This is a brief guide to help you find records of patients, doctors or nurses. There are many sources of information about medical staff, although not all records survive. Most surviving records from hospitals are in local archives. The National Archives is not the best place to find information about patients, doctors or nurses. The records that we do hold mostly relate to the administration and policy of health services.
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What do I need to know before I start?
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Try to find out:
- the full name of the patient, doctor or nurse
- the hospital they worked or were treated in
- approximate dates of employment or treatment
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What records can I see online?
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Medical registers (1859-1959)
Search UK Medical Registers on Ancestry.co.uk (£There may be a charge for accessing this information. Searching indexes may be free.) for lists of doctors with their residence, qualification and date of registration.
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What records can I find at The National Archives at Kew?
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Records of the General Nursing Council for England and Wales (c1860-1984)
Browse the Catalogue in DT 10 (1921-1973), DT 11 (1944-1973) and DT 12 (1973-1983) for registers and rolls of nurses maintained by the General Nursing Council.
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To access these records you will either need to visit us, commission research (£there will be a charge) or, where you can identify a specific record referencea unique set of letters and numbers identifying a document in The National Archives, order a copy (£there will be a charge).
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What records can I find in other archives and organisations?
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London Metropolitan Archives
Contact London Metropolitan Archives for records of London training schools for nurses, including Guy's Hospital and the Nightingale Training School.
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Lambeth Palace Library
Browse the name index to medical licences issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1535 to 1775 and held by Lambeth Palace Library.
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What other resources will help me find information?
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Websites
Search the Hospital Records Database to find information on the location of hospital records, including those about staff and patients, in the UK.
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Consult the genealogy and research advice on the Royal College of Nursing website for advice on finding records of nurses.
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Visit the website of the Royal British Nurses Association for general information on the history of nursing.
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Search Munk's Roll on the Royal College of Physicians website for obituaries of Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians dating back to the founding of the college.
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Hospitals
British Army nurses
Asylum inmates