COUNCIL FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE HIGHER TRAINING OF MIDWIVES

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: H14/BMB/CTM
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: COUNCIL FOR THE PROMOTION OF THE HIGHER TRAINING OF MIDWIVES
Date(s)	: 1903-1941
Level of description	: subfonds View parent record
Extent	: 0.01 linear metres
Name of creator(s)	: Council for the Promotion of the Higher Training of Midwives

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Council for the Promotion of the Higher Training of Midwives was formed in February 1904 after a series of preliminary meetings in 1903. Its object was to found a national training school for district midwives. Rather than amalgamating with an existing hospital, it was decided to open a new maternity hospital in Woolwich, at this time a part of London with an expanding population and very little hospital provision. The Home for Mothers and Babies was opened in Wood Street, Woolwich on 11 May 1905. The Council appointed an Executive Committee to manage the hospital. All matters of outside policy respecting growth of the hospital or those in any way arising from its work as a National Training School for District Midwives were to be reserved for the Council.

When the British Lying-In Hospital amalgamated with the Home for Mothers and Babies, the Charity Commission Scheme of 29 January 1915 established a new constitution for the hospital. This laid down that six out of the fourteen members of the Managing Committee were to be appointed by the Council for the Promotion of the Higher Training of Midwives on condition that the Council provided the hospital with not less than £400 a year. Miss Gregory described the special mission of the six Council members on the Committee as being:- "(a) to safeguard the higher training of midwives, zealously opposing any lowering of the standard, (b) to demand that the training school was used primarily for those intending to work among the poor rather than the rich - even if higher fees were obtainable from the latter and (c) to resist any effort that might be made in the future to admit medical students as pupils since the training of midwife pupils would infallibly suffer in consequence".

In 1938 the Council decided to terminate its existence. It had failed to raise £400 for the hospital for the last nine years and it felt that its aims and objects were identical with those of the hospital.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Council for the Promotion of the Higher Training of Midwives, comprising council minutes, 1903-1938 and cash books, 1916-1941.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

In sections according to catalogue.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright: Depositor.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

ACC/2004

Allied Materials

Related material:

H14/BLI - British Lying-In Hospital and H14/BMB - British Hospital for Mothers and Babies.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
February 2009