Bristol museum opens new "Answering the Call: Our NHS Commonwealth Nurses" exhibition

A Bristol museum has launched a new exhibition focusing on the histories of intrepid nurses who travelled from Commonwealth countries to work in the newly formed NHS.

On July 5, 1948, the government took control of 2,688 hospitals with 54,000 vacancies compounded by post-war losses, low wages, and other barriers like the marriage bar on women. To tackle the issue, Health minister Aneurin Bevin (1945-51), the chief architect of the NHS, planned to recruit nurses and students from Europe and the Commonwealth.

Answering the Call: Our NHS Commonwealth Nurses at Glenside Hospital Museum explores the important work done by people from the Commonwealth in the newly formed NHS and is funded by Historic England’s Everyday Heritage Grants: Celebrating Working Class History.

The oral history of the intrepid Commonwealth nurses were recorded by a team of ex-nurses, students and community members who used stitching, print and sculpture to create a display of work that gives visitors an insight into their contribution and psychiatric hospital care.

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Participants were encouraged to share their reflections during the creation. One participant shared: “The curator told us stories about the activities the patients of the hospital were given to distract them from their particular mental plight, I sewed words associated with mental health that I have personal experience with – myself and others in my immediate family”. Another said: “I sew to repair myself, to help myself stay together”.

Antonette Clarke-Akalanne did her General Nurse Training between 1960 to 1964 and remembers Enoch Powell coming to her school in Barbados to invite the girls to come and do nursing in England. She shared: “It was an opportunity to get away from my mum, I’d be able to dance and get away from the restrictions of home. So I was excited for me. I did apply. It’s been really important participating in the project as it contributes to education, as many people will not have known the history.”

The exhibition will run until December 14 and can be seen Wednesday mornings from 10am to 1pm and Saturdays from 10am to 4pm. Entry to Glenside Hospital Museum costs £5 for annual pass, £3 for Art fund students and free for children.

University of the West of England, Glenside Campus, Blackberry Hill, Bristol BS16 1DD.