Beatrice Cutler

Cutler was born 25 August 1861 in the Bloomsbury area of London.{{Cite book |title=Saint George, Bloomsbury, Church of England Births and Baptisms |date=1861 |location=The London Archives, available via Ancestry}} From 1885 to 1888 Cutler was a probationer nurse at St Bartholomew's Hospital, London where she successfully completed three years certified nurse training in 1888,{{Cite book |title=Burdett's Official Nursing Directory |date=1898 |publisher=Sir Henry Burdett}}{{Cite book |title=Register of Nurses |date=1922 |publisher=General Nursing Council for England and Wales}} becoming Staff Nurse there from May–November 1888. Cutler was trained by Ethel Gordon Fenwick the then Matron at St Bartholomew's, who was to be a great influence in her nursing career.{{Cite journal |date=1942 |title=The Passing Bell |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=90 |issue=2090}}

In December 1888 Cutler relocated to Egypt for what she considered "the great adventure of her life" as Sister at Kasr-el-Aini Hospital, Cairo, until 1892.{{Cite book |title=Roll of Members |publisher=Royal British Nursing Association |year=1909}} Between 1892 and 1898 she was Superintendent, Medical School for Girls Kasr-el-Aini Hospital, Cairo. The hospital had been founded in 1837, but with Britain's invasion of Egypt in 1882, there was the opportunity for British staff such as Cutler to create change. Cutler led work introducing hospital nurse training for the local nurses.{{Cite journal |date=12 September 1889 |title=Nursing Echoes |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=3 |issue=76}} She was also in charge of the hospital's midwifery wards and the gynæcological section.{{Cite journal |date=21 May 1898 |title=Our Foreign Letter |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=20 |issue=529}} This work came at some personal risk – with her predecessor, Hughes dying of typhoid in 1889.

Whilst in Egypt Cutler retained close ties to England. She registered on the 21 July 1893 as a member of the Royal British Nurses' Association which was lobbying for the state registration of trained nurses. Cutler returned to London for a brief time, between August–October 1890, as a pupil midwife, at the City of London Lying-in Hospital, gaining the certificate of the London Obstetrical Society (a recognised midwifery certificate) allowing her to use 'cert., L.O.S.' after her name. In 1895 she trained for her Massage Certificate.

In 1898 she became Inspector of Pilgrims in the Quarantine Camp, El-Tor, Suez, Egypt, a role that aimed to reduce infectious diseases, particularly plague.{{Cite journal |date=29 Oct 1898 |title=Appointments |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=21 |issue=552}} From 1898 to 1902 she was Matron of the English Hospital and Victoria Nursing Home, Cairo and in 1901 became a member of the Matrons' Council.{{Cite journal |date=24 Aug 1901 |title=The Matrons' Council |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=27 |issue=699}}

In 1902 Cutler returned to England, and was Matron, Much Wenlock Hospital Shropshire until 1904. Also in 1902 she increased her active involvement in Fenwick's nursing campaign and was increasingly mentioned in The Nursing Record. Cutler was elected as member number 11 of the Society for the State Registration of Nurses, and listed as one of the first hundred members of the Society.{{Cite journal |date=15 Mar 1902 |title=The Society for the State Registration of Nurses |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=28 |issue=728}} In 1904 she returned to London as Superintendent of the Nurses' Home, St Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1907 she was promoted to Assistant Matron at St Bartholomew's Hospital, a post she held until 1920. From 1910-1920 she was assistant matron to Annie McIntosh.

Throughout this time she remained an active campaigner, including becoming Secretary of the newly formed National Council of Nurses from 1908 until at least 1922.{{Cite journal |last=Cutler |first=Beatrice |date=8 Feb 1908 |title=The National Council of Nurses |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=40 |issue=1036}}{{Cite journal |date=3 June 1922 |title=The International Council of Nurses |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=68 |issue=1783}} This role included a regular column in 'The Nursing Record' outlining Council meetings and activities, which she was frequently called upon to chair, and being actively involved in the International Nursing Congress which took place in London in 1909.{{Cite journal |date=23 Jan 1909 |title=The International Nursing Congress |journal=The Nursing Record (London, England) |volume=42 |issue=1086}} The press reports her financial donations towards the campaign for state registration in the UK, and her role in a deputation to Parliament on that issue.{{Cite journal |date=11 May 1912 |title=State Registration and the House of Commons |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=48 |issue=1258}}

Whilst at St. Bartholomew's, Cutler worked alongside Matron Isla Stewart. Stewart co-authored Practical Nursing, with Dr Herbert Guff, first published in 1899 it had multiple editions. Upon Stewart's death in 1910 Cuff worked with Cutler to update the 1911 edition.{{Cite journal |date=10 Dec 1910 |title=Professional Review |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=45 |issue=1184}}

Shortly after World War I was declared on 4 August 1914, Cutler set out on the 19th August 1914 leading a party of 15 nurses to Belgium for the Belgian Red Cross, 'Arriving as they did in Brussels the day before the occupation of the city by the Germans they were under arrest during the whole of their stay there. They worked in the Hospital of St- Pierre, nursing—with French, Belgian, and Swiss colleagues'.{{Cite journal |date=17 Oct 1914 |title=Nursing and the War |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=53 |issue=1385}} Upon her return she focused on her duties at Barts, although during the war she visited Barts nurses based in Europe such as visit to Bolougne.{{Cite journal |date=10 July 1915 |title=League of St. Bartholomew's Hospital Nurses |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=55 |issue=1423}}

The campaign for nurse registration continued throughout the war, and Cutler continued in her work on the executive of the National Council of Nurses. Her wartime experiences informed her campaigning, strengthening her arguments in favour of nurse registration. This can be seen in her keynote paper on 'Military Nursing and Registration' at the Society for the State Registration of Nurses conference in the summer of 1915 which was written up in full in The Nursing Record.{{Cite journal |date=26 June 1915 |title=Conference Day |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=54 |issue=1421}} She argued that the lack of a register thwarted the effective mobilisation of specialist nurses as part of the war effort.

Cutler was Honorary Secretary and a founder member of League of St Bartholomew's Hospital Nurses 1914–1920 and at the time of her death was vice-president of the League of St. Bartholomew's Hospital Nurses. She was also involved in the Trained Women Nurses' Friendly Society.{{Cite journal |date=18 Dec 1915 |title=The Late Miss M. A. Buckingham |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=55 |issue=1446}} In 1919 she was elected to the Council of the Royal British Nurses' Association.{{Cite journal |date=5 July 1919 |title=Royal British Nurses' Association Annual Meeting |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=63 |issue=1631}}

After her retirement from St Bartholomew's in 1920,{{Cite journal |date=14 Feb 1920 |title=Resignations |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=64 |issue=1663}} Cutler continued to take a keen and active interest in her profession. During 1921 Cutler was 'Home Sister' for the new Nurses' Club that opened at the new headquarters of the Royal British Nurses' Association at 194 Queen's Gate in London.{{Cite journal |date=16 Apr 1921 |title=Royal British Nurses' Association |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=65 |issue=1724}}{{Cite journal |date=15 Oct 1921 |title=Resignation of Miss Cutler |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=67 |issue=1750}}

On 30 September 1921 Cutler successfully registered with the General Nursing Council – becoming number 17 on the register, giving her address as Limpsfield Surrey. This was during the contentious introduction of registration when Ethel Gordon Fenwick insisted on personally reviewing all the applications – Cutler's early inclusion on the register was probably due to her longstanding relationship as Fenwick's student and active supporter. Cutler maintained her registration, being listed at the same address twenty years later in 1940, by which point newly registered nurses were allocated numbers in the 100,000s. Cutler remained actively involved in Fenwick's Royal British Nurses' Association, of which she was Hon. Secretary at the time of her death in 1942.

Life was not all campaigning; at Wenlock Cutler had a collie dog called Ben who formed part of a profile piece in 1908{{Cite journal |date=16 May 1908 |title=The National Council of Trained Nurses |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=40 |issue=1050}} and her retirement was marked with a portrait of her with her guineapig at St Bartholomew's Hospital.{{Cite journal |date=15 May 1920 |title=Nursing Echoes |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=64 |issue=1676}} She enjoyed travel and in January 1922 she announced an extended trip to South Africa{{Cite journal |date=14 Jan 1922 |title=Miss Beatrice Cutler |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=68 |issue=1763}} returning in time to represent the Council of Nurses at the International Council of Nurses Congress in Copenhagen. She was travelling in South Africa upon the outbreak of the Second World War, at which point she returned to UK and joined a splint making party at St Bartholomew's outpatients each week until her death in 1942.

On 4 August 1942 Cutler died after a short illness at St Bartholomew's Hospital.{{Cite book |title=England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations) |date=1942 |pages=420}} A service took place in the Church of St. Bartholomew-the-Less for friends and colleagues, with a final service at Golders Green.

For her service in the First World War, she was awarded the British War Medal 1914–1918 and the Victory Medal (UK). She was also awarded the Mons Star and the Marie Jose Medal by the Belgian Red Cross.{{Cite journal |date=15 May 1915 |title=Nursing Echoes |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=54 |issue=1415}}

Along with Isla Stewart Cutler was awarded French Medaille d'Argent de l'Assistance Publique; their award was for the supervision of French nursing students from the Assistance Publique de Paris on a training secondment.{{Cite journal |date=31 Jul 1909 |title=The Banquet |journal=The Nursing Record |volume=43 |issue=1113}}

In 1943 a bed at St Bartholomew's Hospital was endowed in her memory.{{Cite web |title=Search Results |url=https://www.calmview.co.uk/BartsHealth/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=SBHX5/97&pos=5 |access-date=2025-05-13 |website=www.calmview.co.uk}}

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Category:British nurses

Category:1861 births

Category:1942 deaths

Category:British nursing administrators