Celebrating Black History Month 2023 with the Bethlem and Maudsley Nursing School archives
Black History Month is an occasion to recognise and celebrate the invaluable contributions of Black people in our organisation, and throughout society. The aim is to encourage people of all backgrounds to explore the past and present of Black history and work together toward a more inclusive and equitable future. The theme for Black History Month 2023 is ‘saluting our sisters’ in recognition of the crucial role that Black women have played in shaping history, inspiring change, and building communities.
This October, David Luck, archivist at the Bethlem Museum of the Mind, has written about a few of his favourite images from the Bethlem and Maudsley Nursing School archives to celebrate the impact of Black women in the early years of our Trust.
For Black History Month, we are showcasing one of our favourite items in the archives, which is a box of photographs that came to the archives from the old Joint Hospital Nursing School.
We believe that most of the two hundred or so photographs in HPC-039 were taken from the late 1940s up to the late 1960s, but they seem to have come to us with very little context. They certainly seem to have come from several different sources - some seem to be hastily posed group photographs snapped by friends while some are certainly press photographs taken by professionals, either for publications or to mark special events.
All the photographs show a diverse range of people across the two hospital sites, and we think shows the commitment to training healthcare professionals from all walks of life that the Joint Hospital had after the Second World War. We know that both the Maudsley and Bethlem benefited greatly in recruiting from the Windrush generation.
One of our favourite items relating to the Windrush Generation is the ‘Profile’ in the Bethlem and Maudsley Gazette of Sister Josephine St John, which appeared in the Autumn edition in 1967 (we’ve previously written at length about it here). Josephine came to the United Kingdom in 1958 from Trinidad and had enlisted in the Queen Alexander’s Royal Army Nursing Corps. After travelling the world and spending significant time in Singapore and Malaysia (referred to as ‘Malaya’ in the profile) she joined the Joint Hospital in 1963.
Josephine seems to have been an accomplished and impressive nurse, as she quickly became first Deputy Sister and then Sister at Fitzmary 1 at Bethlem in 1964 and 1965 respectively - which meant she was the first Commonwealth Sister in the Joint Hospital. She also went on to represent the Hospital at the Royal Garden Party in 1966 ‘an occasion she remembers with great pleasure and pride’, and the profile notes her enjoyment of ballet and her keen interest in travelling around Europe.
Josephine seems to have been one of many members of staff who came to work from the Caribbean in the 1950s and 1960s who feature in these archive images from the School of Nursing.
The vast majority of these photographs come from the nursing school, which was an important presence across both sites. Although our photographs do feature Bethlem, many of them seem to have Brakspeare House, the large Victorian townhouse located on the Maudsley site which operated as the school’s headquarters, looming in the background.
If anyone is able to help share stories or identify some of the other faces here do please get in touch at david.luck@motm.org.uk.
These are some of my favourites, but there are many more. If anyone wants to see the whole set do please come back to me.
David Luck, Archivist, Bethlem Museum of the Mind
