Thora Silverthorne, Date of Birth, Date of Death

    

Thora Silverthorne

Date of Birth: 25-Nov-1910

Date of Death: 17-Jan-1999

Profession: politician, nurse, trade unionist

Nationality: United Kingdom

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius


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About Thora Silverthorne

  • Thora Silverthorne (25 November 1910 – 17 January 1999) was a nurse.
  • She was born in Abertillery, daughter of George Richard Silverthorne of Bargoed.
  • She was a founder member of the British Communist Party. She joined the Young Communist League in 1926 and remained a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain.
  • She was a friend of Arthur Horner.
  • She trained as a nurse at the Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford.
  • She worked as a volunteer nurse for hunger marchers who passed through Oxford.
  • She was a Sister at Hammersmith hospital in 1935 and worked closely with Dr Charles Wortham Brook.
  • She travelled to Spain with the Spanish Medical Aid Committee in August 1936 where she worked with Archie Cochrane.
  • She was "elected" matron at Granen Hospital She returned in September 1937.
  • She became a sub-editor for Nursing Illustrated. She worked for Somerville Hastings as a nanny.
  • In 1937, she founded the Association of Nurses, the first trade union that represented ordinary rank and file nurses, in her flat in London's Great Ormond Street.
  • Improving the pay, conditions and professional standing of nurses was her "life work".
  • and went on to help to found the National Nurses Association in 1937.
  • She was attacked by the Royal College of Nursing for “not being a registered nurse” or “paid by Moscow”.
  • The Association later joined the National Union of Public Employees. She became Organising secretary of the Socialist Medical Association in July 1942, their first employee.
  • She led a delegation that met Clement Attlee to discuss the establishment of the National Health Service.
  • She was a full-time official of the Civil Service Clerical Association until she retired in 1970 when she moved to Llanfyllin, Powys.
  • Clive Jenkins and Frank Cousins were regular visitors there.

Read more at Wikipedia