The Queen’s Nursing Institute collaborated on a number of films during the 20th Century, the earliest dating from 1920. These films are now stored in the British Film Institute National Film Archive. A selection of the films has now been transferred onto DVD to bring them to a new audience and to help commemorate the 150th anniversary of district nursing. The DVD is available to buy from the QNI website shop for only £10 plus p&p. There are six films on the DVD and in total there is over one and a half hours of archive footage. Modern audiences should note that the films faithfully portray the attitudes of the times and have not been edited in any way for the DVD. The six films are:

Appeal for District Nursing Associations (1930)
This short film was originally shown in cinemas all over the country to encourage people to join their local district nursing association, each town or city having its name edited into the title sequence and contact information added at the end. It was introduced by Christopher Stone, a popular BBC radio presenter and household name. ‘For a few coppers a week’ he said, the service ‘offers the biggest bargain I know.’ This particular copy comes from Stoke-on-Trent, courtesy of the Staffordshire Film Archive and the Nursing History Group of North Staffordshire.

Queen’s Nurses at Work in Country Districts (1930s)
Only one 16mm copy of this film is known to exist. It is a silent black and white film with no production information. Nothing is known of the nurses who appear in the picture.

‘A Friend of the Family’ (1949)
This half hour black and white film was the most ambitious film project of the Institute. It cost £8000 to make and was paid for by the South African Gift to Britain Fund. The film is a hybrid of drama and documentary and aimed to bring the work of district nurses to a wider audience in Britain and abroad. Instead of actresses, it was decided to have real nurses acting the chief parts, and a real doctor and real patients in most of the parts. The film was shot in London, Hertfordshire and Pembrokeshire. The nurse stars were: Grace Hawkins, Camberwell District Nursing Association Margaret Edwards, Wimbledon District Nursing Association Phyllis Hubbard, Watford District Nursing Association The narrator of the film is actor John Mills, and the studio was Gaumont-British Instructional Limited, part of Arthur Rank. The Director was James Hill whose long career included films such as ‘Born Free’. The film was shown for four weeks in the West End before touring the country and was also shown abroad.

District Nurse (1952)
This is a beautiful black and white documentary film around 25 minutes in length was directed by Sarah Erulkar. The Queen’s Nurses’ Magazine of July 1952 commented, “…the film [was] made recently at Wadhurst in Sussex depicting the life and work of two district nurses in a rural area. Queen’s Nurse Nora Parsons and Queen’s Nurse Dorothy Jeal acted their own lives in the film, in which there are no professional actors; the scenes being ‘shot’ in the villagers’ homes, the schools, in the infant welfare centre, and in the countryside…The film was made by World Wide Pictures Limited for showing in various countries of South-East Asia as part of the Central Office of Information series on ‘The British Way of Life’, the commentary being translated into ten different languages….Officers of the Institute…were much impressed with its beauty and imaginative production.” Dorothy Jeal and Nora Parsons also ‘starred’ in a 1949 educational publication of the same name, part of the ‘Women at Work’ series.

Town Nurse, Country Nurse (1965)
This half hour black and white film, made for the Central Office of Information by James Archibald and Associates, was made with the assistance of the QNI. The District Nurse magazine wrote, “The film shows the work of two of the ten thousand district nursing sisters who form part of the public health nursing team under the National Health Service. One sister is engaged in general nursing in London, and we follow her on her moped through the East End traffic to her patients’ homes. The second sister, in rural Berkshire, combines district nursing with midwifery and health visiting. Covering a larger area by car, she has a wider variety of patients calling for the use of her skills acquired during her training.” The tone of this film is very different to that of ‘District Nurse’.

Appeal for the Queen’s Nursing Institute (1974)
This five minute appeal, introduced by Roy Hudd, was originally shown on television and shows a typical working day of district nurses of the time, featuring Helena Kercher.

You can visit the British Film Institute National Archive here.