IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 A/NFC
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: NIGHTINGALE FUND COUNCIL
Date(s): 1832-1977
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 3.36 linear metres
Name of creator(s): Nightingale Fund Council
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
On Nov. 9th, 1855 a public meeting was held in Willis's Rooms, King Street, St James to inaugurate a public subscription in gratitude for Florence Nightingale's work in the Crimean War. £44,000 was raised, the Nightingale Fund Council was set up to administer this fund, and on March 13th 1860, A. H. Clough wrote on behalf of the Nightingale Fund Council to the President, Treasurer and Governors of Saint Thomas' Hospital about the possibility of founding a training school for nurses at the hospital. This was Florence Nightingale's idea as to how the fund could best be used.
The first fifteen Probationers arrived on July 9th 1860. They were paid a salary of £10 during the one year's course, with board and lodging provided. At the end of the year, if they were approved, they were entered on the Register of Certified Nurses, and employment was found for them. If they stayed in employment for a complete year after their training they could earn gratuities of £3 and £5. Instruction during the course was mainly practical, with the Probationers working in the hospital wards under close supervision. Considerable emphasis was placed on high moral character. From 1867 there were two classes of entry to the school: 1) Ordinary Probationers, who entered on the basis of a small salary and free board, as above and 2) Lady Probationers or Special probationers. These were trained specially for posts as Superintendents and Matrons of other institutions on completion of their training. They paid a sum of £30 for the year's tuition, and board and lodging.
One of the particular features of the Nightingale Training School was that nurses were trained not merely for Saint Thomas' Hospital, but with the clear intention that they be sent out in groups to other institutions to undertake nursing reform. The school had only been open two years when the first group went to Liverpool Royal Infirmary, and subsequent groups went as far as Canada and Australia, as well as to many British hospitals.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of the Nightingale Fund Council, including deeds of trust; minutes; correspondence; annual reports; papers relating to St Thomas's Hospital; regulations; financial accounts; fundraising accounts; agreements; registers, prospectuses and syllabi of the Nightingale Training School; papers relating to the registration of nurses and nursing in general.
Also papers of the City Auxiliary Committee of the Nightingale Fund, comprising minutes, correspondence and accounts; and papers of Albert Venn Dicey (a jurist and Professor of Law at Oxford).
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
A/NFC-1: Administration;
A/NFC-2: Finance;
A/NFC-3: Nightingale Training School;
A/NFC-4: Staff;
A/NFC-5: Related Documentation;
A/NFC-6: City Auxiliary Committee;
A/NFC-7: General.
Conditions governing access:
These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information may be subject to access restrictions.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright to these records rests with the depositor.
Physical characteristics:
Fit
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Records deposited in three accessions, in 1968, 1970 and 1975.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
See also H01/ST/NTS (Nightingale Training School).
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: June to August 2010.