Celebrating our collections dating from 780AD to the present day
To mark the centenary of the end of the First World War, staff at West Sussex Record Office have shared their stories of family members who were caught up in the conflict. Edward Dare Evans, my great grandfather, was born on 21 February 1875. He was the fifth child of six, and his father William…
Continue reading ➞ WW1 Centenary: Staff Stories, Edward Dare Evans
In a previous blog post we shared our plans to create a display of poppies in our reception area to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War. We appealed to staff, volunteers, researchers, friends and relatives to contribute handmade poppies to be part of this display. We received an overwhelming response, with over 600…
By Emma Worrall Men returning from the war faced many problems, financial, mental, and physical, issues which affected their families too. Others did not return at all, creating a new set of challenges for their wives, children, and parents. Some servicemen were fortunate enough to return to jobs kept open for them, such as International Stores’,…
Continue reading ➞ Great War West Sussex: those who returned and those who were left behind
Like most people I like baking and cooking, so when Lauren (our Searchroom Archivist) set the challenge to try some historic recipes from the archives, I jumped at the chance to have a go. One thing I noticed when going through the recipe books held at the Record Office was that over the centuries, there…
My name is Lucy Maguire, and I worked on the Queen Victoria Hospital Archive Project as a Preservation and Digitisation Assistant between August 2016 and September 2017. As the title suggests, my job was broken up into two main parts but within each there was a wealth of surprises, which made every day its own unique…
To mark the end of the commemorations for WW1, at West Sussex Record Office we are planning to create a display in our Reception area. This will include a feature of poppies made by staff or members of their family, volunteers, researchers, and our friends at West Sussex Archive Society. The poppies will be our personal way…
The history of Queen Victoria Hospital and the Guinea Pigs can often seem a very male-dominated narrative. McIndoe and the other star plastic surgeons of the day were all men; the Guinea Pig Club was unquestionably a ‘boys’ club.’ Yet often behind the scenes women were making vital – and memorable – contributions to the…
Continue reading ➞ Queen Victoria Hospital Archive Project: ‘Women in the Wings’
On hearing about Lauren’s idea for a blog series based on trying out historical recipes, I was keen to sign up – as a lover of both history (which rather comes with the territory as an archivist…) and, well, food in general it seemed right up my street. After a week or two of procrastination…
The name of Sir Archibald McIndoe comes – deservedly - to the fore in any retelling of the history of Queen Victoria Hospital. As this series of blogs has highlighted, there can be no doubt of his influence in transforming the fortunes of both the hospital and of a multitude of patients through his…
Continue reading ➞ Queen Victoria Hospital Archive Project: Beyond McIndoe – staff at QVH
Susie Duffin, Searchroom Assistant and former Midwife The National Health Service (NHS) was introduced by Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health, on the ‘appointed day’ of 5 July 1948. It was born out of the ideal that good health care should be available to all, regardless of wealth. There were three core principles: that it should…
West Sussex Record Office 