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March of the Matrons: Military Influence on British Civilian Nursing Profession 1939-1969 Penny Starns DSM, London 2000 224pp ISBN 0953651622
My initial expectation of March of the Matrons, with its image of a military matron striding out of the front cover, was that this would be a book about the relationship between military and civilian matrons in the early part of the 20th century. I expected to have the individuals who lead the army, navy and air force nursing services identified and compared with those who headed the nursing services in the large hospitals of the period. Perhaps that was a naive and rather pedestrian expectation and it was not fulfilled. What this book does present, however, is an interesting and provocative analysis of the way discipline was imposed and maintained in the nursing profession over 30 years in the middle of the 20th century.
Although the period of study is between 1939 and...