It's often the case that the only thing you know about a family member is that she was 'a nurse in the Great War', and have no inkling of where to look for more information.  Hopefully this page will give you some ideas of where to start.

    The term 'nurse' is used frequently and rather loosely in connection with the Great War.  Women who worked as nurses could have been trained; partly trained or untrained.  They could have been employed by the War Office; the Joint War Committee [British Red Cross Society and St. John's Ambulance Association]; the French Red Cross; any number of independent organizations such as the Scottish Women's Hospital, or in ordinary civil hospitals in the United Kingdom.  They might also have worked with the military nursing services of Canada, South Africa, New Zealand or the USA.

    If you're looking for a trained nurse, the first thing to do is check the catalogue of The National Archives to see if she is included in class WO399, which contains all surviving files of women who served with Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service and the Territorial Force Nursing Service.  The Catalogue can be accessed here:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/search.asp

Put the surname in the 'Word or Phrase' box, and in the 'Department or Series Code' box put WO399.  If you're searching for a common surname, remember to look through the complete results list, as it will be displayed as one continuous list, but comprising two separate alphabetical runs.  If you find the right person, it will give you her service file number at The National Archives, but the records themselves are not available online. Not all files have survived, and some were destroyed during the 1920s and 30s.

    If your nurse served overseas during the Great War, with the Army medical services, the British Red Cross, or one of the recognised independent organisations, she would have been entitled to service medals, and should have a medal index card at The National Archives.  These cards, in themselves, do not give a lot of information, but if you're working in the dark, they are particularly useful for finding which organisation a woman was attached to, and her position or rank.  Start with this page on The National Archives website:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/

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    For trained nurses, it's always worth searching the archives of the British Journal of Nursing, which are complete and online for the period from 1888-1956 - a wonderful resource both for tracing nurses, and for general information on the history of nursing.  It can be accessed here:

http://rcnarchive.rcn.org.uk/

Use the Search Journals link, and when using the search boxes, try and keep it as simple as possible - just surname if it's unusual enough to stand alone.  Not all trained nurses get a mention, but it's often possible to follow a woman's career for many years. 

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    Fully trained nurses who continued to work after 1922 are likely to have registered with the General Nursing Council [Nurses Registration Act 1919]and their details might be found in the Registers of the GNC, held at The National Archives in class DT10.  These Registers contain details of name, number on the register, training school with dates, and address at time of publication.  They are held in alphabetical order, but are not available online.

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    Untrained nurses, often known as VADs [members of Voluntary Aid Detachments], and trained nurses who worked for the British Red Cross Society/St. John, often have service records held by the BRCS in London, and it's always worth an enquiry.  An explanation with the  contact details are on this page:
http://www.redcross.org.uk/standard.asp?id=3423

    Going back a bit further, there are a few records available for women who joined the Army Nursing Service between 1870 and 1891 which are held at The National Archives in class Wo25/3955.  Unfortunately there are none for those who joined between 1891 and 1914 unless they went on to serve during the war and have a file in WO399, but their postings to different hospitals can be found by tracing them through copies of the Army List, available at The National Archives, and many other large libraries and archives.

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    Many nurses who served during the Boer War, either in the Army Nursing Service, or Princess Christian's Army Nursing Service Reserve, can be found in this online database:

http://www.pcansr.net/

    If you find the name of the hospital at which your nurse trained, there might be surviving records held of her time at the hospital.  The location of all surviving hospital records are held on a national database jointly held by The National Archives and the Wellcome Library.  It can be found here

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/hospitalrecords/?source=ddmenu_search6

But please note, none of the records are actually held at The National Archives - the details of each hospital will give you the current location of the records, with scope and dates.

     For more advice about tracing nurses working in civil hospitals, see this page on the Royal College of Nursing website, which contains much useful information, addresses and links:

http://www.rcn.org.uk/resources/historyofnursing/factsheets-tracingnurses.php

I get asked frequently about tracing members of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, and the Territorial Force Nursing Service who served in the Second World War.  All service records for these women are still retained by the Ministry of Defence, and are only available to the nurse herself, next of kin or their representatives.  Full details and the address for all enquiries is here:

Ministry of Defence personnel records

Happy Hunting!