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.[1] 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. [2] 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".[3] 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”.[4] 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. [5] 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.
Personal life
She married Dr Kenneth Sinclair Loutit in 1937. They lived at 12 Great Ormond Street. When they divorced she moved to High Wycombe. She married Nares Craig, an engineer from Clitheroe, Lancashire in 1946. She had one son and two daughters.[6]
References
- ^ "Thora Silverthorne". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- ^ "A pledge to remember Oxford's Spanish Civil War volunteers". Oxford Mail. 14 March 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- ^ "Nurse on the battleground | News | The Guardian". theguardian.com. Retrieved 2016-09-09.
- ^ Stevenson, Graham. "Compendium of Communist Biography". Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- ^ Murray, David Stark (1937). Why a National Health Service. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- ^ "Obituary: Thora Craig". Independent. 11 February 1999. Retrieved 1 April 2017.