Hospital Archivist's Records

The records transferred to the Greater London Council in 1967 and 1968 included administrative records of St Thomas' Hospital up to 1948, patients' registers (but not case books or case notes) up to 1948, and other records formerly in the care of the Archivist.

The archives of the Nightingale School, correspondence, papers, prints and photographs from the Nightingale Collection, and the records of Lambeth Hospital (transferred to the St Thomas' Hospital Group in 1964) were also deposited at this time. Most of the contents of the Hospital Archivist's Office were also transferred to the Greater London Record Office, including the Archivist's administrative files, registers, copies of publications, transcripts of the records, and reference files, which are listed below.

St Thomas' Hospital appointed its first archivist in 1950. Miss Eilidh M. McInnes, a classics graduate, had trained as an archivist at University College, London. She also attended a course in document repair at the London School of Printing enabling her to carry out minor repairs to the St Thomas' Hospital archives. She wrote the following description of her duties in 1958 (ref. H01/ST/K/10/50).

"The appointment of an Archivist dates only from 1950 and is a service supplied entirely from Endowment funds. Before 1950 the records now kept by the Archivist were retained in the departments which had produced them and whose responsibility they were.

The appointment of an Archivist was made in the first place for one year and has since been renewed for two periods of five years, the second of which is due to expire in March, 1961.

After a preliminary survey of the material available, the Archivist took charge of the main series of records up to 1900, with the exception of case notes, which remain with the Medical Records Officer, Finance Department records after about 1800, and estate papers, of which the majority remain with the Endowment Accountant. The Archivist is responsible to the Clerk of the Governors for the arrangement and preservation of these documents and related reference material, and also for supervising the use of it by students, whether members of the hospital staff or outsiders.

The primary aim of the Archivist's work is the preservation of the archives, the documents of permanent historical value produced in the working of the various hospital departments. This work of preservation takes precedence of all other activities, and includes the physical protection of documents by repair, as well as by listing to avoid loss through misplacing, and the taking of general security precautions.

Secondly the use of the archives for reference is facilitated by the provision of supplementary material, which falls into two main categories: i) lists and indexes, transcripts and summaries, to make the contents of the documents easily accessible and ii) illustrative matter such as photographs, references to outside sources, newspaper cuttings, published articles.

Thirdly, the Archivist supervises the use made of the archives and supplementary material. This sometimes involves assisting readers in search of information but frequently the main part of the search work, or all of it is done for the enquirer, except in the case of research students pursuing a detailed line of study.

Fourthly, the Archivist undertakes other activities designed to propagate the information to be found in the archives: displays of documents, written articles, talks concerned with the history of the Hospital and the related subject of medical history."

The Archivist was also responsible for the records of the General Lying-In Hospital, Grosvenor Hospital and Royal Waterloo Hospital, which had become part of the St Thomas' Hospital Group in 1948. The archives of the Nightingale School and the Nightingale Collection were in the care of the Matron of St Thomas' Hospital, who delegated responsibility to the Home Sister. By agreement with Matron, Miss McInnes recatalogued the Nightingale correspondence and eventually received the letters and other papers into the Archivist's store, while overall control of the collection remained with the Matron.

Miss McInnes' appointment as Archivist was renewed in 1960 and 1963. In 1963 she published a new history of St Thomas' Hospital. After a long period of sick leave from June 1964 to April 1965, illhealth forced her to retire in the autumn of 1965. She was succeeded by Miss Doreen Slatter. When Miss Slatter left in 1967, the Governors of St Thomas' decided to deposit the archives in the Greater London Record Office, then situated in County Hall. As part of their agreement with the Greater London Council, the Governors financed the employment for two years of an archivist, Mrs Valerie Hart, to catalogue the archives.