Happy International Nurses' Day! Did you even know it's international nurses day?

Well you should!

- although, in the interest of honesty, I had no idea before starting on this video…

which is in partnership with NHS Professionals!

International Nurses Day takes place on the 12th of May, Florence Nightingale's birthday,

and has been running since 1965. This year marks 200 years since Florence was born and

has thus been designated by the World Health Organisation as the first ever global Year

of the Nurse and Midwife!

Particularly prescient considering the times we're in! The pandemic has emphasized to

us all just how vital our medics are, reminding those of us in Britain how much we love our

NHS- and nurses and midwives make up the largest numbers of the NHS workforce! So to celebrate

these highly skilled, multi-faceted and diverse professionals I thought I'd try my hand

at recreating some vintage nurses' outfits from the last 200 years, whilst running through

the history of nurses uniforms in the UK.

- side note: this is International Nurses Day so if you're from outside the UK let

me know what nurses uniforms look like in your country in the comments below. I bet

the differences we see around the world are going to be very interesting!

And speaking of international: 18% of nurses in the UK are non-British nationals.

Which is very significant for me because if it weren't for the opportunities to travel that the nursing

profession provides, neither my wife nor I would even exist!

My Nana, Thelma, was a nurse in the 1930s at the Boston Children's Hospital in the

US State of Massachusetts but at the outbreak of the Second World War enlisted and was sent

to the European battlefields… where she fell in love across an operating table with

my Papa, who was a surgeon with the British Army. They got married just a few weeks after

they met (in secret because servicewomen weren't allowed to marry- gasp!)

and then settled in England after the War.

And my lovely wife, Claudia's, mother Jeannie came from Malaysia to study nursing in the

UK and work for the NHS, where she met Claudia's father who is an anesthesiologist!

- Thus without the National Health Service and international nurses we wouldn't have

even come into being!

So let's get on with our sartorial celebrations!

If you enjoy vintage clothes and history with a side note of screwball medical conditions

then subscribe!

The nurse's uniform has gone through many, many changes over the last 200 years.

From floor-length dresses and aprons to today's variety of colourful scrubs, the design has

changed along with our social mores and the changing interests in comfort, functionality

and mobility.

- by the way, if you're thinking, “wow, this looks like it was filmed in a building

site”, that's because: it was. The building site... more commonly known as 'my house'.

Yes, lockdown IS going great, thank you for asking(!) I don't even miss hot water (!)

Prior to the foundation of modern medicine, nursing was a family obligation so female

family members were expected to know how to tend wounds or care for the sick. Clothing

was not designed for sanitary purposes and they definitely didn't know anything about

cross contamination! Nuns and monks provided the only structured nursing care to ill and

injured people, along with those who had long term health conditions (although admittedly,

they probably didn't last too long back in those days).

Into the 19th century, nursing was considered to be lower class and most nurses wore servants'

uniforms, which consisted of a black or printed gown with a cap and an apron.

It wasn't until Florence Nightingale, a nurse from a wealthy and well-connected but

liberal family, reorganized the care of wounded soldiers during the Crimean War in 1854 that

public opinion of nursing as a profession changed. It had previously been the job of

camp followers (generally wives and prostitutes) to care for the wounded with whatever primitive

means they could.

Florence insisted that conditions for the injured were killing men as fast at the enemy

and demanded clean bandages and bedding, fresh air, nourishing food and trained professionals

to care for them. Through her actions, showing that attending to the wounded while there

was still a chance of treating them could actually make a difference, she saved countless

lives and changed how war-wounded were seen. No longer were they treated as collateral

damage and a grateful public turned Florence into an icon of Victorian culture.

She believed that nursing is a very special type of job that takes a very special type

of person. She wrote, “Nursing is an art: and if it is to be made an art, ir requires

an exclusive devotion as hard a preparation, as any painter's or sculptor's work; for

what is the having to do with dead canvas or dead marble, compared with having to do

with the living body, the temple of God's spirit? It is one of the Fine Arts: I had

almost said, the finest of Fine Arts.”

At this time there were neither appropriate nor inappropriate clothes for nurses and in

many images Florence is simply depicted with an apron tied to her waist. The antibacterial

properties of her dress fabric was certainly not in consideration!

I've attempted to recreate a dress Florence might have worn here but you'll have to

excuse me any era discrepancies since I can't exactly leave the house to get anything…

for her hair I've gone with a popular Victorian style featuring a center parting and loops,

which is what we call the hair draping down on either side of the face. This was meant

to cover the ears then swoop back towards a bun at the back of the head. I've also

included a chignon, another very popular Victorian hairstyle, formed by pinning the hair low

into a knot at the back of the head, typically at the nape of the neck. Braids were worn

in the Victorian era by most women who had long, straight hair so I've included them here.

If you'd like to see a tutorial for this look in more detail then you can find

it on my Instagram where you'll eventually see all of this video's looks.

Make up is, of course, incredibly light, practically non-existent.

I had to draw in my eyebrows tho because... they are not very big.

Or real!

Florence went on to found a nursing school and it was one of her students, Euphemia Van

Rensselaer, who created the first ever nurses' uniform although nurses had already begun

to wear lighter-coloured gowns with white aprons and caps to indicate that they were nurses.

It was important to have a professional uniform that distinguished trained nurses from those

who were not. This consisted of a floor length, high collared dress, a long apron and a frilly

cap. The cap was a departure from previous looks that more closely aped a nun's veil.

There were no rules about types of fabric so different hospitals had different styles

but all used colour in some way to mark rank and experience within the nurses.

Bonnets or caps were particularly important as they held back the women's long hair.

Women of this time period were known for having extremely long hair and the most popular hairstyle

at this time was the Gibson Girl where hair was piled on top of the head.

Make sure you're following me on Instagram and keep your eye

out for an IGTV tutorial on this look, coming soon.

This look was designed not only for protection against illness but was also considered an

expression of feminine virtue. Nursing was now a respectable job and their dresses were

kept suitably long with very tight waists.

From the 1880s until the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914, the uniform changed very little.

It became clear as the war progressed that former styles of nursing uniforms were no

longer practical: nurses needed to be fast and efficient to deal with the vast number

of wounded. Bulky aprons disappeared in favour of more practical styles and skirts were shortened

slightly for better mobility.

Only slightly...

Hair was pulled tightly back, to avoid pathogens and the general

annoyance of trying to work with hair in your face…

- which TV shows always seem to get wrong! They're constantly trying to battle trauma

cases with hair swinging everywhere!

Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service was the nursing arm of the British

Army and these nurses wore grey dresses with white aprons and large veil-like caps.

Military nurses wore tippets - short, red cape-like garments over the shoulders with badges sewn

on to denote rank. Members of the Reserve wore a cape that was only trimmed in red.

The capes had a stiff Alexandra rose on the back that sat between the shoulder blades

and nurses joked that this was to prevent Sisters falling asleep on night duty

These nurses- commonly known as QAs- ranked alongside officers and were required to be

of “high social and educational standing” along with having completed at least three

years of training in a civil hospital. Due to its royal patronage and the social standing

it conveyed, the service was an attractive occupation for women.

At the beginning of the hostilities there were just under 300 army nurses available

to look after the wounded, with 200 more ready in the reserve. It soon became clear that

this would not be enough and so following the outbreak of war on 4th August 1914, The

Red Cross formed the Joint War Committee with the Order of St John and nearly 9,000 trained

or part-trained nurses were called to the Voluntary Aid Detachments to serve under and

with the QAs although many women had been given only the briefest of training.

Red Cross volunteers had willingly given their time to care for wounded patients but their

lack of experience meant they were not entrusted with trained nurses' work except in an emergency.

At the start of the war VADs were known to have 'fluttered the dovecotes of professional

nursing' due to their enthusiastic desire for the 'romance of nursing wounded soldiers'.

I mean, that's called misogyny. But sure.

It was stressed to the women that they were expected to uphold the integrity of the service

and relationships must stay strictly professional. Women were expelled from the service for any

type of romantic relationship with the men, even chaste engagements, and yet these women

who- thanks to Victorian society- had never seen a man in underclothes- were expected

to deal with mutilated, naked bodies.

Although we remember them as heroes today, many officers still felt that women didn't

belong on the battlefield. Many of the women who volunteered, trained or untrained, declined

a salary and were willing to be dispatched into areas of hostility. Nurses had to prove

themselves over and over again as competent assets to the army who could provide skilled

care that allowed men to rejoin the battlefield rather than be sent home.

QAs were given the rank of officer in order to protect them and make sure their voices

were heard when they were dealing with doctors, other ranks and high command. After tireless

campaigning the Royal College of Nurses was founded in 1916 to establish a professionally

recognised qualification. Medical degrees were also opened up to women for the first

time during the war. Which one of my great aunts took advantage of!

Go her!

Although the VAD's initial job role had merely been one of support, it was quickly

realised that Red Cross volunteer nurses would play an important role in the War effort caring

for the large numbers of wounded soldiers. Women from aristocratic and upper class families,

used to running large houses and estates with many servants and tenants, were drafted in

by the Red Cross to run field and auxiliary hospitals, a feat at which they excelled.

In her uniform of a long blue cotton dress and a white apron emblazoned with her organisation's

emblem, the Red Cross nurse became a familiar figure during the war. Many postcards and

propaganda posters sang their praises. Famous women who volunteered for the Red Cross during

the war included Agatha Christie, Vera Brittain, Enid Bagnold and Clara Butt, who was a superstar

of the Victorian era.

There was again not much change in style of nursing uniform until we come to World War

2 army nurses. This late 30s/early 40s uniform was much more practical for the very physically

demanding job of nursing wounded soldiers. It was also more in keeping with the times,

featuring a much shorter hemline and a light blue dress with a pinned apron. The cape worn

over the dress was navy blue on the outside and bright red on the inside with a scarlet

red sash.

I actually have one of those original capes! It was ridiculously hot on the day we filmed

this however, so here is a shot of me in the cape from another day:

Again the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St John formed the Joint War Organisation,

offering extensive services for the sick and wounded, including soldiers, prisoners of

war and civilians who needed help as a result of enemy action. The joint organisation created

ambulance departments for transportation of the wounded, established auxiliary hospitals

across the UK and organised volunteers.

This is the closest I can get to the indoor uniform of the British Red Cross Society nurse:

the short sleeved, knee-length light blue cotton dress (should be with a turned collar);

white apron with a red cross sewn on the chest, a dark blue or red belt worn over the apron

(depending on the rank) and a rectangular white headscarf and cap, with a red cross

embroidered on the side. Normally aprons were pinned on with a badge on one side and a fob

watch on the other. We tried pinning a regular watch on but that… was an awful mess.

It wasn't just for fashion purposes that the dresses were shorter with half length

sleeves. There was a clothing material shortage during World War 2 and supply of fabric was

reserved for the army and the war effort, including the manufacture of bandages. Detachable

sleeves were made use of however.

Excitingly, Field Army nurses, particularly those sent to much hotter or colder climates,

were allowed to wear trousers!

With pockets!

Post World War 2, nursing as a profession continued to grow in popularity and uniforms

continued to change. In 1948 the National Health Service was founded and nursing uniforms

really started to flourish with a range of new styles being introduced. By the 1950s