Our medical heritage

The archive of King Edward VII Hospital in Windsor, and its predecessor Windsor General Dispensary and Infirmary, has been supplemented by additional records, 1828-2000 (D/H6). The Visitors’ Book includes many signatures of the Royal Family, including three visits by the late Queen Elizabeth II, and also that of Alexander Fleming, discoverer of penicillin, when he visited the hospital in 1920. There are a large number of fascinating photographs of staff in the collection, as well as this image of a very busy waiting room in the early 1900s.

Records added to the archive of the Queen Victoria Institute Fund (formerly the Queen Victoria Institute for District Nursing in the County Borough of Reading) (D/QX23) show how this charity has changed with the times. Initially providing nursing care for people in their own homes, the charity now works alongside the NHS to provide a chiropody clinic for those unable to afford private foot care. The existing catalogue has also been improved to include much more detail on the contents of the minutes and annual reports.

Two missing patient files for John Gould, 1888-1890 and Sarah Hannah Calendar, 1890-1911, have been added to the rich archive of Broadmoor Hospital (D/H14). We have also acquired a map showing the locations of various social services sites in Berkshire, 1977 (D/EX2377). Records of Wokingham Hospital, 1964-1993, include the official Visitors’ reports, 1964-1974 (D/H13).

Schools

We have catalogued the records of St Nicholas’ CE Primary School, Hurst, 1867-1988 (SCH51). Founded in 1818 as Hurst and Ruscombe National School, the records include admissions registers for boys, 1867-1948, girls, 1894-1949, infants, 1898-1938, and combined, 1949-1987; and the managers’ minutes, 1938-1980. A volume of certificates of exclusion on medical grounds reveal the Medical Officer’s advice that a little girl’s head should be shaved to stop infestation with headlice.

The Green Girls’ School, Reading, was a charity boarding school founded in 1782 which trained older girls (aged 12-16) in fine needlework and domestic duties. We recently acquired a volume of the annual reports and accounts, 1894 (D/EX2828) which includes reports by the chairman of the governing body, the treasurer, the matron, the Medical Office; the Diocesan Inspection report, 1894; list of girls in the school at Christmas 1894, with ages and note of number in their family; daily timetable; school rules; and price list for needlework done by pupils.

Wilton House was a private boarding school for girls in Parkside Road, Reading and we have been given a selection of the school magazines, 1927-1931 (D/EX2816). They include news of Old Girls’ lives and travels abroad, including accounts of trips to the Tyrol and Gran Canaria and a description of life for Europeans in Cap St Jacques, 1928-1929. In 1928 Old Girl Phyllis Baker talked about her voluntary work in a VAD Hospital during the First World War and later for the Reading West branch of the Church of England Waifs and Strays Society and the Twyford branch of the Women's Institute; and in 1931 another Old Girl wrote on her work as a nurse at Lord Mayor Treloar's Hospital for disabled children, Alton, Hampshire; and there is an article on careers for girls in horticulture and secretarial work.

We have listed records of Winnersh Primary School, 1994-2010 (SCH48); and of Thamesbridge College (formerly Ashmead School), Reading, 1992-2000 (SCH7) as well as the records of The Meadway Comprehensive, Tilehurst, 1972-2001 (SCH52). The latter includes records of its two preceding schools, Battle and Wilson, both in Reading, 1891-1968 and 1905-1972 respectively. You can also read more about a performance at the school that starred Sir Kenneth Branagh at the mere age of 12 in a previous highlight.

Further education by distance learning is represented by some 1970s miscellanea of the School of Careers (D/EX2825). From its base at Aldermaston Court, the School of Careers offered more than 600 postal courses in commercial, technical, and professional subjects to those aged 16 and over. Courses were taught remotely by correspondence over a period of up to five years.

New for family history

For those interested in looking up their Berkshire ancestors in the parish registers, we have received the following recent additions:

• Combe: marriages, 2018-2019 (D/P197)
• Enborne: marriages, 2013-2018 (D/P51)
• Hamstead Marshall: marriages, 2001-2020 (D/P61)
• Inkpen: marriages, 2019 (D/P76)
• Kintbury: marriages, 2018-2020 (D/P71)
• Pangbourne: marriages, 2013-2020 (D/P91)
• Sulham: marriages, 2001-2019 (D/P123)
• Tidmarsh: marriages, 2000-2020 (D/P130)
• West Woodhay: marriages, 1986-2019 (D/P155)

You can find out more about any of the records mentioned here and more, by searching our online catalogue. Simply enter the collection references mentioned above into the Catalogue Reference field.