Industry and Autonomy in Early Occupational Health Nursing: The Welfare Officers of the Lancashire Cotton Mills in the Mid-Twentieth Century.

The article presents a study on women welfare workers in the mid-twentieth century Lancashire cotton towns of Oldham and Ashton-under-Lyne in the Northwest of England. In this article, the history of a particular occupational group and the history of occupational loyalties in a context that required commitment to both the needs of patients and the employers' demands is presented.