Barbara Noel Fawkes (25 December 1914 – 4 October 2002) was a British nurse and nursing educator. She served as Chief Education Officer,

General Nursing Council General Nursing Councils for England & Wales, Scotland, and Ireland (then one country and part of the United Kingdom) were established by three country specific Nurses Registration Act 1919, Nurses Registration Acts 1919. Each General Nursing C ...

for England and Wales from 1959 to 1974.

Biography

Fawkes was born in

Tonbridge Tonbridge ( ) (historic spelling ''Tunbridge'') is a market town in Kent, England, on the River Medway, north of Royal Tunbridge Wells, south west of Maidstone and south east of London. In the administrative borough of Tonbridge and Mall ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

on 24 December 1914, to Osborne Pegler Fawkes and his wife Hilda Lascelles. Her father became a farmer and hop grower in Sussex, where the family, including her younger brother and sister, settled. Her mother was a qualified teacher, so taught Fawkes at home until she started school at Tunbridge Wells High School when she was nine years old. She was unable to afford university, so instead turned to nursing. Beginning her nursing training, first as a pre-nursing student at Middlesex Convalescent Home in 1933, Fawkes went on to train as a nurse at the

Middlesex Hospital Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...

, London, from 1934. She qualified as a nurse in June 1937, and in 1938, she won the Farndon Memorial Gold Medal, which allowed her to train as a midwife at the hospital without fee. She finished her training within six months, and the following year she moved towards becoming a tutor herself. She started in

Stoke Mandeville Hospital Stoke Mandeville Hospital is a large National Health Service (NHS) hospital located on the parish borders of Aylesbury and Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire, England. It is managed by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust. It was established ...

, working in the air raid casualty ward, and was appointed the principal of the Macdonald Buchanan School of Nursing in 1946, even though she was the youngest member of staff. There she introduced changes in the education system of nurses, splitting students time between the classroom and on the ward, advocating similar changes elsewhere. In 1952 she received a

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

scholarship to study education and administration at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

, where she was graduated, earning her B.Sc. She went on to tour Commonwealth hospitals in Canada, Australia and New Zealand. She left the Middlesex Hospital in 1956 to begin her career in nursing education, which she began as chief education officer with the General Nursing Council, from which she retired in 1974. Between 1961 and 1963 Fawkes was a member of the influential Platt Committee on Nursing Education for the

Royal College of Nursing The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is a registered trade union and professional body in the United Kingdom for those in the profession of nursing. It was founded in 1916 as the College of Nursing, receiving its royal charter in 1928. Queen Eliz ...

, led by Harry Platt which published as the

Platt Report 1964 The Platt Report (1964) or the Platt Report(s) on the Reform of Nursing Education was the report of Harry Platt upon the investigations of a committee established by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). It made recommendations about how nurses sh ...

. Fawkes was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

. She died in Sussex on 4 October 2002, and a memorial was subsequently held at Middlesex Hospital.

Affiliations

* Member, Central Health Service Council * Member, Council for Academic Awards * UK representative, Council of Europe from 1958 to 1967 *

representative/vice-chair, Western European Group, 1958–1978 * Member (24 years), Council of the

* She was made a Fellow of the

in 1976. * Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Nursing (

NSW New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a state on the east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria to the south, and South Australia to the west. Its coast borders the Coral and Tasman Seas to the east. T ...

) * Life Vice-president,

(UK; 1975) * Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE; 1975)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fawkes, Barbara 1914 births 2002 deaths Officers of the Order of the British Empire British nursing administrators People from Tonbridge Fellows of the Royal College of Nursing British nurses