Catalogue description KING EDWARD'S HOSPITAL FUND FOR LONDON

This record is held by London Metropolitan Archives: City of London

Details of A/KE
Reference: A/KE
Title: KING EDWARD'S HOSPITAL FUND FOR LONDON
Description:

Files A/KE/1-70 includes all Council and Committee minutes and papers deposited in the Record Office 1963-1987.

 

Files A/KE/71-303 consists of all the remaining records - correspondence, reports and papers - contained in the first deposit, mostly dating from before 1939.

 

Files A/KE/304-640 include the records (except Council and Committee minutes and papers) in the second major series of deposits 1965-1968.

 

Files A/KE/641-763 detail the records (except Council and Committee minutes and papers) deposited 1969-1987. The bulk of these date from 1939-1965, though they include records from the Fund's foundation in 1897 up to 1986.

 

All A/KE/PJ files are related to projects and reports by the hospital.

Date: 1897-1985
Related material:

For general information concerning the Fund see Miss Darlington's article published in the Journal of the Society of Archivists Apr 1964. See also King Edward's Hospital Fund for London: the Story of its Foundation and Achievements 1897-1942 by F D Long (A/KE/751/7), the annual reports of the Fund in the Greater London History Library, and The development of the London Hospital System 1823-1982 by Geoffrey Rivett (King's Fund Historical Series No 4).

Held by: London Metropolitan Archives: City of London, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Creator:

King Edwards Hospital Fund for London

King's Fund

Physical description: 2923 files (Approximately)
Immediate source of acquisition:

The first and earliest part of these records was deposited in what was then the London County Record Office, County Hall, London SE1 in March 1963 through the good offices of Mr Collingridge and the British Records Association (Ac.63.18). Further substantial deposits followed in 1965 (Ac.65.78) and 1966 (Ac.66.68) with minor additions in 1967 (Ac.67.76), 1968 (Ac.68.82) and 1969 (Ac.69.16). Another major group of records mostly dating from the period 1939-1965 was transferred in 1974 (Ac.74.6) with small additions in 1975 (Ac.75.21 Ac.75.42), 1976 (Ac.76.21), 1987 (Acc 2372, Acc 2488) and 1995 (Acc 3573)

 

Over in March 1963 comprised for the most part the older records and the non-financial records of the Fund from the basement storage of the offices in Bridge Street. In July 1965 when the Fund was in process of moving from the offices at 34 King Street, EC4 to 14 Palace Court, Kensington, the Council was asked to take over a second instalment of records and in December 1966 a third instalment comprising practically all the rest of the surviving papers up to 1948 was transferred.

Selection and destruction information:

So far as possible duplicates, acknowledgements and other ephemera have been removed from files A/KE/1/1-A/KE/303/38 and in most cases the original file covers have been taken off to save space. The files relating to the work of the Voluntary Hospital Committee have been left intact as examples of the way in which the committee system of the Fund functioned in the 1920s and 1940s.

Administrative / biographical background:

A large number of annual reports from various London Hospitals were originally deposited with the archive of the King Edward's Hospital Fund for London, and were then transferred to the Library. Copies of a list of these reports, which cover the period 1897 - 1947, are held at the enquiry desk in the Reference Room. Please ask the staff on duty for further details.

 

The bulk of files A/KE/641 - A/KE/763/17 were deposited in the Greater London Record Office in 1974 after they had been sorted and listed by Mr A J Loewenthal, archivist to the King's Fund. This deposit also includes notes made by Mr Loewenthal on the history of the Fund and material which he gathered together on particular areas of the Fund's activities, such as the Emergency Bed Service and the King's Fund College, for which few records have been transferred to the Record Office.

 

Although files A/KE/641 - A/KE/763/17 include items dating from 1897 to 1985, the majority of the records date from the period 1939-1965. As such they document the changes in the Fund's activities as a result of the establishment of the National Health Service in 1948. No longer obliged to use the main part of its income to support the voluntary hospitals of London, the Fund was able to devote resources to experimental projects and research. The Fund continued to make grants to hospitals, including former local authority hospitals and mental hospitals, to provide facilities which were either not covered or received low priority in NHS budgets. It offered advice on hospital catering, medical record keeping and the layout of hospital gardens. Health service staff, such as nurses, administrators, cooks and catering officers were offered the opportunity to take courses to improve their skills and to prepare them for promotion. Convalescent homes were inspected and offered grants in an effort to improve their standard. The Fund published a directory of convalescent homes taking patients from the London area. Some pre-war services, such as the Emergency Bed Service, were continued and expanded.

 

This list should be used in conjunction with the earlier lists of the records of King Edward's Hospital Fund deposited in the Greater London Record Office.

Link to NRA Record:

Have you found an error with this catalogue description?

Help with your research