100 Names in an Old Autograph Book. A real-life Only Connect puzzle!

An autograph book with 100 names in from 1914-18 you say? Are you interested in it you ask? I think I am! I can never resist an autograph book, nor a challenge. Over 100 entries but no clue to the identity of the book's owner ("To Isobel, from Mother 1913"). There are signatures and names, locations and dates, poems and sketches, but the locations range from Scotland, England, Eire and Wales- through large cities and small villages. They can't be family - the locations are too disparate.  How do I find the link, to help me tell the stories of these people and the future that lay before them? I did what all good genealogists would do, chose the most unusual name to trace. Enter Harold Bays

 

Harold Bays

Harold had very helpfully added his home town to his signature, so I had more useful information.

 

 

Born in 1902, by 1911 he had been adopted by a nurse (proudly proclaimed to be"hospital trained" on the census). Fast forward to 1921 and I hit the jackpot. Perhaps encouraged by his "hospital trained" adopted mother, Harold had entered a medical profession- he was a chemist (appprenticed). By 1939 his entry for "occupation" showed that he was a fully qualified pharmacist.  Harold is mentioned many times as being a representative of the Hull branch of the Royal  Pharmaceutical Society and very much involved in civic life.Indeed, he was a member of the local executive council of the NHS in 1947. He was there are the birth of the NHS.

 

 

His obituary says that he gained a diploma with the Society in London.  Could the answer to the mystery of the autographs be that Harold and his fellow signatories have been studying together at the RPS in London? I quickly looked at two names and from my initial findings the answer is a resounding "yes".

 

Will I find out more about their shared time together? I'm fascinated to see how many working or middle class people studied with the society - Harold came from fairly humble beginnings;  he was  educated at a secondary school in Hull. I am very interested indeed in charting the course of women in the profession; my autograph book has dozens of women's names. This is a wonderful opportunity to discover the life stories and experiences of these ordinary women in the profession.. I have already discovered that one became a missionary and another was one of the earliest female apprentice chemists (the 1901 census confirms her status as early as 1901) . I cannot wait to discover more about these men and women, hidden from history until a dusty old autograph book was found and placed in a genealogist's grateful hands!

Leaflet published 1911

Royal Pharmaceutical Archives

 

In the meantime, here are some of the wonderful entries in the book - sadly many have no names attached. Winifred who painted the first entry below was an art student in 1921. I think the lovely art work is a wonderful example of her work!

 

 

 

 Sources:

Author's own autograph book

Ancestry.co.uk

Find My Past

British Newspaper Archives

British Pharmaceutical Society Archives

 

Louisa Mary Gilbert MM - Nurse Anaesthetist

 

 

I have long had an interest in the role of women in WW1 - on the home front as workers, volunteers, wives, mothers and sisters keeping homes going and looking after wounded and damaged men. One role that was hugely signficant was that of nurses and other medical staff. I have discovered a book that gives very short biographies of nurses who were awarded the Military Medal. The book was published in 1919.  So I decided to look into their future lives. What became of them? Did they stay in the profession or marry and have a family? 

Louisa Mary Gilbert

 

Louisa Mary Gilbert was born in 1889 in Deptford and  trained at Gravesend Hospital in Kent for 4 years and qualified in 1914. She joined the Queen Anne Imperial Nursing Service in 1915 and served for 4 years. I was really interested to note that she trained in anaesthetics: I found a letter where she signed herself "Sister Anaesthetist" and also a certificate confirming this. According to the Royal College of Physicians, in an emergency, an experienced nurse would sometimes carry out a minor surgical operation. From the second half of the war, nurses were trained as anaesthetists, only to have this role removed from them after the Armistice. https://history.rcplondon.ac.uk/blog/wartime-nursing-women-frontlines

 

In her service record (held at the National Archives) she is often described as exceptional, kind, conscientious and an excellent nurse.Louisa served in France where she contracted dysentry and was sent home to England to recurperate for several months. Louisa was awarded the MM in September 1917.

Eligibility for the MM was extended, by a Royal Warrant dated 21 June 1916, to women whether British subjects or foreign, with the first awards gazetted on 1 September 1916.

 Louisa married in 1920 in London and I have discovered her husband Joseph Christopher Cox was in the RAMC and was in the same CCS at the same time that Louisa was there, . He lived in the NE while Louisa came from London. Might this be a wartime romance?!!

Although Louisa married in 1920, and had a child in 1922, she is registered with the Royal College of nursing, in her maiden name, up until 1923. The role of "Sister Anaesthetist" was discontinued after the War. It seems such a waste of training and experience; it must have been quite difficult to relinquish. After all, the nurses were not "taking a man's job" .. they would have surely been very much in demand.

After 1923 I can find no more information about Louisa except that she died in 1976.Intriguingly I found Louisa’s husband in the 1939 register, living with his father in law and sister in law Florence.He is not with Louisa whom I can’t find. They had a son who died aged 11 in 1939.  Florence also qualified as a nurse (in 1917) and served abroad. She married in 1925 but also goes under her maiden name several years after marrying. All very puzzling!

Ancestry UK

British Newspaper Archives

Wikipedia

British Nursing Journal 1917