Annie Altschul (1919-2001)

Annie T. Altschul was born in Austria in 1919 and arrived in Britain with her mother in 1938, after the Anschluss. The Altschuls were a Jewish family. She trained as a nurse in London in the 1940s, and although qualifying as a general nurse and as a midwife, she found her niche in psychiatric nursing. After training at Mill Hill Emergency Hospital she moved to the merged Bethlem and Maudsley Hospitals and, while progressing from staff nurse to sister to Principal tutor, she also took a first class honours degree in Psychology at Birkbeck College, University of London.

In 1964 she was appointed as a Lecturer in the Department of Nursing Studies at Edinburgh University. She then became a Senior Lecturer before being appointed to the Chair of Nursing Studies in 1976-77. Her publications include Psychiatric Nursing (1957), and Psychology for Nurses (1962). Altschul retired from the University in 1983, and on her retirement she was awarded the CBE and given the status of Professor Emeritus of Nursing Studies. Annie T. Altschul died on 24 December 2001.