Hospital and Welfare Services Union

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The Hospital and Welfare Services Union was established in 1918 as the Poor Law Workers Trade Union, In 1922 changed its name to Poor Law Officers Union, 1930 to the National Union of County Officers (NUCO) and in 1943 to the Hospital and Welfare Services Union.

It was Vincent Evans (1889-1946) a deputy clerk at Paddington, Guardians, who in 1918 was responsible for convening the first meeting of Poor Law staff to consider forming a union

The first General Secretary was Archibald Milne an Assistant General Relieving Officer at Willsden, but he was soon replaced by Vincent Evans

While the growth of the union in this sector was unspectacler, the union developed a unique and successful sectional or "guild" system of union organisation, the most successful of which was the NUCO's Guild of Nurses. However the union also had "Guilds" for Medical staff, Ambulance staff and Ancillary staff. The guild system continuing into the early days of COHSE

NUCO Guild of Nurses was led by nurses such as Iris Brook (Guild of Nursing organiser from 1937), Doris Westmacott, and Deptford Councillor Beatrice Drapper

In 1946 it amalgamated with the Mental Hospital and Institutional Workers Union to form COHSE, The Confederation of Health Service Employees and in 1993 COHSE amalgamated with NUPE and NALGO to form UNISON

All For One History of COHSE Mick Carpenter