Nurse Faith Louise Chalinor (1907 – 1976) Alan Payne December 2020
The home of Nurse Chalinor at Byway, Chapel Lane (courtesy Carol Payne)
We often associate nursing with the work of Florence Nightingale, "The Lady with the Lamp", in the Crimean War in the 1850s. That was in a military context but publicity from newspapers established her reputation for the training of secular middle-class ladies as nurses with a role in medicine independent of doctors. Florence Nightingale used her national reputation to work as an administrator and author of nursing text books that really established the profession.
Box Nurses before 1948
The story of nursing in Box started after 1919. Before then, medical aid in the village depended on the doctor, starting with the staff of Kingsdown Lunatic Asylum. Many of these local Medical Practitioners lived in the village rather than in the Asylum and would often undertake independent work. In 1889 Dr James Pirie Martin settled in the village and undertook his work independent of the Asylum. All of these doctors undertook medical work for a fee or occasionally out of charity and many employed female staff not as nurses in modern terms but rather as personal assistants or gofers. For ordinary Box residents, medical duties involving dressings, infection diagnosis and control, and maternity work were usually depended on the experience of elderly local women.
District Nursing Associations were started nationally after the 1880s and nursing was introduced to the village when the Box Nursing Association was formed in January 1919.[1] The Nurses Registration Act of that year finally established a formal registration of professional nurses and Box realised the need to arrange health support in the village. The Box group set out specific rules and a scale of annual fees payable by subscription: Labourers 2s; Artisans and School Teachers 3s; Small Farmers and Tradespeople 5s; Large Farmers and Tradespeople 7s.6d; Gentry 10s. Nursing home visits required supplementary costs ranging from 1d to 2s per visit. The first nurse was Nurse Gregory who was prohibited to receive any gratuity nor take any beer or spirits. The association didn’t replace nursing, particularly for maternity needs, but brought a professionalism instead of old wives’ tales and was particularly helpful in outlying hamlets where experience was limited.[2]
Nursing After 1948
The nationalisation of the health service on 5 July 1948 brought in a complete change. A public leaflet explaining the system claimed: It will provide you with all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone – rich or poor, man, woman or child-can use it or any part of it. There are no charges, except for a few special items. There are no insurance qualifications. The abolition of voluntary district nursing associations was replaced by a role for local authorities who employed domiciliary nurses, with duties as social workers and out-reach district medical care. They were particularly needed to deal with war injuries, physical and mental, and the needs of widowed women who found themselves isolated as single parents in areas away from their pre-war homes.
The introduction of the new system was fraught with difficulty locally due to a severe national shortage of nurses after the war. Box reacted by enticing the district nurse from Atworth into the village, the start of a 25-year association with the village and the nursing provided by District Nurse Louise Chalinor.
Nurse Louise Chalinor
Nurse Chalinor (5 November 1907 – 6 September 1976) was the daughter of Peter and Sarah Chalinor of Birkenhead. She was a woman of imposing presence and authority who was equally used to social problems as well as health issues. In 1934 she dealt with a case of child neglect at Atworth. Beatrice Becky, wife of a farm labourer, was accused of allowing her four children to be in a filthy state, dirty and their bodies flea-bitten and their heads full of nits.[3] They had been expelled from school because of head lice and Louise had taken them to her house to clean them and had tried to look after them. As well as this social work, her duties often included registering the births of Atworth children to assist the parents.[4]
After the war, Nurse Chalinor moved into Byway, Chapel Lane, renting rooms from the owner Ada Caroline Locock (November 5th 1882-1975), which enabled her to get to many residents on foot or by bicycle as she was in the centre of the village.[5]
Ada Locock was the daughter of William Frank Locock, Gentleman, from Easton House, Corsham, and a nurse herself who had served at Corsham VAD Red Cross Hospital in the First World War.[6] Miss Locock was a creative woman giving talks in the village and surrounding areas on quilting and fancy blotter-making for fountain pen writing.[7] She owned various properties around Box, including Charming old residence (Tudor) 11 rooms, 12 acres at Middlehill. The property was probably run down and she let it out whilst living in a bungalow and after 1927 at Byway, Chapel Lane. For decades, she bred Terrier dogs (puppies carefully reared) and sold them to good homes.[8]
The story of nursing in Box started after 1919. Before then, medical aid in the village depended on the doctor, starting with the staff of Kingsdown Lunatic Asylum. Many of these local Medical Practitioners lived in the village rather than in the Asylum and would often undertake independent work. In 1889 Dr James Pirie Martin settled in the village and undertook his work independent of the Asylum. All of these doctors undertook medical work for a fee or occasionally out of charity and many employed female staff not as nurses in modern terms but rather as personal assistants or gofers. For ordinary Box residents, medical duties involving dressings, infection diagnosis and control, and maternity work were usually depended on the experience of elderly local women.
District Nursing Associations were started nationally after the 1880s and nursing was introduced to the village when the Box Nursing Association was formed in January 1919.[1] The Nurses Registration Act of that year finally established a formal registration of professional nurses and Box realised the need to arrange health support in the village. The Box group set out specific rules and a scale of annual fees payable by subscription: Labourers 2s; Artisans and School Teachers 3s; Small Farmers and Tradespeople 5s; Large Farmers and Tradespeople 7s.6d; Gentry 10s. Nursing home visits required supplementary costs ranging from 1d to 2s per visit. The first nurse was Nurse Gregory who was prohibited to receive any gratuity nor take any beer or spirits. The association didn’t replace nursing, particularly for maternity needs, but brought a professionalism instead of old wives’ tales and was particularly helpful in outlying hamlets where experience was limited.[2]
Nursing After 1948
The nationalisation of the health service on 5 July 1948 brought in a complete change. A public leaflet explaining the system claimed: It will provide you with all medical, dental and nursing care. Everyone – rich or poor, man, woman or child-can use it or any part of it. There are no charges, except for a few special items. There are no insurance qualifications. The abolition of voluntary district nursing associations was replaced by a role for local authorities who employed domiciliary nurses, with duties as social workers and out-reach district medical care. They were particularly needed to deal with war injuries, physical and mental, and the needs of widowed women who found themselves isolated as single parents in areas away from their pre-war homes.
The introduction of the new system was fraught with difficulty locally due to a severe national shortage of nurses after the war. Box reacted by enticing the district nurse from Atworth into the village, the start of a 25-year association with the village and the nursing provided by District Nurse Louise Chalinor.
Nurse Louise Chalinor
Nurse Chalinor (5 November 1907 – 6 September 1976) was the daughter of Peter and Sarah Chalinor of Birkenhead. She was a woman of imposing presence and authority who was equally used to social problems as well as health issues. In 1934 she dealt with a case of child neglect at Atworth. Beatrice Becky, wife of a farm labourer, was accused of allowing her four children to be in a filthy state, dirty and their bodies flea-bitten and their heads full of nits.[3] They had been expelled from school because of head lice and Louise had taken them to her house to clean them and had tried to look after them. As well as this social work, her duties often included registering the births of Atworth children to assist the parents.[4]
After the war, Nurse Chalinor moved into Byway, Chapel Lane, renting rooms from the owner Ada Caroline Locock (November 5th 1882-1975), which enabled her to get to many residents on foot or by bicycle as she was in the centre of the village.[5]
Ada Locock was the daughter of William Frank Locock, Gentleman, from Easton House, Corsham, and a nurse herself who had served at Corsham VAD Red Cross Hospital in the First World War.[6] Miss Locock was a creative woman giving talks in the village and surrounding areas on quilting and fancy blotter-making for fountain pen writing.[7] She owned various properties around Box, including Charming old residence (Tudor) 11 rooms, 12 acres at Middlehill. The property was probably run down and she let it out whilst living in a bungalow and after 1927 at Byway, Chapel Lane. For decades, she bred Terrier dogs (puppies carefully reared) and sold them to good homes.[8]
Nurse Chalinor was a well-known person throughout the area and onw with a formidable reputation. Genevieve Brunt recently commented about her: My mum Mildred and I would regularly queue up in the Methodist Church schoolroom for our rations of cod liver oil and orange juice with added vitamins which were dished out by Nurse Chalinor, whose physical frame and authoritarian attitude terrified me. She was helped in midwifery matters by elderly ladies of the village including our neighbour Mrs Bow at 4 Valens Terrace.
As well as her district nursing duties, Louise Chalinor was an ideal person for restoring local institutions after the end of the Second World War. When the first post-war, local authority elections were held for Urban and Rural District Councils in 1946, she stood for one of the two Box seats.[9] In 1949 she was nominated to fill a vacancy on the Box Parish Council.[10]
Her authority obviously led her to take on more roles in Box School. In 1953 she was one of seven school managers along with the vicar, chair of council, lord of the manor and similar.[11] In 1960 an outbreak of disease at Box School made the children like ghosts and listless.[12] Measures were taken such as disinfectment (sic), washing door handles and every possible cause of contact.
By 1971 Louise was unwell. Vicar Tom Selwyn-Smith recorded that she had been hospitalised for a long time. As one who nursed so many in their sickness and has seen so many into the world, it is difficult to think of her at the receiving end.[13] By her own industry and care, she had become a village institution. She died in 1976 at Trowbridge.
We would love to hear more if you have memories of Nurse Chalinor and particularly if anyone has a photo of her.
Her authority obviously led her to take on more roles in Box School. In 1953 she was one of seven school managers along with the vicar, chair of council, lord of the manor and similar.[11] In 1960 an outbreak of disease at Box School made the children like ghosts and listless.[12] Measures were taken such as disinfectment (sic), washing door handles and every possible cause of contact.
By 1971 Louise was unwell. Vicar Tom Selwyn-Smith recorded that she had been hospitalised for a long time. As one who nursed so many in their sickness and has seen so many into the world, it is difficult to think of her at the receiving end.[13] By her own industry and care, she had become a village institution. She died in 1976 at Trowbridge.
We would love to hear more if you have memories of Nurse Chalinor and particularly if anyone has a photo of her.
References
[1] Parish Magazine, January 1919
[2] See Up Hill and Down Hill where Katherine Harris wrote: This dedicated lady ministered to the sick, elderly and the injured in the parish, and to reach these in outlying areas she used a bicycle. After I had a particularly bad tumble the nurse came daily to our home at The Old Jockey to attend to my injured knee.
[3] The Wiltshire Times, 3 February 1934
[4] The Wiltshire Times, 26 April and 14 May 1941
[5] Parish Magazine, August 1955
[6] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 30 April 1938
[7] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 14 April 1934
[8] Western Daily Press, 4 April 1927 and Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 23 April 1927
[9] The Wiltshire Times, 23 March 1946
[10] The Wiltshire Times, 28 May 1949
[11] Parish Magazine, April 1953
[12] Parish Magazine, January 1960
[13] Parish Magazine, August 1971
[1] Parish Magazine, January 1919
[2] See Up Hill and Down Hill where Katherine Harris wrote: This dedicated lady ministered to the sick, elderly and the injured in the parish, and to reach these in outlying areas she used a bicycle. After I had a particularly bad tumble the nurse came daily to our home at The Old Jockey to attend to my injured knee.
[3] The Wiltshire Times, 3 February 1934
[4] The Wiltshire Times, 26 April and 14 May 1941
[5] Parish Magazine, August 1955
[6] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 30 April 1938
[7] Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser, 14 April 1934
[8] Western Daily Press, 4 April 1927 and Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 23 April 1927
[9] The Wiltshire Times, 23 March 1946
[10] The Wiltshire Times, 28 May 1949
[11] Parish Magazine, April 1953
[12] Parish Magazine, January 1960
[13] Parish Magazine, August 1971