As a former RCN President, member of RCN Council, Chair of RCN Representative Body (now known as RCN Congress), RCN Fellow, RCN Wales Board member, holder of the RCN Award of Merit and published author, Dame June’s contribution to nursing was recognised the world over. The nursing world was saddened by news of her death earlier this month.
She held a huge number of RCN roles and was instrumental in many campaigns, including Pay not Peanuts and Raise the Roof. As a nurse professor, she was noted for her contribution to research and practice in the field of health visiting.
Remembered fondly and with admiration by many RCN members, when Dame June spoke, people listened. She had a long list of initials after her name (DBE RN RHV BA MPhil PhD FRCN) but it was her knowledge and ability to speak from the heart that ensured she got the attention she deserved.
If I’d been a boy I would have gone down the pits... I might have ended up as Arthur Scargill or something similar. But I became a nurse
‘We seek to be actively involved’
In her 1991 RCN President speech to RCN Congress, she directly addressed not only delegates in the conference hall, but also the Secretary of State for Health.
“We are here because we care about people and we care about nursing, because we know that a quality health service is founded on the highest possible standards of nursing care,” she declared.
“The 天美传媒 is throwing down the gauntlet and saying: this is the way forward. This is the touchstone, the benchmark against which members of the largest professional union for nurses in the world will judge your actions and your commitment to health.
“We do not merely throw down the challenge to others. We seek to be actively involved.”
Dame June spoke from experience, and she spoke for RCN members at the many RCN conferences she attended, some in official roles, some as a delegate.
In the 1991 speech she said:
“If I speak with feeling, it is because for nearly 25 years, I have been a health visitor, a community nurse.
She was not afraid to question a politician’s understanding of nursing, as she demonstrated by addressing the health secretary at Congress.
“If the civil servants who write health policies in Whitehall suffered from conditions of old age, they would start to see district nursing services as a top health priority,” she said.
Dame June is also remembered for the way she championed nursing students. In the same speech she told delegates:
“You must invest in nurse education now. To do this the investment must be real, not rhetorical. No successful reform in history has been carried out without adequate resourcing and adequate planning.”
I stood on the lines in Trafalgar Square with my megaphone... I suppose some people would have called us rabble-rousers, I would never have called myself a rabble-rouser; yes I roused people but I didn’t want a rabble. I always wanted a controlled, groundswell support
A lasting legacy
Born in 1941, Dame June was brought up in the industrial valleys of south Wales, the daughter of a full-time trade union officer in the steel industry. She trained as a nurse at University College Hospital in London after obtaining an honours degree in Classics at University College London.
She became a health visitor in 1967, and this led to a research interest in the field of nursing practice. She also completed her Family Planning Association training during this period and established a family planning clinic and a health education programme in local schools.
The King Edward's Hospital Fund for London awarded Dame June a research grant in 1968, allowing her to complete her Master of Philosophy. Her thesis was later published as The Family Visitor.
I can see him [my father] now saying "God girl, I don’t care what you do but you get your education first." I did, and the fact that I read a degree in Classics before I came into nursing has been absolutely critical to my way of thinking all the rest of my life
Dame June began a research commission from the Department of Health and Social Security for further work in health visiting at the Polytechnic of the South Bank, London in 1977.
She established an annual research workshop for health visitors in 1979, facilitated the publication of its proceedings and extended this expertise abroad by running a multi-racial workshop for nurses in South Africa.
She was awarded a Council of Europe Medical Fellowship in 1981. This meant she was able to undertake a study of the public health nurse role in Finland and Denmark. She obtained her PhD at South Bank University in 1985 (the university’s first PhD in nursing).
'I was in awe of her'
Dame June had an ability to listen to a debate or a conversation and then summarise what was said so succinctly. When she spoke at Congress, I was in awe of her. She was so articulate and always got to the nub of the argument.
She was a stickler for language. As a classicist, she could put us straight on the misuse of words. Many members will remember her “just three points” comments, which she often used when she spoke at Congress. She would talk to you in the same way, whoever you were – a politician or a student nurse.
Her passion is what I admired the most – she was a campaigner until the end. I have a lot to be very grateful to June for. She was amazing.
In 1990, Dame June established the School of Health Care Studies at Middlesex University. She was appointed Professor of Community Nursing at Swansea University in 1997.
She also served as RCN President between 1990 and 1994 and led the RCN Defining Nursing project in 2003.
Dame June held several board positions. She was a non-executive director of Carmarthenshire NHS Trust; director of the Bevan Commission; and a trustee of Age Cymru from 2015 to 2019.
I wrote a monthly article on health-visiting in Mother and Baby magazine and a few years into that I became their agony aunt, Sister June, and I was paid £1 a letter
Deserved recognition
Dame June was awarded 天美传媒 Fellowship in recognition of her work in continuing education and management training for nurses in 1982. In 1995, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to nursing.
She was awarded the RCN Award of Merit the following year.
She sat on the RCN Wales Board from 2019 to 2022. When the RCN held a virtual Congress during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dame June highlighted the success of RCN campaigning in Wales, where safe-staffing legislation marked a “huge victory” following much hard work.
“There can’t be anyone in Wales who doesn’t know the RCN stands for safe staffing,” she said during the Politics in Nursing debate at the 2020 online event.
The Dame June Clark Travel Scholarship Trust was established for Welsh nurses in 2022. Its purpose was increasing awareness about nursing in other countries. Funding was provided for supporting study visits to countries or attendance at conferences outside the UK.
RCN President Bejoy Sebastian said: “Dame June’s contribution to this College and nursing as a whole was enormous. She was a champion for all nursing staff and students.
"She dedicated herself to advancing nursing leadership across multiple countries, including Kazakhstan and Romania, shaping the profession on a global scale throughout her distinguished career. A true inspiration, her work will continue to influence nursing for many years to come.”
Dame June Clark was an academic and an activist. But importantly, she was a nurse.
Further information
Dame June gave the RCN her papers collection which are now housed in the RCN archive. Her quotes in this article have been taken from an oral interview she gave to the RCN archive team in 2006.
