General Nursing Council for England and Wales: Registrar: Correspondence and Papers,...

Correspondence with members of the General Nursing Council for England and Wales and its statutory committees, plus collections of the papers of Sir Joseph Priestley and Dame Ellen Musson, chairman of the council in 1920-1921 and 1926-1943 respectively.

The pre-war files contain much original material on the establishment and development of the council and its committees' work, including reports on visits to examination centres.

Sir Joseph Priestley's papers concern the drafting of the constitution, rules and regulations of the council, reciprocal registration with Scotland and Ireland, and relations with other bodies such as the Ministry of Health and the Royal Medico-Psychological Association.

Dame Ellen Musson's papers relate to her membership of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Nursing Services (1937-1939) and the Central Emergency Committee for the Nursing Profession (1939). Two similar sets of papers returned with these, relating to the Royal College of Nursing and to the International Council of Nurses, were sent on to those bodies.

An index of current members was started for the 1960 Council and continued to the 1980 Council (DT 20/337). A complete list of members 1920-1983 is in DT 20/339)

Alphabetical

The files of thirty members appointed before 1970 whose surnames began with A or B were destroyed, probably in the mid-1970's. Some information was transferred to index cards in DT 20/38. The staff files of a few General Nursing Council (GNC) members who were formerly, or later became GNC staff are in DT 39

Topics

Nursing

Ireland

Disasters and emergencies

The composition of the General Nursing Council and its statutory committees was established by the Nurses Registration Act 1919, amended by the various Nurses Acts of 1943, 1949 and 1969 and abolished by the Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors Act 1979.