| Admin History | Nottingham General Hospital was founded as a charitable institution by public subscription in 1782. Many extensions and additions followed including a new wing located on the Park Row frontage (1879), the five storey circular building, the Jubilee Wing (opened 1900), the Ropewalk Wing (1929), the Player Wing (1932) and the Castle Ward (1943). The Cedars, a large house off Mansfield Road donated by Sir Charles Seely in 1897, provided 20 beds for convalescing patients. The Hospital was governed by a Monthly Board, led in the 1940s by the Chairman, Sir Louis Pearson. He was succeeded as Chairman by Lt Col. N.G. Pearson. In 1940, there were 29 consultants, physicians, surgeons and other senior medical staff, and one Matron. At the formation of the National Health Service in 1948 and the take over of the hospital by the Sheffield Regional Board, the hospital comprised 423 beds and 114 at the Cedars.
Following the opening of the University Hospital, the Queen's Medical Centre, in 1977, many services were transferred there from the General. The reduction of services continued throughout the 1980s and in 1992 the General Hospital finally, closed, with its functions moving either to the University Hospital or to the City Hospital.
Margaret Ceridwen Plucknett was born on 20 November 1903 in Southville, Bristol, and trained as a nurse in London. She was the Matron at the General Hospital, Nottingham, from 1941 until her retirement in November 1958. She died in Paignton, Devon, on 8 May 2003. |
| Custodial History | The bulk of the collection was deposited by Miss Plucknett in 1992. The photograph album was donated by a family member in 2003. |
| Description | The collection comprises photographs, printed material and booklets collected by Miss Plucknett.
A photograph album presented and signed by the Consultant Staff to Miss Plucknett, containing 12 photographs of hospital staff attending a reception to mark her retirement in December 1958. None of the people in the photographs are identified. (MS 360/1);
Loose photographs, mostly undated but apparently dating from the 1940s and 1950s. They are a mixture of formal photographs of groups of nurses, and more informal photographs of consultants and senior medical staff at social events. Most have been annotated by Miss Plucknett. Those staff identified by her include Mr Allen, Mr J. Sheehan and Mr F. Hunt, surgeons; Dr Rowe, Dr J. Proctor and Dr Wilkie Scott, physicians; Mr Birkett, orthopaedic surgeon; Dr W.J. Mowat, radiologist; Lt Col. N.G. Pearson, chairman; Mr Henry Stanley, House Governor; and Mr Gilroy Glass, ENT specialist. There is also a photograph showing a group of five African Caribbean nurses, printed in the Nottingham Journal to illustrate integration of staff; a printed photograph of the Opening Ceremony by Lord Cohen of the Radiotherapy Department in Ropewalk Wing, 1958; and photographs of the hospital chapel. (MS 360/2/1-14);
Booklets and other printed material:
'An Appeal on behalf of the Nottingham General Hospital', 1924; and 'The General Hospital, Nottingham' [1930s], both illustrated with photographs of the wards and the nurses' home (MS 360/3/1-2);
List of prizes given out by Miss Plucknett at the Nottingham General Hospital School of Nursing, 4 Nov. 1960 (MS 360/3/3);
Menu for annual luncheon on 18 Oct. 1945 (MS 360/3/4);
Order of Service for General Hospital Bicentenary Thanksgiving Service at St Mary's Church, 15 Sep. 1982 (MS 360/3/5);
Nottingham Evening Post Special Publication marking the Nottingham General Hospital Bicentenary, 1982 (MS 360/3/6);
Article about personal memories of Nottingham General Hospital, from the Nottingham Evening Post, 10 Oct. 1990, including quotations from Miss Plucknett relating to air raids in May 1941. (MS 360/3/7) |