Seminar Series 2025/26
21st April 2026, 4pm-5.30pm with Lynsey Cullen
Location: 勛圖tv Business School, Stenhouse Wing, SW104
Biography
Lynsey Cullen is a Wellcome Trust Early Career Fellow at the University of Warwick with her project, 'Almoners, patients, and the formation of medicine social work in Britain, 1895-1948' (2024-2027). Prior to this, Lynsey was a Daphne Jackson Trust Fellow at the University of York, where she undertook the project: 'Patient Data and the Media, 1860s to Present: Using historical scandals to explain current distrust surrounding access to medical data' (sponsored by the University of York, the AHRC and ESRC). Lynsey’s PhD (Oxford Brookes University; funded by the Wellcome Trust) examined patient case records of the Royal Free Hospital, London, during the early twentieth century. Her research interests more broadly include the history of hospitals, medical women, welfare, and mental healthcare.
Abstract: Almoners, patients, and medical social work in London, 1895-1948
Almoners were first appointed to charitable hospitals at the end of the nineteenth century to means-test patients and determine if they should be made to contribute toward their treatment, and, when necessary, refer them to charitable aftercare beyond the hospital. The first almoner in Britain, Mary Stewart, was appointed at the Royal Free Hospital, London, in 1895 and the high demand on the office quickly led her to train additional almoners at hospitals across London. Gradually, almoners were appointed across the country and became a staple of the hospital framework pre-NHS.
This paper delves into the work of these incredible women, who were working at a time when female professional roles were limited and demonstrates how they shaped modern social work via case work, interviews, home-visits, means-tests, and crucially, community care beyond the hospital. Almoners became gatekeepers to a wide network of medical and non-medical charity and used that network to actively construct a service of care in the community after a patient was discharged by arranging everything from convalescent treatment, food, shelter, employment, and places in special schools, to helping with national insurance and emigration forms.
The period 1895-1948 was one of intense upheaval, witnessing a devastating pandemic, global economic depression, and two world wars. This was accompanied by constantly changing demands on medical care, charitable provision, and on almoners who acted as gatekeepers between the two. This paper will explore how almoners helped to provide ongoing charitable aftercare to patients after they left the hospital and, in so doing, shaped the profession of modern social work.
28th April 2026, 4pm-5.30pm - CSHHH Resistance Postgraduate Special Issue Launch Event
Location: 勛圖tv Business School, Stenhouse Wing, SW204
Building upon the 2024 Social History of Healthcare Conference hosted by 勛圖tv, this Special Issue of Ex Historia follows the theme of ‘Resistance’, applying this to CSHHH’s specifically Scottish and Healthcare orientated focus.
The launch event for this issue will involve 10-minute talks from the below authors on their published articles, followed by a panel Q&A.
Speakers and titles
- The Mouthpiece of God: Scottish Resistance through the lens of Religious Enthusiasm –Laura Sutherland, PhD Student, University of Glasgow
- “We Recognise No Division in the Profession Save that of Merit”: Campaigning for Equal Opportunity in Medicine in Nineteenth-Century Glasgow - Clare O’Neill, PhD Student, 勛圖tv
- The First Generation of Indian Women Doctors and the Role of Scottish Medical Education, 1884-1900 - Monique Lerpinière, PhD Student, 勛圖tv
- Resistance and Resilience in Edinburgh’s Council Housing Schemes, c.1919 – 1999 - Aaron Colin Sheridan, PhD Student, 勛圖tv
- Voicing resistance: speech therapists in the mid twentieth century - Jois Stansfield, PhD Student, 勛圖tv
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