Bromhead Institution for Nurses and the Bromhead Nursing Home
The Bromhead Institution for Nurses and the Bromhead Nursing Home (1867 to 1950), was a healthcare facility in Lincoln.
History
In 1864 the Ladies' Nursing Fund Committee was created to supply higher quality nurses to Lincoln County Hospital.[1] This arrangement ended three years later after a difference of opinion between the hospital authorities. [1] In 1866 the Bromhead Institution for Nurses opened to supply trained nurses for the sick poor in Lincoln, and to other hospitals, and during epidemics, such as the Lincoln typhoid epidemic.[1][2]The institute was based in the home of Mrs Anne Fector Bromhead in Greestone Road, Lincoln.[1][3] Although she was not formally trained as a nurse Mrs Bromhead was the first Lady Superintendent, and after her death, her daughter Henrietta became the second untrained Lady Superintendent.[1] The institute expanded and in 1887 the Red House was built on the junction of Nettleham Road and Church Lane as a memorial to Mrs Bromhead.[1][3] This became the Bromhead Nursing Home and cared for wealthy private patients.[1] The nearby Essendon House was acquired in 1907 to provide for accommodation for the nursing staff, and offices for the Institution for Nurses.[1] Bromhead Nurses were easily recognised by their distinctive uniform of red flannel waistcoats which they wore over their bodices in winter and white pique waistcoats in summer.[3] They wore nurses caps with net ruches and two streamers down the back.[3] This was the same nurses hat and tails as worn by sisters at The London Hospital where the Bromhead's third and fourth Lady Superintendents (also known as a matron) had trained under Eva Luckes.[4]
In 1937 The Bromhead Maternity Home was opened.[1] In 1948 the NHS took over the Bromhead Nursing Home.[1] In 1981 this was taken over by a charitable trust and renamed as the Bromhead Hospital.[1] Since 2001 it has been a private hospital, and is currently part of the Circle Health Group and now known as The Lincoln Hospital.[5] Essendon House, the former nurses home and offices is now St Barnabas Hospice.[1][6]
Notable staff
Mrs Anne Fector Bromhead (1812–1886), founding member and first Lady Superintendent; she was not formally trained.[3]
Miss Henrietta Bromhead ( –1906), second Lady Superintendent. She was involved in a libel lawsuit with another nurse in 1906 which was resolved before the conclusion of the trial.[2]
Susan Mary Somerset (1876–1962), second trained Lady Superintendent, from 1910 until at least 1939.[4][12][13][14][15] Somerset trained at The London between 1906 and 1908.[16] She won second prize in her probationers examinations,[17] and became a Holiday Sister and Matron's Office Assistant after her training.[18] In 1922 the Somerset Wing of the Bromhead Home was named after her.[19]
^ abcdRogers, Sarah (2022). 'A Maker of Matrons'? A study of Eva Lückes's influence on a generation of nurse leaders:1880–1919' (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Huddersfield, April 2022)
^Matron’s Annual Letter to Nurses, No.14, Matron's Annual Letter to Nurses, 1894–1916; RLHLH/N/7/2, No.14, March 1907, 31; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London
^Matron’s Annual Letter to Nurses, No.17, Matron's Annual Letter to Nurses, 1894–1916; RLHLH/N/7/2, No.17, March 1910, 33; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London
^Bessie Stephenson, Register of Probationers; RLHLH/N/1/7, 35; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London
^Bessie Stephenson, British Army Nurses’ Service Records 1914–1918; WO399/7930; The National Archives, Ke
^Matron’s Annual Letter to Nurses, No.18, Matron's Annual Letter to Nurses, 1894–1916; RLHLH/N/7/2, No.18, March 1911, 37; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London
^Somerset Susan E., RG101/6427g; 1939 England and Wales Register Lincoln, Lincolnshire; The National Archives, Kew [Available at: www.ancestry.co.uk, accessed on 5 July 2018].
^Somerset, Susan Mary, Register of Nurses, General Part 1940, 2743; The General Nursing Council for England and Wales; The Nursing Registers, 1898–1968 [Available at: www.ancestry.co.uk, accessed on 5 July 2018]
^Susan Mary Somerset, Register of Probationers; RLHLH/N/1/13, 34; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London
^"London Hospital Prize Giving". The Nursing Times: 650. 27 July 1907 – via www.rcn.org.
^Susan Mary Somerset, Register of Sisters and Nurses; RLHLH/N/4/2, 312; Barts Health NHS Trust Archives and Museums, London
^"Nursing Pioneers: the Past into the Future". The Lincolnshire Echo (4): 8 – via www.findmypast.co.uk.