Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1921-2006 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
6 boxes
Scope and content
Papers of Hilda Lewis, 1921-1966. Papers relating to her early career, including medical registration certificates, correspondence, job applications and press cuttings. Papers relating to scientists' tour of the USSR, 1931 (arranged by the Society for Cultural Relations between the British Commonwealth and the USSR, and comprising of thirty scientists and doctors from Britain), including notes, photographs, postcards, correspondence, articles and account of tour by Hilda Lewis's daughter Naomi Cream. Papers relating to the National Council of Social Service Adoption Committee, 1945-1947 (which produced recommendations for inclusion in the 1949 Adoption Act, and included representatives from the National Adoption Society, National Council for the Unmarried Mother and her Child, National Council of Social Service, National Children Adoption Society and the Church of England Children's Society), including notes, correspondence, recommendations and guidelines for the assessment of children and adoptive parents, press cuttings and advice leaflets. Papers relating to the Caldecott Community (a children's home in Mersham-le-Hatch, near Ashford, Kent, and a pilot experimental children's reception centre opened under the direction of Hilda Lewis in 1947, as part of the Caldecott Community, and the basis for her book, Deprived children), including reports, press cuttings, correspondence and draft copies of the book Deprived children: the Mersham experiment, a social and clinical study. Articles by Hilda Lewis, 1956-1966. Papers relating to conferences attended and lectures given by Hilda Lewis, including lecture notes, reports and correspondence, 1952-1966. Personal correspondence, 1936-1966. Letters of condolence and obituaries, 1966-1967. Papers relating to Hilda Lewis memorial lectures and Hilda Lewis unit at Bethlem Royal Hospital, 1968-1995. Memoir by Naomi Cream, 2006.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born in London, 1900; educated at Mary Datchelor School, Camberwell, and London School of Medicine for Women, 1921-1924; qualified as Doctor of Medicine and Member of the Royal College of Physicians, 1927; Clinical Assistant, the West End Hospital for Nervous Diseases, 1926-1930; First Assistant and Registrar, Children's Department, Royal Free Hospital, 1927-1929; Assistant and subsequently Physician, Prince Louise Hospital for Children, Kensington, 1929-1934; Fellow in Psychiatry, London Child Guidance Clinic, 1931; Temporary Assistant Medical Officer, Maudsley Hospital, 1932-1934; married Aubrey Lewis, 1934; Honorary Psychiatrist in charge of Children's' Psychiatric Department, St George's Hospital, 1938-1940; Physician, Ontario Hospital, Canada, 1940-1944; Psychiatric adviser to the National Council of Social Service Adoption Committee 1945-1947; Psychiatric adviser to Conference of Societies Registered for Adoption; Psychiatrist, Mersham Reception Centre, Kent, 1947-1952; Psychiatrist, Children's Society, 1948; published Deprived children: the Mersham experiment, a social and clinical study (Oxford University Press, 1954); Chairman of the Standing Conference of the Societies Registered for Adoption; Psychiatrist for the Children's Society Adoption Committee 1958; Company Director: Marie Stopes Memorial Foundation Ltd. 1960-, Society for Constructive Birth Control Ltd. 1960; elected Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, 1966; died, 1966.
Repository
Custodial history
The papers were placed in King’s College London Archives by the family in 2007.
Conditions governing access
Files containing sensitive personal data are closed for 100 years from the date of the most recent document in the file.
Where open, access is subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied from open material for research purposes only.
Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Archives.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Finding aids
Detailed Catalogue available online and in hard copy in the College Archives reading room.
Existence and location of originals
Please note: We require 7 days notice to retrieve this collection as part, or all of it, is held off-campus. Read more ›
Related materials
Alternative identifier(s)
Place access points
People and Organisations
- Caldecott Community (Subject)
- Hilda Lewis unit (Subject)
- Bethlem Royal Hospital (Subject)
- National Council of Social Service Adoption Committee (Subject)
Genre access points
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000.
Script(s)
Archivist's note
Entry compiled by Lianne Smith and Kate O’Brien. Sources: family memoir.