Dame Kathleen Annie Raven, DBE, FRCN (9 November 1910,

Coniston, Lancashire Coniston is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Furness region of Cumbria, England. In the United Kingdom Census 2001, 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,058, decreasing at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

– 19 April 1999,

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

) was a British nurse, matron, government health official, health care engineer, and educational philanthropist.

Career

* Matron, General Infirmary, Leeds (1949–57) * Deputy Chief Nursing Officer, Ministry of Health (1957–58) * Chief Nursing Officer, Department of Health and Social Security (1958–72)

Background

Kathleen Annie Raven was born and raised in Coniston in England's

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

, attending Ulverston Grammar School. Art was a strong influence on her as a child; one of her grandmother's friends was the painter

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...

. She was brought up in a

Plymouth Brethren The Plymouth Brethren or Assemblies of Brethren are a low church and non-conformist Christian movement whose history can be traced back to Dublin, Ireland, in the mid to late 1820s, where they originated from Anglicanism. The group emphasizes ...

household where her parents read a chapter of the Bible every night. She had three brothers with whom she climbed mountains, skated, fished and rowed. Her elder brother, Ronald Raven, became a surgeon. Visiting her brother when he was a medical student at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, she decided to become a nurse and started her training there in 1933.

Career

She trained as a nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London (where her brother Ronald also trained as a doctor), qualifying in 1936. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

she was Ward Sister and Night Superintendent in that hospital. In 1946 she was appointed Assistant Matron there. In 1949, she was named as Deputy Matron at the General Infirmary in Leeds. She became Matron in the same year, and held the post for eight years. The General Infirmary at Leeds was the first teaching hospital to set up an Assistant Nurse Training Programme in 1955. While at

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

she was a member of both the General Nursing Council and the Council of the Royal College of Nursing, as Chair of the Yorkshire Branch of the RCN. Raven was also a member of the National Executive Committee of the Association of Hospital Matrons and served as a member of the Leeds Central Area Advisory Board for Secondary Education. For several years she was External Examiner for the Diploma in Nursing at the University of Leeds. In 1957 she became a member of the Central Health Services Council. Raven left Leeds to go to the Department of Health in London, where she became Chief Nursing Officer in July 1958, succeeding Dame

Elizabeth Cockayne Dame Elizabeth Cockayne, DBE (29 October 1894 – 4 July 1988) was Chief Nursing Officer from the inception of the National Health Service in 1948 until her retirement a decade later in 1958. She was succeeded by Dame Kathleen Raven. Career Born ...

Later years

After her retirement from the Department of Health in 1972, and the death of her husband very shortly afterwards, Kathleen Raven undertook a heavy burden of work as adviser to a major international health care corporation, travelling extensively in the Middle East and Far East, establishing health care facilities along British lines. She worked for the Civil Service Commission and was appointed a Governor of

Epsom College Epsom College is a co-educational independent school on Epsom Downs, Surrey, England, for pupils aged 11 to 18. It was founded in 1853 as a boys' school to provide support for poor members of the medical profession such as pensioners and orpha ...

and of Aylesbury Grammar School. She died at the age of 88 in 1999.

Personal life

In 1959 she married Professor John Thornton Ingram; he died in 1972.

Endowments

* Kathleen A Raven Lecture at the Royal College of Nursing to provide a platform for distinguished speakers to promulgate their views on current nursing problems. * Dame Kathleen Raven Chair in Clinical Nursing was endowed by Raven in 1998, the year before her death.Raven bio, Leeds University website, ibid.
/ref> The first holder of the chair was Professor Claire Hale. The most recent holder is Professor Steven Ersser, 2014–2017.

Honours

Her honours include Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing (of which she was once Vice-President), Officer of the Order of St John, and Honorary degrees from Keele University and the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. She was made a Patron of the

Royal College of Surgeons of England The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) is an independent professional body and registered charity that promotes and advances standards of surgical care for patients, and regulates surgery and dentistry in England and Wales. The ...

and was an Honorary Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Barbers.

References

External links

Dame Kathleen Raven blog Royal College of Physicians museumOxford Database Index
* Archival material at {{DEFAULTSORT:Raven, Kathleen 1910 births 1999 deaths English nurses NHS Chief Professional Officers British nursing administrators Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire People from Coniston, Cumbria People educated at Ulverston Grammar School Fellows of the Royal College of Nursing British nurses