Alicia Lloyd Still

Dame Alicia Frances Jane Lloyd Still, DBE, RRC, SRN (1869–1944) was a British nurse, teacher, hospital matron and leader of her profession.Alicia Lloyd Still profile
Oxford Biography Index; accessed 22 July 2017. She was one of the leaders in the campaign for state registration of nurses. Following the Nurses Registration Act 1919 she was a member of the General Nursing Council (1920-1937). As chairwoman of the General Nursing Council's first Education and Examinations Committee she helped establish the first national examination standards for the registration of nurses.

Early life and nursing career

Alice Frances Jane Lloyd Still was born in Colombo, Ceylon on 4th November 1869 to Isabel (nee Clements) and Henry Lloyd Still, a member of the Ceylon Civil Service. She was the eldest of four children and grew up in Walton, by Clevedon, Somerset. Her admiration of Florence Nightingale led her to choose to become a nurse.

She commenced nursing in July 1893 at the Cottage Hospital, Warminster, Wiltshire as at the time the larger hospitals with nursing schools did not accept women younger than 25 years to train. Lloyd Still became a probationer at the Florence Nightingale School at St. Thomas' Hospital, London, UK on 29th December 1894, under matron Miss Gordon. Miss Nightingale was still closely involved with the school, the Nightingale Fund and the appointment of new hospital sisters at St. Thomas' Hospital. Lloyd Still completed her training and was appointed Sister of Charity ward in the same year (1899); receiving directly from Florence Nightingale a letter, a medical text book and a posy of flowers on her appointment.

Later nursing career: hospital matron, nurse educator and leader of nursing as a profession

Lloyd-Still was appointed matron first at the Brompton Hospital, 1904, then the Middlesex Hospital, 1909 and then St. Thomas' Hospital 1913 ,where she was also superintendent of the Nightingale Training School, until her retirement in 1937. During World War I she was Principal Matron of the No. 5 London (City of London) General Hospital, and was awarded the Royal Red Cross and the C.B.E. for her services.

As matron of St. Thomas Hospital she was a founding member of the College of Nursing Ltd (March 27th, 1916) which was established to promote better and uniform education and training of nurses, maintain a register of nurses who had certificates of proficiency and support parliamentary actions to in support of the profession of nursing.

The General Nursing Council

Following the Nurses Registration Act 1919 Matron Lloyd-Still was appointed by the Minister of Health to the first caretaker General Nursing Council. Llyod Still was subsequently elected to the General Nursing Council as a nurse member by nurses in 1920, 1927 and 1932 remaining a member of the Council until 1937. She was chairwoman of the education and examinations committee from 1920. She was the second name, after Ethel Fenwick, on the newly established register of the General Nursing Council in 1921.

Other national and international professional contributions

Lloyd Still was a member of the Nursing Board of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (1917-1935); a member of the Council of the College of Nursing (later the Royal College of Nursing) 1920--1938 and a Vice President 1938-1944, Vice President of the National Council of Nurses of Great Britain and Ireland and founder and president of the Association of Hospital Matrons 1919-1937. Lloyd Still was nominated by the British Red Cross Society to attend the Cannes Medical Conference 1919 which established the League of Red Cross Societies. She was instrumental in taking forward in Great Britain the Medical Conference's resolution on nursing: "''That the extension of the employment of Public Health Nurses or Health Visitors be furthered in every possible manner in all countries and that standardized educational centers for training such nurses or visitors be developed''."p14 Lloyd Still was a member of the committee that established a public health nursing course , open to overseas nurses , at Bedford College, University of London in 1921. She attended International Council of Nursing meetings as representative of Great Britain in 1927 and 1929 and was elected President in 1933. She was president of the Florence Nightingale International Foundation 1934-1939.

Awards

Royal Red Cross awarded in 1917

Commander of the British Empire awarded in 1917

Lady of Grace of the Order of St.John in 1922

Florence Nightingale Medal awarded in 1933

Dame of the British Empire awarded in 1934

Medaille d'honneur de l'assistance publique in 1934

Retirement

Lloyd-Still retired to Curry Rivel, Sedgemoor in Somerset, during the Second World War. When she became terminally ill, she moved in with her younger sister in Buckfast, Devon, where she was nursed by two Nightingale nurses. She died there on 23 July 1944. A funeral service was held in the chapel at St Thomas's Hospital, and she was buried on 26 July in Brookwood cemetery, Surrey, in an area that she had acquired for Nightingale nurses.

Florence Nightingale Museum

Lloyd Still collected material things used or associated with Florence Nightingale as important artefacts for the history of the nursing profession. Her papers helped to found the Florence Nightingale Museum (Museum and Galleries Commission Registration #584), opened in 1989, which was based on the life of Florence Nightingale. It is on the historical site of the first purpose-built nurse training institution, the Nightingale Training School for Nurses, which closed in 1996, at St Thomas' Hospital.

The collections held by the Museum may be traced back to the gifts from Florence Nightingale to the nurses at St Thomas' in the late 19th century; Lloyd Still was Matron of St Thomas' from 1913-37. There were plans for a Nightingale Museum as early as the 1930s but these were shelved with the Second World War and not reconsidered until the late 1970s.

Prior to the formation the collections were displayed and received acclaim on major anniversaries such as 1954 (the Crimean Centenary), 1960 (the Nightingale Training School Centenary) and 1970 (the 150th anniversary of Nightingale's birth). The Florence Nightingale Museum Trust was formed in 1983 and is run as an independent charity with strong links with Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, with the British National Health Service in general, and with nursing organizations across the world. The Museum aims to provide excellent educational services for a range of users from special educational needs groups in the local community to international nurses. The Museum had 27,400 visitors in 2004. The Museum is a Registered Charity #299576.

Students

Among Lloyd Still's notable students was Theodora Turner, a future President of the Royal College of Nursing.

References

Bibliography

* Lucy Seymer, ''Dame Alicia Lloyd Still, D.B.E. R.R.C., 1869-1944: A memoir ith Portraits', Nightingale Fellowship, St. Thomas's Hospital, Smith & Ebbs, London (1953)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lloydstill, Alicia
1869 births
1944 deaths
Nurses from London
British nursing administrators
Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Members of the Royal Red Cross