Nation's Fund for Nurses

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0120 SA/NFN
Held at	: Wellcome Library   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://wellcomelibrary.org/ ›
Full title	: Nation's Fund for Nurses
Date(s)	: 1915-1988
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 12 boxes and 1 outsize box
Name of creator(s)	: Nation's Fund for Nurses British Women's Hospital Committee Edith Cavell Homes of Rest for Nurses Archer House Home Council for the Provision of Rest Breaks Houses for Nurses and Midwives Fund for the Benefit of East Lancashire Nurses Queen Alexandra Relief Fund for War Nurses
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The British Women's Hospital Committee was formed by members of the Actresses' Franchise League in 1915. Its aim was fund-raising for Allied servicemen injured and disabled during the First World War. The money raised was used to build and partially endow the Star and Garter Homes for totally disabled men and to fund the Scottish Women's Hospitals. The Committee helped establish the Nation's Fund for Nurses (NFN) in 1917 and the Fund provided an endowment for the newly founded College of Nursing and a 'Tribute Fund' for the relief of individual nurses during sickness and disablement. A separate 'Nation's Tribute to Nurses in Ireland' (Irish Branch of the NFN) was established in 1918. Annie, Viscountess Cowdray, NFN Treasurer and Chairman of the Tribute Fund Committee, presented and furnished a Nurses' Club for the College of Nursing; the Cowdray Club closed in the 1980s. A home of rest at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight, presented to the College of Nursing by Sir John and Lady Martin Harvey and the NFN Committee, was officially opened in 1920. The administration of the Edith Cavell Homes of Rest for Nurses was handed over to the NFN in 1922. The NFN assumed the administration of the Queen Alexandra Relief Fund for War Nurses in 1922 and the Church of England Nurses' Guild in 1923. A Charity Commissioners' scheme established a Board of Management for the NFN, the Tribute Fund, the Queen Alexandra Relief Fund and the Church of England Nurses Guild, in 1930. The Tribute Fund Committee was then renamed the Relief Committee. The College of Nursing appointed a Nurses Appeal Committee to appeal for funds for the NFN through its journal, The Nursing Times, in 1931. The appeal was renamed 'The Royal College of Nursing Appeal for the Nation's Fund for Nurses', in 1955. The NFN took over administration of the Rest Breaks Fund for Nurses and Midwives and Snow's Charity for Female Nurses, in 1959, and of the Archer Convalescent Fund for Nurses in 1967. The NFN was administered by the Queen's Nursing Institute from 1980 to 1995.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of the Nation's Fund for Nurses, 1915-1988, comprising records of the British Women's Hospital Committee, 1915-1920; records of the Nation's Fund for Nurses, 1915-1988, including information on the dispute by Mrs Bedford Fenwick's Royal British Nurses' Association about the College of Nursing, details of the grants distributed by the Tribute Fund, records relating to Miss May Beeman, and records of the rest home at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight; records of the Edith Cavell Homes of Rest for Nurses, 1916-1984; records of the Archer House Home, 1919-1966; records of the Council for the Provision of Rest Breaks Houses for Nurses and Midwives, 1944-1958; records of the Fund for the Benefit of East Lancashire Nurses, 1918-1953; records of the Queen Alexandra Relief Fund for War Nurses, 1922-1979; records of the Elderly Nurses' Fund (Nursing Mirror Nurses and Midwives Fund), 1925-1979; and memorabilia relating to Annie, Viscountess Cowdray.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

As outlined in Scope and Content.

Conditions governing access:

Certain restrictions apply. The bulk of the papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking. Please note that access to several files (B.5, B.6 and B.23) is restricted for periods up to 2077. Readers wishing for access to such material may submit a formal application form to Archives and Manuscript staff: attention is particularly drawn to the rule that readers shall not publish or communicate to any other person the names or other particulars of individuals named in records which contain information of a private or sensitive nature.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Finding aids:

The catalogue of this collection is not yet available in electronic format. Please see the hard-copy catalogue in the Wellcome Library. Copies of the catalogue are available on request.

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Papers of the NFN entered the Wellcome Library in 1991 as part of the archive of the Queen's Nursing Institute (SA/QNI). More records were transferred to the Wellcome Library in 1997. Papers were received from the estate of Miss Margaret E McClean, a member of the NFN's Council from 1948-1988, following her death in 1998. Also at this time correspondence files were received from Thomas Whipham, Chairman of the Council from 1981-1998.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Papers of the Queen's Nursing Institute which administered the NFN, 1980-1995, are held as SA/QNI.

The archives of the Royal College of Nursing contain correspondence on the setting up of the College of Nursing and related fund raising projects. Records of The Cowdray Club were given to the Greater London Record Office (now the London Metropolitan Archives) in the 1980s.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Anya Turner.

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:
June 2008