12/06/2020
Occasionally a badge comes up which just cries out for further investigation.On the whole my collecting is more to do with the history of a particular design and its story than its prettiness(that being said there are badge designs that just shout out their beauty!). This latest acquisition was too good to miss as it relates to a town just down the road from me.
The Lowestoft District Nursing Service was established in 1890 and with the opening of a Nurses Home and Maternity home in Strewan House Old Nelson Road in 1908 became the Lowestoft Maternity & District Nursing Association.The King Edward VII Memorial Fund was set up in 1910 to support Hospital and nursing charities and in 1911 the Lowestoft body became affiliated with it. This badge then must date to sometime after that.The shape of the design mimics that of the Medico Psychological Association and I would estimate that it dates to some time around the 1914-1930 period? Made by Kenning & Son London. In 1911 the staff consisted of Matron, two district Nurses and two Midwives and recourse to Cottage nurses when required.As this appears to be a nursing staff badge rather than a Fundraiser it would appear to be one of a very low production number, possibly only a dozen or so, and therefore a rare survivor.We often see badges being listed as being rare when they may in fact have a production number of hundreds ,or even thousands.
So maybe not the rarest and certainly not the prettiest but as far as being another piece in the jigsaw puzzle of Nursing and Local History, this deserves a place in a museum.
08/06/2020