Nurse

Civil Nursing

General information on nursing in India can be found in the book A Brief History of Nursing in India and Pakistan by Alice Wilkinson (1958).¹ Wilkinson was associated with nursing in India for more than forty years and in 1908 was the first trained British nurse to join St Stephens Hospital, Delhi. Alongside a history of the development of the profession from its earliest times, she describes nursing specialities, including leprosy and tuberculosis work.

A History of Nursing in the British Empire by Sarah A. Southall Tooley (published 1906) has a section on India, pages 339-349.² Interesting information in the book:

• It is stated that the Calcutta Hospital Nurses Institution was founded in 1859 “with which is associated the Lady Canning Home, Calcutta, institutions doing valuable work today in supplying nurses to hospitals and in the training of skilled private staff."
• Nurse training at the General Hospital, Madras and the Cama Hospital, Bombay was also mentioned. The latter is a hospital for women and children. It subsequently became affiliated with the Grant Medical College in 1923 and part of the Sir J.J. Hospital Group.
• “The nursing of Europeans in India has been met to some extent in the large towns by the Clewer, Wantage and All Saints Sisterhoods and kindred private institutions." (Refer Religious Orders below).

Training

"Nursing in India" by Shubhada Sakurikar states that for many years nursing training was the preserve of Europeans and Anglo-Indians. The Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy (JJ) Hospital (Bombay) was the first to train nurses in western India. The first Indian lady to come forward for nursing training was Bai Kashibai Ganpat in 1891 in Bombay. In the years that followed, nursing schools were established all over the country in collaboration with government, state and private hospitals.

Missionary women doctors in nineteenth century Delhi by Kaushik Das Gupta states that St Stephens Hospital, Delhi started a training School for nurses under Alice Wilkinson — the first trained British nurse who joined the hospital in 1908. Wilkinson became the hospital's nursing superintendent and is credited with raising the standard of nursing not only in St Stephen's but in the rest of India as well. She founded the Trained Nurses’ Association of India and worked as its secretary until 1948. This link is about St Stephen’s Hospital, Delhi.

Professional Associations

The Association of Nursing Superintendents was founded in 1905 at Lucknow. The organization was composed of nine European nurses holding administrative posts in hospitals. At the 1908 Annual Conference held in Bombay, a decision was taken to establish the Trained Nurses’ Association. This Association was inaugurated in 1909. The Association of Nursing Superintendents and the Trained Nurses’ Association were amalgamated in 1922 and renamed The Trained Nurses’ Association of India (TNAI).

Nursing Journal of India

The Nursing Journal of India (Nurs J India) began publishing in 1912. The British Library has the Nursing Journal of India from December 1926 (with a few scattered editions prior to this) to February 1939 and Cambridge University Library has an incomplete holding from 1935 to 1989. It would be expected there would be mention of many individual nurses in the Journals.

Religious Orders

The Clewer Sisters were Sisters from the Anglican Community of St John the Baptist from Clewer (near Windsor in England) who came to Calcutta in 1881. This link describes the book Sisters of the Raj by Valerie Bonham. They were involved with nursing at the Calcutta General Hospital and also with nurse training through the Calcutta Hospital Nurses Institution, which was based at Lady Canning’s Home.

Military Nurses in India

The Indian Nursing Service for the British Army in India was founded in 1888. Nurses were recruited in England. The service became known as Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service for India in 1903, and in 1926 was amalgamated with Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service. This link gives more details. Select British Military Nurses and scroll down to Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service for India.

Records available in the British Library

Records relating to nursing at the British Library include:

• The Indian Nursing Service-Registers of Candidates IOR/L/MIL/9/430-432 (1887-1920)
• Collection 262 Indian Nursing Service IOR/L/MIL/7/11316-11616 (1886-1940), which includes items 262/1-270 and 262A/1-188 with many individual names mentioned.
• Collection 262/103 IOR/L/MIL/7/11421 (1913) states "Candidates for Queen Alexandra's Military Nursing Service for India must either be of British parentage or naturalised British subjects."
• Nursing sisters and higher ranks are recorded in the Indian Army List from 1891. Staff Nurses are recorded from 1926.

Other records are listed on this British Library webpage.

FIBIS resources

The FIBIS database contains the following records:

• Nursing Personnel 1944 photograph
• List of Qualified Midwives, European and East Indian from the Government Lying-in-Hospital, Madras, 1865

Notes

1. The British Library has a copy of this book. You can search for a Library which has it, or see Google Books' No Preview link.
2. The book is only available in Snippet View Google Books but is available full view here on the website archive.org.