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Born 1879, died 1967
Probationer Nurse & Assistant Nurse, Mitford and Launditch Union Workhouse, 1898-99
Researched by Caroline Woods
Elizabeth Maud Milk (known as Bessie) was born in 1879 to Matthew and Hester. The 1881 census shows her living with them in Elvin Road, East Dereham with sister Eva and brother Jessie. Matthew is a Seedsman/Florist.
In December 1898, at the age of 19, Bessie begins her nursing career at Gressenhall Workhouse where she is employed as a Probationer Nurse. Previously she had been in service for three years at the residence of Robinson Fanthorpe of East Dereham. Her appointment form gives her reason for leaving as “To improve her position”. However, national workhouse records show that Bessie’s appointment causes something of a furore between the guardians of the workhouse and the Local Government Board. Bessie’s appointment form has many notes on it added by the Board such as:
“The title [of probationer nurse] may mislead the officer into regarding herself as trained for the purpose of the [Workhouse] Nursing”.
“In no sense could this workhouse be considered a training school for probationers and the only training this young woman will get depends on the superintendent nurse and the medical officer who visits the workhouse who attends twice a week and from my knowledge of him I’m afraid he is not looking to go out of his way to give instruction”.
This may have been because many other Probationers who worked at Gressenhall did so as part of their training at the nearby Fakenham Nurses Home, run by Miss S. Hammond. Fortunately, Bessie’s appointment is approved with a note stating that it must be understood that service in the workhouse will not qualify probationers for the office of superintendent nurse. It seems the guardians took action following this correspondence for a resolution is passed by them in January 1899 stating:
“The resolution requests that the board institutes periodical examinations of probationers and other poor law nurses to grant certificates of competency to all who satisfy the examiner, and to so amend the nursing order of 6 August 1897 that such certificates of competency be accepted as sufficient qualifications for superintendent nurses”.
In December 1899 Bessie receives a sizeable salary increase and is referred to as Assistant Nurse.
We next find Bessie on the 1901 census working at Basford Union Workhouse in Nottinghamshire, she is shown as still being a Probationer Nurse. However, looking ahead to the 1931 Register of Nurses, we can see that Bessie obtains her nursing certificate here between 1901 and 1904. She took her Midwifery examination at this workhouse, qualifying in May 1902, and is enrolled on the Midwives Roll in April 1905.
By January 1904 Bessie has moved to the Walsall Workhouse as an Infirmary Nurse. It would appear she does well here for in October 1905 she is promoted to Superintendent Nurse, a post she still holds on the 1921 census. She acquires the status of registered nurse on 15th February 1924.
Research hasn’t been able to find when Bessie left Walsall workhouse but the 1931 entry in the Register of Nurses gives her address as the Nurses’ Home, Wednesbury, Staffordshire. This is less than four miles from Walsall so maybe she was still working at the workhouse but not choosing to live in.
Moving on a few years, Bessie’s entry in the 1939 register shows her as Matron at a nursing home but whether this is the nursing home at Wednesbury we cannot tell.
Bessie next appears in the records in 1967 when she dies at St Nicholas House Nursing Home, Dereham on 22nd January aged 88 years. At some point, she had retired back to her native Norfolk.
Bessie did not marry or have children. When she died, she left £4,975 in her will which is the equivalent of £115,500 today.
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