Were you an Irish 'angel'?

Senior Times

Ann Ward would like to hear from you

Were you one of the thousands of young Irish women who came to England in the 1950s to train as a nurse? Did you come to London to train in a NHS hospital? If you trained or worked in a Lambeth hospital (St Thomas’s, King’s, Royal Waterloo, General Lying In York Road, South Western, Lambeth Hospital, Annie McCall Maternity Hospital, South London Hospital for Women Clapham) between the 1940s and the 1960s then Lambeth Archives would like to hear from you.

Following the development of the National Health Service in 1948 the recruitment of nurses in England had reached crisis point. Even though nursing had become a respectable profession few women in England were taking it up as it still entailed long hours, hard work and all for little pay.

In order to meet this shortfall a huge recruitment campaign was launched throughout the British colonies to find women to fill these positions. The Caribbean was one primary source of nurses and Ireland was another

These girls were as young as eighteen, many arriving to train in hospitals where there was already a large community of Irish nurses, like St James’s Hospital in Balham for example.

Many of these women will be in their late 70s or early 80s now, yet their story has not been told. Any contributions will be added to our collections on Lambeth working women’s lives and as part of an MA in British Women’s History. For more details please contact;

Anne Ward, Lambeth Archives, 52 Knatchbull Road, London SE5 9QY

Tel 020 7926 6076 or Email: award@lambeth.gov.uk

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