National Council of Nurses of the United Kingdom

History

Ethel Gordon Fenwick proposed the creation of an International Council of Nurses on 1 July 1899 at the annual conference of the Matron’s Council of Britain and Ireland. To represent the United Kingdom internationally, a national council was needed. Fenwick, who had founded the Royal British Nurses' Association in 1887, lobbied nursing organisations such as hospital nurses' leagues and the Association of Hospital Matrons from as early as 1899 to form a national council.

By 1904 Fenwick and Isla Stewart had created the Provisional Committee of the National Council of Nurses of Great Britain and Ireland, enabling affiliation to the ICN at its second international congress in Berlin. Fenwick was a divisive figure, and it took several years to persuade enough nursing associations to join, removing the word 'provisional' from the title. A meeting on 31 January 1908 in London voted to create the National Council of Nurses of Great Britain with three objectives: promoting mutual understanding among associations of trained nurses; acquiring knowledge of nursing conditions internationally through ICN affiliation; and promoting the usefulness, honour, financial and other interests of the nursing profession. During this period Fenwick sometimes referred to the organisation as 'The National Council of Trained Nurses.'