From Association to Union: professional organization of Asylum Attendants, 1869-1919.

Before the growth of trade unionism among mental nurses, there had existed in England rudiments of a professional organization of Asylum Attendants, the 'Asylum Workers Association.' The organization disappeared almost without trace after the first world war, in intriguing circumstances. Toward the end of the nineteenth century nursing organization was moving apace. It was still difficult for nurses to free themselves from the control of their hospital schools after training, to advance themselves professionally and to seek better positions. This control did not protect the nurse from the use of unskilled labour. Bedford Fenwick, wife of an M.P. and matron of a large London hospital, together with a number of other younger matrons identified the nursing question with the question of woman's suffrage and founded, in 1887, the British Nursing Association to advance interests of nurses. One central purpose of the association was to gain incorporation under a Royal Charter and state recognition of registration of nurses. The organization was set up with remarkable care as regards constitution and balance of the many diverse interests bearing on the profession.