Royal Navy: Nurses and Nursing Services

Military Records Information 56

1. History

Until 1883 nursing in the naval hospitals was undertaken by men, usually ex-seamen or marines, who were recruited as required from the shore establishments and who held no nursing qualifications. An earlier experiment to introduce female nursing had generally proved unsuccessful and unpopular, though a few female nurses were still employed. A system of established and hired nurses was used in the naval hospitals: the former being entitled to a pension when they retired; the latter being awarded a gratuity but not a pension. Members of the Sick Berth Staff carried out nursing on board hospital ships.

In 1881 John Watt Reid, Director of the Medical Department of the Navy, submitted a scheme for improving the nursing system by employing trained female nurses but he was unsuccessful in obtaining approval. However, Sir A Hoskin's Committee on the Organisation and Training of the Sick Berth Staff of the Navy and the Nursing Staff of the Royal Naval Hospitals, which was appointed in 1883, reported in 1884. It recommended

Regulations for the Staff of Nursing Sisters in the Royal Naval Hospitals were published in 1884 and a female nursing service was established initially at Haslar (Portsmouth) and Plymouth. In 1897 the service was extended to Chatham and Malta, and in 1901 to all Royal Naval Hospitals. The names of matrons and head sisters first appear in the Navy List of 1884.

In 1899 the Committee on Training of Medical Sick Berth and Nursing Staff recommended the introduction of an intermediate rank between Nursing Sister and Head Sister, to be called Superintending Sister, in hospitals where three or more Sisters were employed. The Committee also recommended increases in the numbers and pay of female nurses and alterations to the regulations governing entitlement to pension, adopting Army regulations instead of the Civil Service rules, as very few nurses had qualified under these regulations. In addition regulations governing Nursing Sisters were to be effected by Orders in Council.

The 1899 Committee also discussed the question of a naval nursing reserve. The Navy was dependant on the Royal Navy Auxiliary Sick Berth Reserve, recruited from the St John's Ambulance Brigade and the St Andrew's Ambulance Association Corps. While the Committee recognised the need for increasing the numbers available, particularly of female nurses, no recommendation was made for a special reserve to be established. Instead arrangements were to be made with individual civilian hospitals to supply given numbers of nurses, with the hospitals making the selection of personnel. In 1902, both the Army and Naval Nursing Services received Royal approval and the title of the Naval service changed to Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. There was also a QARNNS' Reserve, of civilian nurses, for service in wartime only. Naval nurses were eligible for the Royal Red Cross Medal, from 1883, and bars, from 1917.

2. Nurses at the Royal Greenwich Hospital , 1704-1865

3. Nurses' Records, 1884 onwards

4. Policy Records

For material on the history and development of the service, search ADM 116 . This includes the reports of the Committee on the Organisation and training of the Sick Berth Staff of the Navy and the Nursing Staff of the Royal Naval Hospitals 1883-4 (ADM 116/220 ) and the Committee on the Training of Medical Staff 1899 (ADM 116/1243 , ADM 116/1244 and ADM 116/1245 ).

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