We are appealing for 40 former students of Hartlepool School of Nursing to come forward and collect their lost graduation certificates – some dating more than 65-years-old.
An administrative assistant recently made the intriguing discovery of a box of old certificates and badges for then-newly qualified nurses in a cupboard in the University Hospital of North Tees.
The certificates date as far back as 1956 and up to 1991. Many of the graduates have both a certificate and a badge, while some only have either a certificate or a badge.
The Trust has checked its employment records and cannot find any record of the nursing graduates. The graduates may have pre-dated the current electronic records or may never been employed by the organisation or its forebearers after training at Hartlepool School of Nursing.
Now we’re hoping to reunite the certificates and badges with their owners or their families.
Deputy chief nurse Karen Sheard said: “To be honest, we don’t know how these certificates and badges ended up in a cupboard in the hospital but we really want to give them back to their rightful owners. We assume that the students couldn’t attend a graduation ceremony and their certificates were put to one side, perhaps to be posted out at a later date.
“Whatever the reason, it would be wonderful to reunite these badges and certificates with the people who earned them.”
One of the badges, belonging to a Mrs. Jean Hewitson who graduated in 1956, is even engraved with her name.
We are hoping to make contact with the people listed below or their families. To get in touch to claim a certificate, please email [email protected]
Certificate owners:
Note: Graduates listed below with a strike through their name have already come forward.
Last updated: Monday 31 July
1956 graduates:
Jean May Hewitson (nee Harrison)Jean Elizabeth White (nee Huntley)
1962 graduates:
- J A Robinson – badge only
1974 graduates:
- M Berry – badge only
1978 graduates:
- Lynne Judkins
- Edna M Lowe
1979 graduates:
Patricia Lloyd
1980 graduates:
- Pamela Brown
- Susan Dixon
1983 graduates:
Elizabeth Lacey
1984 graduates:
- Kevin Thomas Keegan
- Carmel Moore
- Susan May
- Lynn Marie Orchard
- Elizabeth Pearson
Janice Kathleen Steele
1985 graduates:
Bryony Rose RaynerJulia Margaret Waller
1986 graduates:
Jane Christine Foster- Janice Anne Hamilton
Kay Matterson
1989 graduates:
Margaret Pauline CareyCatherine Jane Millman- Catherine Wade
1991 graduates:
- Nigel Dickenson – badge only
Gillian Dorothy Fletcher – badge only- Ann Marie Hall – badge only
- Susan Hegarty – badge only
- Lisa Kay Jameson – badge only
Claire Elizabeth Johnson – badge only- Beverley Johnstone – badge only
Liza Newton – badge only- Michael Van Orsouw – badge only
Paula Richmond – badge onlyAlan Steadman – badge only- Maureen Stockdale – badge only
- Joanne Taylor – badge only
- Mandy Michelle Yull – badge only
Miscellaneous:
- Mrs K Matterson – badge only – graduation year unknown
KL Nimmo – badge only – graduation year unknown