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Thanks Josey.  I think midwifer was a stretch! No pun intended.

I've now got this far:

Florence Jane Rattey born 1873 Q1 City of London mother’s maiden name Barrrow.
Married Q3 1910 to Frederick C Thomas.
In 1911 census as visitors – he’s a surveyor for London County Council, 32, born in Exeter; she is 38, has no occupation listed.  Noted as married for under a year.

Parents: Mary Florence Barrow b. 1847 (died 1882 at age of 35) married William George Rattey b 1850 Scotland, in City of London, Q3 1870.   Actual date 21 Aug 1870

Other children:
RATTEY, JOHN  ARTHUR     BARROW 
GRO Reference: 1879  S Quarter in LONDON CITY  Volume 01C  Page 36
      
RATTEY, MARY  ELIZABETH     BARROW 
GRO Reference: 1877  J Quarter in LONDON CITY  Volume 01C  Page 40

There  is a William George Rattey marrying in West Ham to Clara Messenger 5 Jan 1886

Well I've found a Florence Ratley born in Q1 1867 (GRO Reference: 1867  M Quarter in LONDON CITY  Volume 01C  Page 64) with mother's maiden name of Johns, and then found a Florence Ratley, daughter of William and Annie, baptised in Kennington, became a pattern card maker, who appears in a number of census entries, incl 1901, with birthplace of Coleman St, London.  Then I found a William Ratley who married Ann Johns in 1864, registered in City of London.  So this Florence is not Nurse Ratley.

I can't find the Florence J Ratley that Oldohiohome found in the 1891 census, nor in the 1911.  I've found a Florence Ratley marrying in 1902, but not sure which Florence it is.

Then I checked the 1901 census for nurse Florence and her name was written and transcribed as Rattey.  There is a birth record for a Florence Jane Rattey 1873 City of London, so this could be her.

So it seems the workhouse officer's handwriting was a bit careless.

Before I posted my query about the abbreviation, I had found another Ratley who might have been a candidate. This is in the 1901 census, Battersea (nearer to Soho than Streatham), but her first name is hard to read.  Definitely not Florence.  And I thought her occ could be midwife but she seemed rather young, 19.  However looking up midwives on FindMyPast census searches, this was not an unusual age for this occupation.

I've attached the snippet, but I think it was wishful thinking about midwife, as looking at it now, it could be milliner?  No idea what the first name is, other than beginning with 'n'.

Oldohiohome: Thanks, that could well be her - I do find Ancestry etc frustrating as others find people I can't!  I'm not that knowledgeable about London districts either so have to resort to a map.  No idea how far someone would travel then to offer midwifery.  The mother lived in Hanway St in the Soho area, and Wandsworth seems quite a way but I'll look up the census record for the address - it might be nearer than I think.  Also of course, Nurse Ratley might have moved nearer after the census was taken.

Gadget: I doubt it's a comma as there are very few if any in the whole document for this family.  You can see there's one missing where I would use one in the sentence I clipped.  Before the word uncle.

Thanks Gadget, I also thought it a superscript, but nowadays we would just shorten Florence to Flo.  Perhaps the 'r' is to indicate her true name is Florence rather than Flo?

Hello

I am trying to decide if the abbreviation is meant to be the first name of Nurse Ratley in the following snippet (from the St Pancras Board of Guardians' Record of Children in 1901/2).  I can't think what else it could be.

The writer didn't go in for punctuation much! Or clear handwriting at all.

It says: 'Since 1 Dec 1901 these children (3) have been under the care of Nurse _ Ratley Uncle Mr Norman Smith having made arrangements to pay for support in the hope that mother would within 3 mos recover.'

Above the line between Nurse and Ratley there is what looks like an abbreviation for her first name. It could be Flo?  There is another squiggle that might be a comma for the line above, but the writer tended to put dots or dashes rather than commas.  So does the squiggle indicate the end of the name eg Florence shortened to Flo'c?

I'm trying to find her in the 1901 and 1911 census but a first name would help.  Also no idea if she was a 'proper' nurse and/or midwife as if she was, I could perhaps find her in nursing registers.

Hope someone can help.

Thanks.
Val