Nursing homes etc

[moiramount]

A friend has a photo of her Nanna, Katherine Gillespie taken in 1939, she is in a nurses uniform holding a baby that looks to be around 7 months old. On the back of the photo it just says "Cooke's" 1939. She would love to find out where this was taken. I have searched the 1939 register and there was only one lady in Ealing born 1896. Was wondering if there were any homes or hospitals with the name of Cooke's. Any info would be welcome.

Moira

[Chris Doran]

I can't se anything that looks like it could be called Cooke's in the 1939 London Classified Phone Directory ("yellow pages"). I tried the sections on Hospitals (which includes Maternity Homes), Nurses, Nursing Homes, and just Homes. There are 4 Cookes under Physicians & Surgeons, in Hendon, Putney, Richmond, and Upper Norwood if those places mean anything. "Cooke's" could, of course, be a colloquialism, like "Bart's". Nothing obvious in the Royal College of Nursing archive, and no Katherine Gillespie in its list of nurses on Ancestry, or on a Scottish list, though she would not necessarily have needed to register with them.

As you probably saw, the Katherine Gillespie in the 1939 Register wasn't a nurse by profession. Have you managed to find her as a nurse elsewhere? Is there a photographer's name on the photo, which might point to somewhere outside London? Can you post the photo, in case there's something distinctive in the uniform which would identify the hospital?

[moiramount]

Thanks. How do I put an image on here from my phone.

[moiramount]

Here's the one with the baby

[ShaunJ]

Possibly she was a private nurse working for a Cooke family.

Do you know her date of birth?

[moiramount]

No waiting to hear from my friend in Canada

[moiramount]

Ok, we have a completely different name. The lady was Catherine Millar born 1915 in South East Hampshire. Married name Riley, she died 2006. I have found her death on Ancestry which confirms the above but haven't found anything else yet.

[Jool]

Birth - Catherine M Gillespie, Q2 1915, Garstang, Lancs, mmn Millar. 8e 1166.
Marriage - Catherine M Gillespie to Donald B Riley, Q2 1943, Camberwell, London, 1d 1020.
Death - Catherine Millar Riley, Sep 2006, Hampshire, dob given as 11 May 1915.

Therefore, in 1939 she would still have been Catherine M Gillespie.

[moiramount]

Thankyou so much Jool