Lucy Duff-Grant
- Reference:GB 1199 RCN2/4/4
- Dates of Creation:1919-1984
- Name of Creator:
- Physical Description:0.01m
Scope and Content
Membership file, correspondence, Thanksgiving service.
Administrative / Biographical History
Duff Grant, Lucy (1894-1984). Duff-Grant was President of the RCN (1950-52) and of the National Council of Nurses (1951-1957). She began her training in 1916 (St Thomas' 1916-1919), having decided on her future profession at the age of eight, and describes the daily ward routines at St Thomas's. She joined the RCN soon after it was formed and was also involved in the GNC as member and later the chairman of the education examination committee. She disliked the disciplinary work she had to do there. She worked hard on the RCN educational fund appeal. In this interview she expresses her favourable views on TUC membership and male nurses. However, she is against strikes. Duff-Grant describes some of her work with the ICN, of which she was elected Vice-President, and gives further details of the early years of the College and her GNC work. She also talks about her ideal of vocational nursing, in the tradition of Florence Nightingale, and her religious faith. She was matron at Manchester Royal Infirmary during the Second World War and she talks about this and about her visits abroad with the Territorial Army, especially to Turkey. She reminisces about her schooling and her childhood in London. Her father wanted her to be an artist and she had a studio in Paris for a year, but she preferred nursing, though she continued painting and embroidering as a hobby. She describes some figures of early days of the RCN and talks in detail about her time as matron in Manchester (1929-1955), where she set up the training school. She was a recipient of a Royal Red Cross for her wartime work.
Access Information
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Conditions Governing Use
Royal College of Nursing
Custodial History
From Membership Records
Personal Names