In the first comment under the previous post, Shayne Davidson said the nurses’ uniforms reminded her of the BBC series Call the Midwife. Her comment made me look anew at the photo above, which also came from the United Kingdom, and wonder if the young sitter might have been preparing to work as a midwife or visiting nurse. The photo is roughly the size of a postcard, but slightly more square and blank on the back.
In the detail image below, you can see that her sleeve has a stiff white cuff, a common feature of nurses’ uniforms. Above the cuff, the sleeve has pinstripes; I don’t know if those were common:
Her outfit looks new, which may have been the reason for this informal photo session. In any case, her friend on the chair next to her seems to approve.
Tokens of Companionship 
Cool to see, I was a nurse in the 80’s and had to wear a chequered dress and stiff paper hat and that was bad enough! This looks a right clart on to wear!
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Oh, but it looks so nice! 😉 Actually, Linda at shoreacres commented on the last post about how nurses’ uniforms convey authority and thus serve a purpose beyond a simple utilitarian one. I’m not sure the woman in this photo is a nurse, but it seems like a reasonable guess. Good for you for working as a nurse in the 1980s! BTW, I had to look up “clart” and still have only a vague idea what it means. 😀
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Her expression seems to say she is a bit nervous for her first day on the job. I love the dog! 🙂
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Her dog is providing moral support! They’re very good at that. 😉
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The hat doesn’t look very “nursey” but apparently (from something I read online) hospitals designed their own nurse’s hats! I also love the sweet dog!
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I agree about her hat, and she’s wearing a bow of some sort at her neck, which I can’t quite make out, which doesn’t seem very “nursey” either. I’ve had this photo for a while, and hadn’t really planned to share it, but your comment on the previous post put the idea in my head!
I like to think she put the chair there so her little friend could be in the photo. 🙂
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The moment I saw this, I thought, “nurse”. Her cap isn’t right for one (would have been starched and white at that date – even lace would probably have been starched then – or, later, white and a blue or grey of the same colour as the uniform) as it is, it looks too dark and lacey on the edges. But even at that date, nurses uniforms in the UK were probably striped like that (they still were when I was a child in the 1950s, though these days they tend to be plain), and usually mid-blue for a Staff Nurse and dark blue for a Sister, with ordinary nurses (and student nurses) wearing a light blue.
Have a look at this, it doesn’t give much about uniforms but has some info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nursing_in_the_United_Kingdom
She could also have been a nanny.
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That’s a good summary page, Val, thank you! I hadn’t seen it before. A site which is very helpful for uniforms is Scarlet Finders (http://www.scarletfinders.co.uk/index.html). The sitter in this photo may well have been a nanny, especially because she looks quite young.
Glad you are back in action!
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At first glance, I thought it was an older woman, then looked again and realized she’s quite young, indeed! I think she looks very nurse-like.
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I was struck by how young she looked as well.
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I also thought she was an older woman at first, then had to look again to see she was quite young. Certain fashions don’t do anyone any favours, do they?
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I think her glasses are a style that we associate with older adults. Presumably they weren’t old-fashioned yet in her day!
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Agreed. I do think it was her apparel and the cap especially that made her look old and dowdy.
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How I would love to know the story behind that photograph, what she was thinking when the shutter clicked.
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The stripes reminded me of a group that may have disappeared from our hospitals now — the “Candy Stripers,” or volunteers who wore pink and white stripes. There’s a nice photo and a bit of history here. This young woman clearly isn’t that sort of volunteer, but I do wonder about those stripes she’s wearing.
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The photo at the top of that page made me smile! It looks very familiar! The only thing missing is a dog. 🙂
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I don’t know why, but I immediately thought ‘nanny’ when I saw the photo. I think that’s why the dog is there – she’s got him well trained and it’s a good indication of her abilities. Of course this is all a total flight of fancy!
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You may well be right about her being a nanny. She looks quite young to be a nurse or midwife. If she was a nanny, she probably worked for a wealthy family who expected her to look the part!
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I thought of nanny or governess. Who would have taken the photo? The family she worked for or perhaps her own family if she was going away to work.
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My guess is it was taken by someone in her family, maybe before she even started working. With unmarked photos like this, it’s frustrating not to know anything for certain. I bought it on eBay two years ago from a dealer in Nantwich, Cheshire, but it could have originated someplace else.
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