Contacting Hospital about Staff Records ( The National Hospital, East Finchley)

[Rachael89]

H everyone,

My great-grandmother was a nurse at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery around 1915, and I am very eager to discover any records relating to her time there. I did contact the Metropolitan Archives as I was told they had some material relating to the hospital, but they have told me to contact the hospital directly. I was wondering if anyone had tried contacting any large institutions such as this before, and if so what the response was like? Obviously hospitals such as this aren't true archives as such, so I'm slightly intimidated by the prospect of contacting them about as obscure a subject as staff records from the 1910s!

Any advice/experiences would be greatly appreciated!

[Valda]

Hi

This is the information The National Archives hospital database gives about the hospital's records

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=2674&hospital=neurology&town=&searchdatabase.x=98&searchdatabase.y=9


Some records are held by University College London Hospital which has an archivist (some hospitals have archivists most do not)

'We have some patient records for the National Hospital and limited administrative records for the National Hospital and the Maida Vale Hospital.'


http://www.uclh.nhs.uk/About+UCLH/History+and+archives/Archives.htm


The state of the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery records as described in the survey in the 1980s mentioned in The National Archives database doesn't sound promising.

'Survey by CMAC in early 80s. Material in diverse locations within hospital (latest info on case volumes, formerly in consulting room, is that these were outhoused) Admin records in charge of Secretary (?but held in bank), ephemera, photos, personalia in a cupboard in the Library'


The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery website seems to be singularly uninformative about historical records. They do have a library and a personnel department but there is no indication either have anything to do with historical records

http://www.ion.ucl.ac.uk/people


You might try an enquiry with the archivist at UCLH on how best to proceed. Though even UCHL website states

'The UCLH archives are largely unsorted and uncatalogued, and so this is only a general guide to the scope of the collections. For further information on any of the collections, contact the archivist.'



Not sure about the East Finchley reference. The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery is in Queen's Square Bloomsbury?

 

Regards

Valda

[Rachael89]

Thank-you very much for that information. It is very extensive, and I really appreciate your taking the time to dig all that out for me!

I will definitely try and contact the parties you mention, I won't get my hopes up but there's never any harm in trying!

The East Finchley rerference came about because that is where the hospital was situated in the 1910s. I only know my great-grandmother was working there because I have a postcard that was sent to 'Nurse Moss, National Hospital, East Finchley'!

[Valda]

Hi

The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery has always been in Queens Square Bloomsbury but I have found a reference to

'Finchley
A convalescent home belonging to the National Hospital for Diseases of the Nervous System, Bloomsbury, had opened in East End Road in 1870 and had 16 female patients by 1881. It moved to the Bishop's Avenue in 1895, where it had 36 beds in 1931 and 25 in 1961. A rehabilitation building was opened in 1967'

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22507

According to this article it was the county branch of The National

http://www.the-archer.co.uk/archive/2003/2003Feb06.pdf


I suspect if it is not part of the main hospital building staffing records may be even less likely to have survived but you never know.


Regards

Valda

[Ditch1]

Your could try the RCN   http://www.rcn.org.uk/development/library/archives/factsheets/factsheets-tracingnurses   The date should escape the data protection act!

I once wrote to the archivist at St Barts. about a death of my Great uncle that they had in 1881, I received a very helpful reply with all the information they held. Even the name of the undertakers who took the body. Also pointers as what to do next. Big teaching hospitals like Queen's Square, may well have records, and they would have an archivist department somewhere, maybe not on site.

Mary.

[Valda]

Hi

Not all the big teaching hospitals do have archivists. Barts is a hospital with an awful lot of history founded in 1123. That is somewhat different from The National founded in 1859 in a relatively new field for hospital care and one which had previously and still remained for sometime to come more normally centred around asylums.
Many London hospitals have deposited their records. St Thomas and Guys are good examples

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=128&hospital=st+thomas&town=&searchdatabase.x=92&searchdatabase.y=6

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/details.asp?id=62&hospital=guy&town=&searchdatabase.x=94&searchdatabase.y=10


Well worth checking with The National Archives Hospital database first for the whereabouts of records for particular hospitals

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/


It is pretty obvious from the description of The National's records in the 1980s that they certainly had not employed an archivist up to that point. Where a hospital does have an archivist like Barts, UCLH (The National is part of the UCHL group of hospitals), The Royal London and The Royal Free it is usually pretty clear from their websites and who to contact.


The National Archives website information and links to fact sheets, pretty much covers all there is available on nursing outside of individual hospital's staffing records - where those have survived.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/looking-for-person/patients-doctors-and-nurses.htm?WT.lp=rg-3191


Regards

Valda

[jorose]

The RCN archives also have a very useful database online of nursing journals:
http://rcnarchive.rcn.org.uk/
You may need to just search on surname, Mary Smith may appear as M. Smith, Smith, Mary, Miss Smith, etc.
There are often mentions of appointments (primarily for more senior nurses), even if you can't find something about her you might find some interesting mentions of the place where she was working.

[QSLAM]

Hi,

I am contacting you from the National Hospital Library.  We have recently taken over responsibility for the archives held here at the Hospital, and are in the very early stages of sorting and cataloging them. 

Once the project is complete (which may take some time as the archives are largely untouched, and very extensive) we will be able to be of more specific help, but in the mean time I have seen a lot of personnel records stored loose in boxes of (i.e un-filed, and un-sorted). 

As these are un-explored as yet, I don't know if they relate to Finchley as well as the Hospital at Queen Square, but I suspect they do.  We also have photographs of Finchley which may be of interest. If you are in  a position to pay us a visit you will be welcome to take a look at what we have.   

You can find our contact details at: http://www.ion.ucl.ac.uk/library/historylibrary2.html

Once we are more able to help, details of the archives here will be registered in the usual places, and a web site containing full details of holdings will be made available.

Best wishes,

Louise Shepherd

[dawnsh]

Hi Louise

Welcome to Roostchat 

Thank you so much for contributing to this topic.

You have made a generous offer in allowing people to visit, if they are able to, and look at the records.

I've had a look at your visitor information, would you make any suggestions as to the best day/time to visit.

And should people contact you in advance of their visit so that you can find the relevant boxes of documents they wish to study?

Dawn
(Co-moderator for London & Middlesex)