Alicia Lloyd Still

Dame Alicia Frances Jane Lloyd Still (4 November 1869 – 23 July 1944) was a British nurse, teacher, hospital matron and leader of her profession. She was one of the leaders in the campaign for state registration of nurses. She was the eldest of four children and grew up in Walton, by Clevedon, Somerset. and was awarded the Royal Red Cross and appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services.

Whilst matron of St. Thomas Hospital, Lloyd Still was a founding member of the College of Nursing Ltd (27 March 1916) which was established to promote better and uniform education and training of nurses, maintain a register of nurses who had certificates of proficiency and support parliamentary actions to in support of the profession of nursing. The College of Nursing later became the Royal College of Nursing. Lloyd Still was an active member, becoming an elected member of the Council of the College of Nursing 1920–1938, and vice president from 1938 to 1944.

General Nursing Council Following the Nurses Registration Act 1919, Matron Lloyd Still was appointed by the Minister of Health, Christopher Addison, 1st Viscount Addison, to the first caretaker General Nursing Council. She was subsequently elected to the General Nursing Council as a nurse member by nurses in 1920, 1927 and 1932, remaining a member of the Council until 1937. She was chairwoman of the education and examinations committee from 1920.

Other contributions

Lloyd Still was a member of the Nursing Board of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (1917–1935), vice president of the National Council of Nurses of Great Britain and Ireland, and founder and president of the Association of Hospital Matrons, 1919–1937.

Lloyd Still was instrumental in taking forward in Great Britain the Medical Conference's resolution on nursing: "That the extension of the employment of Public Health Nurses or Health Visitors be furthered in every possible manner in all countries and that standardized educational centers for training such nurses or visitors be developed". She was president of the Florence Nightingale International Foundation, 1934–1939. Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1917) Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1934)

Retirement Lloyd Still retired to Curry Rivel, Sedgemoor in Somerset, during the Second World War. When she became terminally ill, she moved in with her younger sister in Buckfast, Devon, where she was nursed by two Nightingale nurses. She died there on 23 July 1944. A funeral service was held in the chapel at St Thomas's Hospital, and she was buried on 26 July in Brookwood cemetery, Surrey, in an area that she had acquired for Nightingale nurses. and Theodora Turner, a future president of the Royal College of Nursing.