Key Information
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1918-2005 (Creation)
Level of description
Collection
Extent
200 boxes and 1600 books
Scope and content
Correspondence, notes, reports, research data, diaries, photographs and artefacts relating to the life and work of Dame Cicely Saunders, 1918-2005, including:
Personal papers, 1918-2003, notably appointment, travel and prayer diaries, 1952-2003 (ref K/PP149/1).
Case notes, correspondence, research data, interview transcripts and draft MD thesis relating to Saunders’ research at St Joseph’s Hospice, Hackney, 1958-1964, on the control of pain in terminal cancer patients (ref: K/PP149/2/2).
Notes, correspondence and background research material, 1925-1977, on topics including surgical and pharmaceutical pain relief, religious attitudes to death and dying, the care of the long-term sick, geriatric care, grief and bereavement (ref: K/PP149/2/3).
Correspondence and other papers, 1959-2003, relating to the planning, building, development, staffing and management of St Christopher’s Hospice (ref: K/PP149/3/1).
Papers relating to research at St Christopher’s Hospice, 1967-1993 (ref: K/PP149/3/4).
Extensive correspondence, 1965-2005, with individuals in the UK and worldwide on topics including the development and funding of St Christopher’s Hospice, medical advice, hospice admissions and the history of the hospice movement (ref: K/PP149/4/1-4). Also correspondence with other prominent figures in the hospice movement, chiefly in the USA, including: Edward F Dobihal (1927-2015), President of Hospice Inc, Newhaven, Connecticut; photographer and medical historian Grace Goldin (d 1995); psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1926-2004); Sylvia Lack, Medical Director of the Connecticut Hospice, New Haven, Connecticut; William M Lamers Jr, Chairman of the International Work Group on Death and Dying; Carleton J Sweetser (1921-1996), Chaplain and Director of St Luke's Hospital Center, New York; Florence Wald (1917-2008), Dean of the School of Nursing, Yale University and founder of the Connecticut Hospice, New Haven, Connecticut; palliative care pioneer Balfour ('Bal') Michal Morgan Mount (b 1939).
Correspondence with medical charities and related organisations, 1961-1995 (ref: K/PP149/5).
Notes and drafts for lectures, talks and sermons by Saunders, 1960-2004, on topics including the care of the dying, pain control, the planning and development of St Christopher’s Hospice, euthanasia and medical ethics, bereavement, the care of terminal cancer patients and of patients with motor neurone disease, and the history of the modern hospice movement (ref: K/PP149/6/2).
Published articles by Saunders, 1958-2001, on topics including pain management, the institutional care of the dying, the role of religion in terminal care and palliative care for AIDS patients (ref: K/PP149/7/3).
Objects relating to honours, presentations, travel and religious devotion, 1930s-2005, including badges, crucifixes, travel souvenirs, plaques, statuettes, paperweights and certificates (ref: K/PP149/8).
Photographs and slides, chiefly 1960s-1997, including: patients at St Joseph’s Hospice, Hackney; patients, staff and daily life at St Christopher’s Hospice; travel in USA, Poland, Nigeria, Turkey and Israel (ref: K/PP149/9).
Recordings of talks and interviews by Saunders, 1970-2003, chiefly on her life and work (ref: K/PP140/10).
System of arrangement
The collection is arranged into ten sub-series, according to principal subject/type, thereafter chronologically: see detailed catalogue.
General Information
Name of creator
Biographical history
Born, 1918; educated at Roedean school and studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St Anne's College, Oxford; left early to study nursing at St Thomas' Hospital Medical School, Nightingale School of Nursing, from 1941 and qualified as a State Registered Nurse, 1944; returned to Oxford and was awarded a War degree; qualified as a lady almoner (medical social worker), 1947; meeting with dying Polish cancer patient, David Tasma, helped convince her of the need for more advanced palliative care in modern medicine and the experience also had a profound personal effect, helping to set her on a new career path, including retraining as a doctor to help the terminally and chronically ill; began voluntary work at St Luke's Hospital for the dying in Bayswater, London; qualified as a doctor after training at St Thomas' Hospital, 1951-1957; appointed a research fellow studying pain management at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, at St Joseph's Sisters of Charity in their home for the dying in Hackney, 1958-1965, she continued her research to improve the control of pain in terminally ill patients - the topic of her research fellowship. She accumulated over 1000 case records there, and a large collection of colour slide photos that she used to great effect in her lectures; established St Christopher's Hospice, Sydenham, 1967, which set the standard for modern hospices across the world and combined pain management with a holistic appreciation of the importance of the spiritual well-being of the patient in the treatment of the dying; Medical Director of the Hospice, 1967-1985, and President from 2000; recipient of numerous honorary awards, fellowships and honours including fellowships of the Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Surgeons and Royal College of Nursing, award of the Order of Merit, 1989, and numerous honorary degrees; died, 2005. Publications: notably including Care of the dying (1960); Living with dying (1983); Beyond the horizon (1990); ed The management of terminal disease (1978).
Repository
Archival history
Collection given by St Christopher's Hospice and the Saunders family, February 2006 and 2nd accession, July 2006; 3rd accession sent from Lancaster University, 2009.
Custodial history
Christine Kearney, St Christopher's Hospice, Sydenham; Lancaster University
Conditions governing access
Files containing personal data are closed for 80 years and sensitive personal data for 100 years from the date of the most recent document in the file.
Access may be granted to researchers, and upon signature of a special undertaking, providing such research is for purely statistical purposes and published data is anonymised such as to prevent the identification of individuals.
Administrative records are generally closed for 20 years except for published material and some committee and other minutes.
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
- French
- Polish
Script of material
Language and script notes
English, with some Polish and French
Finding aids
This summary guide and detailed catalogue.
For details of the Saunders library collection, please consult the main library catalogue. This is a reference collection that may be ordered for consultation in the Archives Reading Room.
Related materials
Alternative identifier(s)
Place access points
People and Organisations
- St Christopher's Hospice, Sydenham (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
Sources: Times and other obituaries and autobiographical entry in the British Medical Journal No 7072 Volume 313. Entry compiled by Geoff Browell. Detailed catalogue by Chris Olver.