In collaboration with RUMS (The Royal Free, University College and Middlesex Medical Students’ Association) and UCL School Gender Equality Network

The hospital almoner (or early social worker) is a position that has been widely neglected in medical history. In 1895, Mary Stewart, a former Charity Organization Society employee, was the first almoner. She was appointed at London’s Royal Free Hospital which was a charitable hospital offering free medical treatment to the ‘morally deserving’ poor.

Stewart’s role was to means-test patients so that only the ‘appropriate’ ones received free medical treatment. She was also to discover who might be able to financially contribute to their own health care to avoid abuse of the hospital’s resources.

Stewart continually reshaped the role of almoner. She developed the administrative post to the more subtle role of a medical social worker. This meant referring patients to other charitable and medical assistance, visiting patients’ homes, and training almoners for future work in other hospitals. 

Through the examination of Mary Stewart’s Almoner’s Report Book, this talk considered the circumstances of her appointment, the role she performed, the finding of her investigations and the patients she assisted.

The talk was followed by a Q & A session.

WATCH A VIDEO OF THE TALK:

Dr Lynsey Cullen is a Daphne Jackson Trust Research Fellow in the History of Medicine at the University of York. Her current research project (funded by the AHRC and the ESRC) focuses on the history of patient data from the nineteenth century to the present day. Dr Cullen’s research interests include the history of hospitals, medical women, welfare, and mental healthcare. Her PhD (funded by a Wellcome Trust Postgraduate Scholarship) carried out at Oxford Brookes University examined patient case records of the Royal Free Hospital during the early twentieth century.  Publications include themes exploring the history of hospital welfare, mental healthcare and post-mortem practice.  Dr Cullen is also a professional playwright, screenwriter and children’s book author.