By law passenger liners had to have a ship’s surgeon from 1855. But it was not until after WW1, that the need for ‘Nursing Sisters’ was recognised.
P&O employed a surgeon and one nursing sister per ship in the 1930s, increasing to two or three on the latest, largest liners of the 1950s and 1960s.
As they were trained and qualified, nursing sisters were given the rank and uniform of a Junior Officer in the P&O Medical Department. They were subordinate to the male surgeon, under whose direction they administered patient care.
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