Nurses Day - Thora Silverthorne

Beatrice Drapper - NUCO and "Angel of Deptford"

Beatrice M Drapper – Deptford “Angel of Mercy” or “Our Beatrice”

Born Deptford, South London

Student at Scott-Lidgett’s, Bermondsey University Settlement and an orignal member of the "Beatrice" Dunkin, Club for Girls

Beatrice Drapper stated "I owe all my success in life to the Settlement"

Lived at 7 Evelyn Street,

Helped in the election of Will Crook’s as MP for Woolwich, one of the first Labour MP’s

A school manager from 1902-1927, Swimming and Gymnastics lecturer for the London county Council Schools & Welfare Board

Labour Councillor for North West Ward, Deptford from 1919 – 1956 (resigned 7/3/1956)

One of the first elected women Mayor’s in Britain, Deptford Mayor 1927-1928

Married Mr E. C. Drapper also a Labour Councillor who died in 1945

Helped establish NUCO at St Alfege’s hospital, Greenwich in 1918

Helped organise the feeding of Dockers families during the 1912 dock strike and was a leading figure in the campaign against the Chair of the Port of London authority who kept the Dockers in poverty. She was not alone 

“O God strike Lord Davenport dead” prayed Dockers leader Ben Tillett

From 1919 voluntary worker for the Poor Law Workers union (later National Union of County officers and COHSE ) from 1929 – 1946 paid employee of the union.

She was heavily involved in a case involving Peggy O'Neil a nurse suffering from TB of the spine (not then an industrial injury) and a bed patient for six years, with Beatrice help she was able to help Nurse O'Neil start a new life in America.

Justice of the Peace 1921 for Blackheath division

Elected to Greenwich Board of Guardians 1907 -1930 as a Labour representative (three years as Chairman)

During the 1921 she helped feed up to one thousand Dockers at deptford Central hall during the strike "cycling from her home at 5am in the morning in order to serve breakfast".She bought two shops in Deptford and converted them into a club for striking women tin workers who she helped organise into a union, serving 200 meat and veg meals daily at 4d a meal. 

The tin workers suffered terrible conditions and were pitifully paid. When they were taken to court for daring to strike she organised coaches to take the women tin workers to the Law courts hearings

Member of Lewisham hospital management committee

Officially opened the Woodlands Nurses home for nurses, Greenwich, December 1925

Appointed Chair of Chelsea Juvenile Court in 1945

Later moved to 46 Coniston Road, Bromley, Kent

Cremated Southend cemetery 4^th December 1961

Beatrice Drapper retired December 1946 after 17years employment by the union

NUCO Guild of Nurses 1937

NUCO GUILD OF NURSES

 The badge of NUCO Guild of Nurses (estb 1937) with the Justicia symbol a remnant of the older Poor Law Workers Union. 

 The National Union of County Officers (NUCO) Guild of Nurses was established at an inaugural meeting held at St Pancras Town Hall, London on 26th November 1937 with an audience of 500 nurses. The Guild of Nurses from the start took on a pro active campaign to highlight the plight of general nurses, unlike the (Royal) College of Nursing which maintained that better pay and conditions would on lead to the "wrong type" of girl entering nursing. 

MASKED NURSES DEMONSTRATION 1938

The Guild of Nurses organised meeting, street demonstrations and disrupting meetings (such as that at the London county Council). On the 4th April 1938 a small group of masked nurses in uniform with placards dared to march through central London, the next day at 3pm on 5th April the small group had been joined by a further eight female nurses (making 12 masked nurses in white uniforms). They were stopped and turned away by Police when they tried to march down Fleet Street (The home of the British Newspapers). 

The demonstration received massive press and newsreel coverage. This was the first time "general nurses" had taken their grievances to the streets. The first Guild of Nurses organiser's were Councillor Beatrice Drapper and Iris Brook (nee Iris Beynon) followed by Doris Westmacott.

Filmed by Movietone

First Chairman of the Guild of Nurses was Tudor O Morgan (St David's - Cardiff) followed by Doris Westmacott (Mile End)

NUCO established a nursing section in April 1933

William Glanville

Mr. William Henry Glanville, a member of Surrey County Council for more than 20 years and a county alderman since 1952, died in July 1964 at his home in Mulgrave Road, Sutton, Surrey. Members of the county council stood in tribute to him at their meeting.

Mr. Glanville was for some years a Trustee of the National Union of County Officers NUCO, which was the Hospital and Welfare Services Union at the time of the amalgamation to form COHSE. He
was Chairman of the union's Legal Committee for a period, including part of the last war.

Miss Doris E. Westmacott, COHSE National Woman Officer, who worked with him on the union NEC told the COHSE Journal:

"Mr. Glanville had a good sense of humour and a quiet, determined approach to problems. He was a clear thinker and was always of great assistance to other members."

When he was 15, Mr. Glanville joined the Lewisham Board of Guardians. In 1948, he was appointed Chairman of the Netherne Hospital Management Committee. He was interested in music and was for many years a church organist.

NUCO Presidents

Poor Law Workers Trade Union 1918-1922
Poor Law Officers Union 1922-1930
National Union of County Officers 1930-1943
Hospital & Welfare Services Union 1943 -1946

Becomes COHSE Confederation of Health Service Employees 1946 -1993
Becomes UNISON 1993-

Presidents

1918 Mr Wilfred M Hardman (Manchester)
1919 Mr Wilfred M Hardman (Manchester)
1920 Mr Joseph Heaton (Manchester)
1921 Dr William Wiggins (Greenwich)
1922 Dr William Wiggins (Greenwich)
1923 Dr William Wiggins (Greenwich)
1924 Mr David Priestley (Epsom)
1925 Mr David Priestley (Epsom)
1926 Mr David Priestley (Epsom)
1927 Mr Lionel Lunn (Burton)
1928 Mr Lionel Lunn (Burton)
1929 Mr Lionel Lunn (Burton)
1930 Mr Lionel Lunn (Burton)
1931 Mr Archibald Milne (Paddington)
1932 Mr Lionel Lunn (Burton)
1945 Mr Mark Dubury (Southern General, London)
1946 Mr Mark Dubury (Southern General, London)

Guild of Nurses Rally November 1939

Persecutions Drive Nurses to revolt

Daily Mirror 17^th November 1939

TRAINED nurses are in revolt. They are leaving their profession in hundreds rather than put up with the petty persecutions, the hardships and injustices they are being made to suffer.

Women whose skilled work is vital to the country in war are going as shop and on to the land.

These allegations were made at a meeting called by the NUCO, Guild of Nurses in London yesterday (16th November 1939) by Mr. Reginald Ruttledge, an official of the NUCO Guild of Nurses.

" When the men have gone to France and they need women bus conductors we shall see nurses doing this work," he said.

The nurses' two main grievances are:

(1) The way in which non-resident trained staff in London County Council hospitals are being forced to become resident with a considerable reduction in salary; and

(2) The growing unemployment among trained nurses which is largely the result of evacuation and is being aggravated by the fact that members of the Auxiliary Nursing Service are replacing trained nurses in the hospitals.

Mr. George Vincent Evans, general secretary of the NUCO, pointed out that a non-resident nurse might be receiving a wage of £180 per annum. When she became resident her wage dropped to £80 or £90, dependent on service. Reductions lor superannuation also took a further toll

This was causing exceptional hardship among nurses who were having to pay the rents of their flats or were obliged to store their furniture. The London County Council had refused to undertake the responsibility for the storage of furniture or for the payment of rent of flats or rooms.

Mr. Miller, Secretary of the London District Nursing Association, protested against the way in which trained nurses were being re-placed by auxiliary nurses.

" We shall find," he said, " that the trained nurses who are now being Ignored will be called upon to attend the auxiliary nurses who will be suffering from shock." (Laughter.)

Training Stopped

Young probationers' training had stopped as a result of the war, it was stated. Many had been drafted to new hospitals out of London, where there were only about half- a-dozen patients and no sister tutors.

Condemning the low salaries of trained nurses. Nurse Askey said that two men at her first aid post who had tailed in their examination were nevertheless receiving £2, 18s. 6d., the salary which she, as a trained nurse, was recieving

A resolution vas carried expressing "profound resentment" at the indifferent manner in which trained nurses, nurses in training and assistant nurses were being treated. :

A special committee of registered nurses was appointed by the committee to consider what further steps should be taken, and to arrange a deputation to the Minister of Health.

Daily Mirror 17^th November 1939

Thora Silverthorne NUCO & Spain 1937

NUCO NURSING NOTE

Miss Thora Silverthorne now matron of the International Brigade Hospital on the Madrid front, continues in her good work. The Spanish officials pay the highest tribute to the English nurses in Spain and we arc proud that Miss Silverthorne is a member of N.U.C.O

NUCO Jounal 1937

Iris Brook Nurse & SMA Activist

Iris Brook (Iris Beynon) born Bedwellty, South Wales 21st January 1903 was a Registered Nurse and Midwife (trained at Barts, where she meet Charles Brook) wife of Dr Charles Brook, (A GP from South East London) London County Council Labour Councillor and founder member of the Socialist Health Association activists Appointed temporary organiser for the National Union of County Officers (NUCO), Guild of Nurses in 1936, (later deputy to Beatrice Drapper) and as such led with Beatrice the first campaign for improved conditions for primarily general nurses 1937. The Royal college of Nursing opposing improvements on the grounds that they would bring the wrong kind of girls into nursing was involved in the first nurses
demonstration in Fleet street when "Uniformed nurses carrying sandwich boards and wearing black masks first descended on an astonished London" active in the Socialist Medical Association herself, involved in the Aid to Spain Movement, her husband was secretary Iris colleagues included Thora Silverthorne of the National Association of Nurses, who she stood with on a number of occasions for election to the General Nurses Council

Lived at Mottingdeane, High Road, Mottingham, London SE9

Died 1984

Patrick McHugh - St Pancras Hospital

Patrick McHugh

Born in Ireland 45 years service

Chief Male Nurse at St Pancras Hospital (Observation Unit - psychiatric )

Joined The National Union of County Officers (NUCO) union (Later COHSE)  in 1925. He took a leading part in the early struggles to improve nursing service conditions and was part of the first public demonstration by nurses, when NUCO nurses took part in the "raid on the LCC", when leaflets were thrown into London County Council chamber to highlight LCC Nurses grievances. Patrick also took part in the famous "masked demonstration" by NUCO uniformed nurses, who march down Fleet Street on the 5th April 1938 with sandwich boards stating "we demand fair pay" and a 48 hour week.

speaking in February 1937 Patrick McHugh for NUCO stated

"that the Nursing Executive of the National Union of County Officers were unanimously of opinion that nursing of the Chronic Sick should be done by fully trained nurses. If employing authorities could be persuaded to give more reasonable rates of pay, shorter working hours, and improved conditions, it would go a long -way towards removing the difficulty in obtaining the general trained nurse."

Probably trained initially in Dublin 

Served in France in the RAMC in WW1

A member of NUCO's National Executive Committee

Considered  "A remarkable gift of oratory"

his motto was "Let this day pass no one by"

Member of the board of Governors at the National hospital, Queen's Square

Retired 1952

Died June 29th 1954

Possible

Born 15th May 1887 at Abbeyleix, Laois, Ireland to Thomas McHugh and Mary Keelly. Patrick McHugh married Mary Nevin and had 5 children. 

He passed away on 29th June 1954 in Pancras, London, England.

 

COHSE Journal