheran Order of Deaconesses of Kaiserwerth, Prussia.
In 1883, the Sisterhood obtained a lease of some small houses in Cressingham Rd, Lewisham - the first St John's Hospital, Lewisham. A year later, this building was turned into a district home, and a new hospital was opened at Montague Place, Poplar (finally closed in 1889). Shortly afterwards, this was replaced by the former All Saints' Boys' Orphanage on Morden Hill, Blackheath. Originally named St Stephen's Hospital for Women and Children, this was opened in 1886 as St John's Hospital for Men and Women, and was the location of the Sisters' new training school for nurses.
In 1897 an anonymous donation led to the building of a new ward block, opened in 1900, and the old house became the nurses home. St John's Hospital received a number of grants from 1907 onwards from the King Edward's and Hospital Sunday Funds. In 1911, the Borough of Lewisham contributed £600 for the establishment of a small X-ray Department and a Bacteriological Laboratory. In 1913, the hospital had 46 beds. It was incorporated in 1921 under the Companies Act, and the Sisterhood retained the right to nominate two-sixths of the Governors, and the freehold was also purchased around the same time. In 1923, the hospital expanded to 102 beds. Due to a lack of recruits from the Sisterhood, it formed its own nurse training school. On 21 Dec 1923, the Community of St John the Divine resigned all their rights and duties in the hospital, however the traditional uniform and badge continued to be worn until the introduction of the NHS in 1948. Student nurses appear to have served in the wards of Hither Green Hospital as well as St John's during their training. St John's Hospital closed in 1979.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Registers of St John's Hospital student nurses, 1955-1959, 1967-1969, including personal details, dates of training, ward allocation and examination results.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Chronological
Conditions governing access:
Records containing personal information about living individuals, are subject to the regulations of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Director of Archive and Corporate Record Services.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Detailed catalogue
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Transferred from the Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwivery, 1999/2000.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
King's College London Archives holds student nurse records of: St Thomas's Hospital, [1950-1980] (Ref: GB 0100 KCLCA TH/SN/FP); King's College Hospital School of Nursing, 1885-1998 (Ref: GB 0100 KCLCA KH/NL & K/NI/PR); Dulwich Hospital, 1917-1967 (Ref: GB 0100 KCLCA DH/FP); St Francis Hospital, 1949-1956, (Ref: GB 0100 KCLCA SFH/FP); St Giles Hospital, 1931, 1952-1954 (Ref: GB 0100 KCLCA SGH/FP); and St Saviour's Infirmary, [1890]-1931 (Ref: GB 0100 KCLCA SSH/FP); Lewisham School of Nursing, 1897-1981 (Ref: GB0100 KCLCA LWH/FP); New Cross Hospital, 1954-1965 (Ref: GB 0100 KCLCA NC/FP); Hither Green Hospital 1955-1967 (Ref: GB 0100 KCLCA HGH/FP); Thomas Guy and Lewisham School of Nursing, 1985-1992 (Ref: GB 0100 KCLCA TGL/FP); Nightingale and Guy's College of Nursing, 1991-1993 (Ref: GB 0100 KCLCA NG/FP); Guy's Hospital School of Nursing, 1949-1978 (Ref: GB 0100 KCLCA GHN/FP).
St John's Hospital records are held by Lewisham Borough Local Studies and Archives.
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Archivist's note: Sources: The Story of the Community of the Nursing Sisters of Saint John the Divine, F Cartwright, King's College Hospital, [1968]; Transactions, Lewisham Local History Society, 1972. Compiled by Alison Field
Date(s) of descriptions: June 2004