Lights in the Darkness

The strong bonds of support and friendship during training and working careers with fellow League members are deeply rooted and valued.

A number of conversations were explored with Nurses’ League members to bring their history alive and shed light on the vision and achievements over the last 100 years.
It was clear that the founding aims of the League still remain relevant and important today:

• To support and stay connected with KCH Nurses & Midwives past and present
• To remember the honour, dignity and sacredness of their profession
• To continue to promote charitable funds, events and reunions

These aims provided the platform for a design theme with integrity – ‘Lights in the Darkness’

The space for the window is in The Sanctuary, a small room within St Luke’s Chapel, offering a secular space where patients, families and staff are all welcome to meet, to reflect or simply to be still and find respite away from the busy hospital corridor, wards and clinical environment.

It was clear early on in our conversations that there was a genuine, inherent pride and honour to train and work at King’s in the heart of London. The strong bonds of support and friendship during training and working careers with fellow League members are deeply rooted and valued.

In the 1920s, when nursing and midwifery training was complete, each person received a badge and a belt buckle. During the creation of the window, NL members posted me their badges and buckles. It has been a privilege to handle and work with these treasured symbols of their profession, with their Latin inscription, and incorporate them into the design.

‘Sancte Et Sapienter’ (with holiness and wisdom)

Members spoke keenly about the privilege of giving dignity and being important to patients at a vulnerable and painful time in their lives. Working out in the community alongside whole families often in diverse situations was stimulating and fulfilling. All agreed that the sacredness of the profession in its preservation of the fragility of life was a timeless value alongside the fundamental role of ‘touch’ in the caring and healing journey.

Thank you for the honour of designing and making this window for KCH Nurses’ League. My hope is that all who meet in front of its light may pause to remember all that the League has stood for over the years and embrace with fresh courage its vision for tomorrow.