Dame Kathleen Raven DBE, FRCN was born and raised in Coniston, the Lake District, attending Ulverston Grammar School. Her elder brother, Ronald Raven, became a surgeon. It was whilst visiting her brother as a medical student at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, that she was inspired to become a nurse and started her training there in 1933 and qualified in 1936.
During World War II she was Ward Sister and Night Superintendent at Barts. In 1946 she was appointed Assistant Matron. In 1949, she was named as Deputy Matron at the General Infirmary in Leeds. She became Matron in the same year, and held the post for eight years.
While at Leeds she was a member of both the General Nursing Council and the Council of the Royal College of Nursing, as Chair of the Yorkshire Branch of the RCN. Raven was also a member of the National Executive Committee of the Association of Hospital Matrons and served as a member of the Leeds Central Area Advisory Board for Secondary Education.
For several years she was External Examiner for the Diploma in Nursing at the University of Leeds. In 1957 she became a member of the Central Health Services Council. Raven left Leeds in July 1958 to go to the Department of Health in London, where she became Chief Nursing Officer.
She retired from the Department of Health in 1972 but she continued to work extensively. She was an adviser to a major international health care corporation, working worldwide to establish health care facilities along British lines. She worked for the Civil Service Commission and was appointed a Governor of Epsom College in 1992. She died at the age of 88 in 1999 before she could open Raven House which was officially opened in 2000 by Michael Portillo.
Dame Yvonne Moores, former Chief Nursing Officer contributed to Raven’s obituary: “Dame Kathleen was an enormous influence on the nursing, midwifery and health – visiting professions during a crucial period for the NHS. As chief nursing officer she retained warmth and humanity, while operating as a consummate civil servant. She served ministers without fear or favour, and her contributions to policy were driven by an imaginative commitment to patient-care.”
