Originally published in 1987, reissued here with a new preface, this book presented a history of the Queen’s Nursing Institute on the occasion of the centenary of its founding in 1887. Since that time, the Institute had been the major force behind all developments in the field of district nursing. Monica Baly here traces the history of the Institute concentrating not just on top personalities, but on showing what district nurses actually did and on relating developments to the social, political and cultural events and attitudes of the day. Breaking much new ground, the book should be essential reading for all district nurses in particular, and for other nurses and historians with an interest in the history of nursing. Still going strong today, now The Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing is a registered charity dedicated to improving the nursing care of people in the home and community.