This talk explores the importance of illustration in the development of new plastic surgery technologies and procedures during and immediately after the war, with particular emphasis on the work of Henry Tonks on facial reconstruction. As the new weaponry and fighting methods of the war produced previously unseen injuries, surgeons were rapidly developing new procedures. Photography, though well-established as a documentary and creative medium by 1914, was not able to capture the intricacies of surgical intervention accurately, partially due to the lack of colour. Several established British artists applied their illustration skills to the challenge, not only supporting the development of life-changing and life-saving surgeries, but producing some of the most haunting portraits of the twentieth century.

Chantal Bradburn trained as an Art Historian, and has taught Art History, Photography and Film in further and higher education. Her research focuses on art made during and between the world wars, and how it reflects the rapidly changing social landscape of the time. She currently works as the Outreach and Widening Participation Manager at the University of Chester, and regularly shares some of the University’s, and Chester’s most fascinating buildings as part of local and national heritage events.

All are welcome to attend the in-person talks free of charge. Booking is encouraged for refreshment and seating purposes and in case there are any last-minute changes (contact details below). Please check the event listings for updates to the programme: www.chester.ac.uk/events (scroll down to see the individual events). Access to the Riverside Museum and event venues is via a flight of steps and lift/step access thereafter. For those with limited mobility, there is an accessible route and please pre-book to arrange this access.fhsc.histsoc@chester.ac.uk or 01244 512126   

The list of passengers sailing on S.S. “Patuca” from Avonmouth on 27^th January 1930 included Mrs M.E. Miller, a nursing sister from the north of England, who for the next two years worked in the Government General Hospital, Nassau, Bahamas. Sister Miller was one of the trained nurses who worked in the British Colonies, the origins of which are found in the Colonial Nursing Association formed by Lady Mabel Piggott in 1895. Sister Miller’s voyage, during the inter-war years and the final years of the British Empire, was located at the end of one era and the beginning of another.

Professor Elizabeth Mason-Whitehead, PhD, began her academic career at the University of Liverpool. Prior to this, having qualified in London, she had worked as nurse, midwife and health visitor. In 2008 Elizabeth was involved in setting up the University of Chester Museum and Historical Society. As Professor Emerita Elizabeth now has more time to develop her interest in the history of nursing and medicine, including her current projects – the British military surgeon Sir John Hall, and Elizabeth’s grandmother, nursing sister Margaret Miller, who was a colonial nurse in the 1930s.  

All are welcome to attend the in-person talks free of charge. Booking is encouraged for refreshment and seating purposes and in case there are any last-minute changes (contact details below). Please check the event listings for updates to the programme: www.chester.ac.uk/events (scroll down to see the individual events). Access to the Riverside Museum and event venues is via a flight of steps and lift/step access thereafter. For those with limited mobility, there is an accessible route and please pre-book to arrange this access.fhsc.histsoc@chester.ac.uk or 01244 512126   

This talk provides a history of children’s services in Cheshire from their creation under the 1948 Children Act until their abolition with the establishment of unified social services departments in 1970. Created to serve the best interests of the child, it explores the rise and fall of specialised social work practice for children in a local authority marked by extremes of poverty and affluence, divisions between urban and rural areas, reshaped by slum clearance and overspill from Liverpool and Manchester, and underlying tensions between elected politicians and senior officials. Using individual social work case files, local authority records, and central government reports and correspondence, this talk offers a perspective of social work with children and families during the height of the post-war welfare state.

Michael Lambert is Research Fellow and Director of Widening Participation at Lancaster University. He is a historian of the welfare state in twentieth-century Britain and its Empire, using sociological approaches to understand social and health policy-making and implementation, along with the impacts of these upon people, organisations, and society. His research uses qualitative and quantitative approaches, with considerable experience in using archival, documentary and organisation records, combined with elite and popular oral interviews. He has a particular interest in place, focusing upon Liverpool, Merseyside and the North West of England.

All are welcome to attend the in-person talks free of charge. Booking is encouraged for refreshment and seating purposes and in case there are any last-minute changes (contact details below). Please check the event listings for updates to the programme: www.chester.ac.uk/events (scroll down to see the individual events). Access to the Riverside Museum and event venues is via a flight of steps and lift/step access thereafter. For those with limited mobility, there is an accessible route and please pre-book to arrange this access.fhsc.histsoc@chester.ac.uk or 01244 512126   

Mike Sinnott will explore the development of HIV/AIDS through drawing upon his experiences working as an HIV/AIDS Counsellor at Chester Royal Infirmary in the 1980s and early 1990s. He will reflect on how the disease developed into a worldwide pandemic, the particular emphasis on health promotion in this field, the response of the health service and the impact of Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988. Stigma continues to be associated with HIV and AIDS and this was especially true 50 years ago. As a result, he will create a picture of stigma in the late 1980s, not just in relation to the disease, but with the risk groups affected and the impact on people’s lives, including their partners and families. Finally, Mike will ask the question: What have we learned in patient involvement and the treatment of individuals?

Mike qualified in Ireland in 1983 as a mental health nurse. With an interest in substance misuse, he moved to London in 1985 to work in a drug unit, then moved to Newcastle upon Tyne as a community psychiatric nurse in drugs and alcohol. In 1987 he was appointed by Chester Health Authority as an HIV/AIDS counsellor based at Chester Royal Infirmary, one of the first such posts outside London. This led to managing the Regional Drug and Alcohol Service in Chester. Other appointments include managing community mental health services in Chester and Wirral, commissioning mental health and substance misuse, learning disabilities and prison health care and the role of general manager of mental health. His final NHS role was Director of Mental Health in North Wales. Retiring from the NHS in 2014 he worked in consultancy and as an inspector with the Care Quality Commission and Health Improvement Wales.

All are welcome to attend the in-person talks free of charge. Booking is encouraged for refreshment and seating purposes and in case there are any last-minute changes (contact details below). Please check the event listings for updates to the programme: www.chester.ac.uk/events (scroll down to see the individual events). Access to the Riverside Museum and event venues is via a flight of steps and lift/step access thereafter. For those with limited mobility, there is an accessible route and please pre-book to arrange this access.

fhsc.histsoc@chester.ac.uk or 01244 512126