Peters Nursing Collectables

01/02/2026

I have been receiving more and more requests recently from nurses looking to replace lost or stolen badges. It is probably worthwhile reposting some previous advice I had given on the subject.
School of Nursing badges are always difficult to replace for many reasons.
1)They were only really issued to those nurses who completed a fixed term of training and passed the necessary examinations .This means that the Badge you want is limited to the size of your schools intakes, number of intakes that the badge was awarded for and the number of successful recipients of that badge. For larger Schools they may have awarded the same design of badge for 70 years or more and trained many hundreds of nurses.For some schools a design may only have been issued for a very short time to a handful of nurses, in some case less than a dozen.
2) For the very reasons that you want a badge, to signify the memories of your training, To pass on to your family, etc. So do most owners of that badge. It still surprises me that any badges at all find their way onto the secondary market. Some of these may have been lost or stolen, and unless your badge is engraved with your name it will be impossible to prove that a badge was yours. The main reason badges do come up for sale is the death of the owner and that some families do not appreciate the relevance of these. Hence the older the badge the easier it may be to source whilst badge less than 20 years old are nearly impossible to find.
3) Since the demise of the Schools of Nursing the traditional avenue to replace badges has largely vanished. It is sometimes however approaching the hospital to which the SoN was attached just in case they retained any spare badges.It is surprising what lurks in the safes of some hospitals. Some badges may also have been transferred to the universities which took over nurse education, the difficulty will be finding the right person that might know. It may be worth asking just in case.
If your hospital had a Nurses league or fellowship, and if it still exists they are always worth approaching a some do maintain a small supply of returned badges. Some such as UCH have produced good replicas.
4) The secondary market is the widest source of second hand badges. Sites such as Ebay, Etsy and Facebook market place do carry a variety of badges but competition for these can be high from both recipients looking to replace their badges and a growing band of collectors. There are some specialist dealers who sell badges,notably my own site (Closing late this year) and www.sallybossleysbadgeshop.com. There are very occasional badges to be found at antiques fairs and Car boots but this is rare.
5) Badge manufacturers.Many badges were produced by notable companies such as Fattorini in Birmingham.Whilst they may hold the patterns to a design, the ownership to allow further badges to be made lies with the commissioning School of Nursing and cannot be produced without their authority. The cost of doing so,even if able to do so, is likely to be prohibitive for a single badge.
6) Registration and Nursing associations, etc. Some badges are produced in such quantities that they are more common.The notable ones being union badges and GNC and SCM badges. Note;All are pre owned and therefore named , only GNC badges from the mid 70s have numbers only.
The sad fact is that since launching my sales site over ten years ago to dispose of years of collected badges,I have had many hundreds of requests but only been able to reunite a few dozen badges with their owners.
7) Collectors groups. There are a large number of collectors of Nursing badges and sometimes they may have duplicates which they trade or sell on. It might be worth asking but we do like to hang on to our badge!! there is a FB group School of Nursing badge Collectors, but please be polite.
For the majority of you looking to replace a badge, be prepared for disappointment or a very long wait with a lot of luck.
If emailing me via the website quote the badge you are looking for in the title,preferably add a picture of the version you want as some have many variants. I generally won't respond unless I have one in stock but will add your request to my file just in case one comes up before the site closes. Prices are variable dependant upon my purchase price and rarity etc. Please don't try and haggle, as I make very little on them if at all.

25/09/2025

I seldom post on here as my sales site is definitely winding down, although it is taking far longer than I would have liked! I just had to put up these ladies again as they were part of my incentive to start collecting. I used to regularly attend meetings at the Royal College of Nursing headquarters at Cavendish Square in London from the 1980s. There was a seating area just off the reception with display cabinets which housed these four Royal Worcester figurines of Nursing Sisters.Modelled by the Van Ruyckevelts in the 1960s in limited editions they were all sold out, particularly to nurses of the respective Hospitals they represented. Whilst I coveted them at the time, it was not until many years later I was able to acquire them, as they were ensconced and loved by their original owners. The passage of time and passing of these owners meant that they came onto the market more often. Still scarce they do crop up at auction but still command high prices.
This set represent a VAD sister of the British Red Cross, Sisters of St Thomas Hospital,The London Hospital and University College Hospital.Nearly 60 years after they were first produced and 40 years since I first met them, they still have the ability to make an old nurse smile

02/03/2024

04/01/2024

Anyone who has visited my stall at All Saints Antiques Centre will know I do like my walking sticks and canes.As well as providing a mobility support they can also serve other often hidden purposes.I have had canes with drinking flasks, to***co pipes,and sword blades all concealed within! My latest auction
acquisitions however, from a specialist auction, have a decidedly medical vibe. The first features a top bearing the Rod of Asclepius,namely the snake entwined around the staff, the ancient Greek emblem of Healthcare.The disc at the top identifies it as having being owned by Dr W E Ross ( not yet traced) and within the body is a silver pill dispenser, hallmarked for 1919.One wonders what pills he may have needed to dispense on his travels?
The second has a nice curved horn handle on an ebony shaft which once again unscrews to reveal a cased sand pulse timer. These small glass timers were calibrated, this one being one minute, to enable a pulse to be measured in the age before watches with a second hand were readily available.The case is marked Osmond and Son Ltd Grimsby Eng. with"Viper Sheep dips to the other side. The company were active from 1897 to 1976 trading in healthcare and animal nutrition products!
There may be an apparent link to Military Hospital Brighowgate in Grimsby, which was in operation from 1916-1919.
In need of further research but yet again two items I had no idea existed?

31/12/2023

So farewell to 2023 as we welcome in 2024.

I have been fairly quiet over recent months as a building project meant most of my library and collection were boxed up for the duration. This, and the amount of time, effort & cost required to maintain and source items for the site, have led to my decision to wind up my sales site over the coming months. I shall attempt to slowly list those remaining items as and when I can find them!
The bulk of these are paper ephemera, postcards ,books, certificates ,etc. My collection of hats and uniform items and of course my remaining badges will also go.
When I set up the site in 2014,it was with the intention of moving on my collections to like minded enthusiasts and I think it has achieved that to some degree.It rather morphed into sourcing missing items for the many nurses who have lost their beloved badges over the years,& I just wish I was able to help more.I have however, in the process, become an amateur antiques dealer which I hope to continue
Anyway the clock is ticking and I hope to tempt you with some of the many fascinating items that make up Nursing History.
Hope you all have a good 2024

25/11/2023

Another nurses badges and prize medal.This one is from the 1940s/50s .This group has a silver gilt medal for the Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital Awarded Most Efficient Nurse. the recipient then went on to do her General nurse training and received the covetted badge of St Thomas's Hospital Nightingale School of Nurse.Another nice group

25/11/2023

Todays auction delivery gives me the chance to try out my new photographic area(aka the new new kitchen island with Velux windows!) Not too bad for a dark November day.
The first group are to a dual trained SRN /RSCN from the late 1920s.Maud Gibson gained the gold medal from the Booth Hall infirmary Manchester for her Sick Childrens Nurse training and then went on to do her SRN training at the Salford Royal Hospital.Her silver GNC and RCN badges are also present.One wonders where she chose to spend her career but her badges ended up in a Yorkshire auction house over 90 years later.

22/10/2023

Holloway Sanatorium, Nurses training medal with long service bars.

I picked this up recently at a local auction. Even though they didn’t know what it was for it still went quite high. It is for mental nurse training at the Holloway Sanatorium at St Anne’s Heath Virginia Water. This opened as a private Mental hospital for the growing middle classes in 1885.Unlike it’s public asylum counterparts it was sumptuously decorated.It finally closed in 1980 and now houses a luxury gated development.
The badge features a number of years service bars as it was often common for staff to spend their whole career in the same institution.
The recipient E Dennison could be one of two sisters who trained at the hospital at around the same time.Elsie Mary trained from 1921-24 and Ethel Harriet from 1922-25, so this could be either. I assume the other will be out there somewhere?
I have decided to try and list my remaining collection over the coming year with a view to closing the site before my next birthday. In reality to retire from being retired! Look out for some items of interest in the months to come.

09/07/2023

The Prospectus Booklet
Nursing Shortages within the NHS are, unfortunately, nothing new. Hospitals have often struggled to keep their wards staffed particularly prior to and just after the Second World War. Recruitment from Europe and later the corners of the British Empire was widespread and concerted efforts were also made to encourage young women ( and later men) into the profession. Hospitals would vie for recruits to their own Nurse Training Schools and the first means of encouraging this was in the Nursing prospectus booklet.
These seem to appear from the 1930s onwards and would have been sent, on request, to the budding applicants.Giving details of the curriculum,facilities and amenities of each school they give a fascinating insight into the training of the time.I have been collecting these for many years but will soon be dispensing with these and more.Some are just a few pages whilst others are quite glossy productions ,all are well thumbed with the creases and tears of the years.Many would have been the first step in a career lasting years

30/04/2023

...And More Books

30/04/2023

Books and More Books.
In the olden Days its what we used to do to learn and do Research n'Stuff. As a consequence I have lots which I now need to pass on and take the weight off the rafters in my loft.Many are hard to find Hospital Histories and I have tried to keep down prices to below those of sites such as www.bookfinder.com

If you can't see what you are looking for do ask as I have many more!! Postage needs to added(UK only I'm afraid) which I will do as cheaply as I can once I know the total weight.I will just need a delivery post code and I will deal with requests in my usual leisurely pace.More to follow

04/04/2023

Alreda Blakesley ARRC 1887-1954

Whilst Militaria collectors are used to displaying and researching medal groups, it is only more recently that the awards and badges to a particular nurse have been similarly collected.It is still all too common for the different badges to the same nurse to be split up and sold separately.Increasingly however collectors recognise that keeping these together adds to the story of that individuals life and career.
This lot recently acquired at auction lists just one such picture.
They relate to Alfreda Blakesey born in Nottinghamshire on 24/01/1887.One of six siblings, five girls and a boy, she had originally trained to become a teacher but on January 1st 1913 began her nurse training at the Edmonton Infirmary,completing on 1st January 1916 having gained the gold medal for Conscienscious Merit in the Theory of Nursing.The hospital at this time was given over to the treatment of military wounded from the war.
She was gazetted for the award of the Associate Royal Red Cross on 24th February 1917,receiving her award from the King in April 1917.
She went on to do her Midwifery training after the war ,gaining her CMB on 14/08/20.I am unsure where but possibly Leeds as she appears on an electoral register at Leeds General Infirmary in 1922.She is entered onto the GNC register as SRN 4567 on 16/06/22 living in Colwick Vale Nottinghamshire until 1927.
By 1927 she is shown as being the Superintendent Nurses at Cardiff City Lodge(The workhouse later to become St David's Hospital) but was soon to be appointed Matron at the Bermondsey and Rotherhithe Hospital,when in 1930 it was renamed as St Olave's Hospital under the London County Council.She was here for a few years but ill health may have caused her leave prior to the war,moving to Surrey.
The war however meant that by 1943 she is listed in the register as being at the Quarry Hill Auxiliary Hospital St mellons Cardiff.She also Appears to have been Involved with work for the British Red Cross Society.
Wars end sees her returning to Surrey where she passed away on 21st January 1954
This framed display of her badges and WW1 memorial certificate reflect that career