Nursing Memorial Appeal

Commemorating yesterday’s heroines

On 4th June 2018, the Nursing Memorial Appeal achieved the first of its two objectives: a permanent memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum to all the VAD and professional nurses who lost their lives in the 1st and 2nd World Wars. It was dedicated in the presence of our Royal Patron, HRH The Countess of Wessex GCVO. Our deepest thanks to all who donated and helped us turn an aspiration into such a proud reality.

Supporting tomorrow’s savers of lives

We now move on to our second, ongoing objective: Extreme Nursing Today, the living legacy of the Nursing Memorial Appeal.  This is to ensure a permanent link between yesterday’s heroines and tomorrow’s savers of lives. 

In the past, we sent young women into battle zones often with little or no experience of nursing, let alone the horrors of modern warfare.  This simply would not be permitted today.  The problem is, however, that there is now a profound disincentive for civilian students wanting to research and prepare for humanitarian and conflict nursing.

In today’s climate of tuition fees, acquiring the necessary qualifications for routine nursing will already ensure the average student remains in debt past middle age.  The prospect of getting even further into debt to qualify in extreme nursing disciplines somewhat dampens the enthusiasm.  So we lose an uncountable number of potential specialists.

This is where your donation can help.  Through grants, bursaries and scholarships we can relieve students of further financial burden, and thereby stimulate the flow of people who want to go ‘beyond the call’.

We are partnering with a growing number of educational and training establishments to ensure our funds get the widest and most comprehensive distribution.

Keep in touch

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You can also follow the Appeal on Twitter where we'll post news, successes and calls to action too. @nursingmemorial

Get in touch

We would love to hear from you, so please get in touch. If you have family stories or photos you'd like to share, you can email us here.

Press Enquiries

Press enquiries are welcome, please email us at nursingmemorialappeal@drewrys.com

All photographs are © Nursing Memorial Appeal or appear by courtesy of M & R Stonor, or under Creative Commons license.