Researching British Army Nurses

Join us to learn researching skills using authentic records about British Army nurses, covering the period from the Victorian wars to more recent times.

The course will last six weeks. Each week, we will use archival documents to explore different periods and different aspects of historical research, allowing us to place the information in context and make sense of it. Participants will also have the opportunity to publish their military nursing research on the British Army Nurses wiki at britisharmynurses.com.

We will cover:

• Using medal rolls and the challenges of transcription, context, and language
• Using newspaper and journal archives, and the ethics of historical research
• Using diaries and letters, and military nursing as part of the wider history of women and of nursing
• Using photographs and paintings, identifying uniforms and badges
• Using the Census and definitions of nurses and nursing
• Using The National Archives, Kew, and the importance of corroboration