Licensed Workers

Nora had trained for parish work at St Andrew's House [see below], and served as a licensed worker in Hackney before coming to St George-in-the-East. She arrived in 1943, to join the wartime team that was maintaining ministry to a blitzed and struggling community. Her home was at St John's House in Christian Street. Among other things, she ran a club for girls, many of them 'coloured' (as they would then have said). Olive Wagstaff, an Accredited Lay Worker (ALW) who is still an active member of St George's, remembers being sent as a student in 1948 for training in visiting and club work, where she first met Nora. Her encounter with the club was a new experience for her. When sending me to visit she always gave me a church magazine and other literature to take as an introduction, which was a valuable lesson in communication.

In 1957 Nora became the first worker at Church House, Wellclose Square with Fr JOE WILLIAMSON, having first spent a period doing additional training in 'moral welfare work'. Initially she lodged with Mrs Maaser in the Square - more than once giving up her bed to a young girl off the streets - but in due course moved into Church House itself. In the following year, as the work expanded, she was joined by Daphne Jones (see below). The picture shows residents in the common room in the 1960s.

Nora left Church House to become warden at Megg's and Goodwin's Almhouses (founded by Meggs in Whitechapel Road in 1658, 'repaired, improved and further endowed' by Benjamin Goodwin and rebuilt in 1893 in Upton Lane, Forest Gate). When she finally retired she returned to Stepney, first to a bedsit in Tredegar Square and then to a flat at Toynbee Hall, where, as Olive Wagstaff says, she was a great help and encouragement to all her friends and neighbours. At the ago of 80 she moved to Compton Durville, the mother house of the Community of St Francis, having been a member of the Third Order for many years. She played an active role in the House, helping novices and visitors, and when she died was buried in the grounds.

A note on training

In the 19th century London pioneered the training of women for lay parochial ministry, with several diocesan or local institutions. Most of them were initially associated with the development of deaconess ministry, which was much-influenced by the community-based model of the Kaiserwerth movement in Germany (where Florence Nightingale [pictured left] trained; some of its members nursed at the German hospital in East London opened in 1845). Some institutions specialised in nursing (see the note above on the Nursing Sisters of St John the Divine, which ran training programmes for 'lay' midwives), some in visiting and general parochial work, some in teaching. Across London there were a number of 'settlements' where women workers lived.

One of the earliest, and most innovative schemes – for it provided the first paid social workers, and then district nurses – began in 1857 as the London Bible and Domestic Female Mission. Ellen Ranyard (1809-79) was the daughter of a London cement maker, and as a child encountered the homes of the poor. Her organisation first trained working-class women in 'poor law, hygiene and scripture' to become 'bible women' in their home areas - a cross between missionaries and social workers – under the supervision of middle-class superintendents. By 1867 there were 234 workers across London. To this were added, the following year, 'bible nurses': also working-class women, with hospital training. By 1894 a team of 80+ made over 200,000 visits a year. Nursing training ended in 1907 as hospitals took on the role, but Ranyard Nurses continued to make a contribution up to and beyond the introduction of the NHS. Renamed the Ranyard Mission in 1917, and based in the Holborn area, it continued to train women for parish work. The Friends of Ranyard now run homes in Blackheath - Mulberry House, Dow House and Kingswood Halls.

In 1860 the Missionary Training College began in East London, which later became Mildmay House - but although the founder William Pennefather was a Church of England minister, he never sought episcopal approval, and it was never specifically Anglican. 'Mildmay deaconesses' trained for two years, and worked in parishes at the invitation of the incumbent; they also maintained two hospitals, and nursing later became the primary focus of their work.

In 1861 Elizabeth Catherine Ferard (from a Huguenot family), encouraged by Bishop Tait of London to visit deaconess institutions in Germany, gathered a group of women who dedicated themselves to minister to the necessities of the church, and the following year the bishop gave her the first licence as a deaconess in the Church of England (though the ministry was not recognised until 1897, and did not become an 'order' until 1923). Her North London Deaconess Institution began in Burton Crescent, King's Cross in 1861, serving the Great Northern Hospital; its 'house rules' were very like those of a religious community, and their chaplain was the Revd Thomas Pelham Dale, who was later prosecuted, and imprisoned, for ritualism offences. In 1873, as the London Diocesan Deaconess Institution, they moved to St Andrew's House in Tavistock Crescent, Notting Hill, where for the next 18 years they ran a nursing home, and then, having acquired the adjacent house, St Gabriel's Home training destitute girls for domestic service, until 1897. It then became enlarged premises for the community, which was renamed the Deaconess Community of St Andrew in 1943, and offered training. In 1974, a new building including student accommodation was created. CSA (now including priests and well as deacons and deaconesses) continues, and their premises house the worldwide Anglican Communion office.

In 1880 an East London Deaconess Institution was established, with Bishop Walsham How's encouragement, to provide deaconesses and church workers, and also 'associates' - self-financing ladies of means who lived by the rule and wore the robes of the community, but who 'came and went'. This house continued until 1924.

Isabella Gilmore (1842-1923) was William Morris' sister. She trained as a nurse, and was encouraged by Bishop Thorold of Rochester to pioneer deaconess work in South London. At first she was reluctant, but was made deaconess in 1887, and set up a training house in Park Hill, moving to premises on Clapham Common North Side in 1891 - her brother designed the chapel and she, being practical, fixed the drains. This handsome 18th century house had been built, as 'The Sisters', for John Walter, founder of The Times; it was later renamed Gilmore House in her memory. Many women trained here for parish ministry. When it closed in 1970, it became flats for overseas students and families, and is now a 'luxury' development. The Isabella Gilmore Fund continues to support women called to ministry in Southwark diocese.

The focus of the 'Grey Ladies' - officially the College of Women Workers, established in 1892 by the Bishop of Southwark's sister at Blackheath Hill - was parochial teaching work. After a period of probation and training, they were admitted to the college by the bishop, and worked under his authority and that of their incumbents. They had branch houses elsewhere.

In 1919, with a growing concern for professionalism, certificates were issued to women who had trained in theology, teaching and social studies - but they were very poorly paid. 1930 saw the start of the three-year Inter-Diocesan Certificate (IDC), which became the normal qualification for parish work. In 1966 there were said to be 307 parish, or accredited lay, workers (ALWs). Their traditional liturgical dress is a burgundy robe or scarf, with a medallion, and a silver lapel badge for street wear. Very few remain in paid work, since the ordination of women (the office of ALW was opened to men in 1972) - about one a year goes into training, for specialised ministries - but there is a clutch of active retired ALWs, including Olive!