Care for the poor Archives - British Society for the History of Medicine https://bshm.org.uk/category/care-for-the-poor/ Mon, 29 Jun 2026 16:10:20 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 The Sacra Infermeria or Holy Infirmary of Malta https://bshm.org.uk/the-sacra-infermeria-or-holy-infirmary-of-malta/ https://bshm.org.uk/the-sacra-infermeria-or-holy-infirmary-of-malta/#respond Sun, 28 Jun 2026 14:08:14 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=21280 Founded in 1299, Malta’s Santo Spirito Hospital was more than 200 years old when the Knights Hospitalier arrived on the island and decided a new hospital was needed. Arpan Banerjee tells the story of a hospital ahead of its time. The Knights Hospitalier were a proud military order of the Catholic Church founded in the […]

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]]> https://bshm.org.uk/the-sacra-infermeria-or-holy-infirmary-of-malta/feed/ 0 The Hidden Nurse Dictionary https://bshm.org.uk/the-hidden-nurse-dictionary/ https://bshm.org.uk/the-hidden-nurse-dictionary/#respond Wed, 13 May 2026 10:50:43 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=21250 The Lancaster Health and Medical Museum Collection, an affiliated society of BSHM, publishes a short article each month about one of the treasured objects in their collection. Bryan Rhodes describes how one of these objects revealed a hidden book by a remarkable author. This week marks International Nurses’ Day, and this blog celebrates an interesting […]

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]]> https://bshm.org.uk/the-hidden-nurse-dictionary/feed/ 0 Widowhood and Bereavement during and after the English Civil Wars https://bshm.org.uk/widowhood-and-bereavement-during-and-after-the-english-civil-wars/ https://bshm.org.uk/widowhood-and-bereavement-during-and-after-the-english-civil-wars/#respond Mon, 04 Sep 2023 19:02:18 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=17220 Recent estimates suggest that more than 3 per cent of the population of England and Wales died as a direct result of the Civil Wars of 1642–1651. Andrew Hopper describes his work on the widowhood and bereavement of the more than 180,000 women who had lost a male relative. Deaths in Britain and Ireland during […]

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]]> https://bshm.org.uk/widowhood-and-bereavement-during-and-after-the-english-civil-wars/feed/ 0 Poor law but better care https://bshm.org.uk/poor-law-but-better-care/ https://bshm.org.uk/poor-law-but-better-care/#respond Mon, 21 Aug 2023 14:34:28 +0000 https://bshm.org.uk/?p=17197 Graham Kyle explains that a surprising benefit of the harsh Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 was that paupers in the workhouse received free medical care. Perhaps even more unexpectedly, the care had to come from qualified medical practitioners. Near where I live near Llanfyllin in North Wales, there is a fairly well preserved workhouse that […]

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