| Elisabeth Earnshaw-Smith |
 Elisabeth Earnshaw-Smith’s early career was in teaching. However, in her mid-thirties she decided to study Social Science
at Edinburgh University. Subsequently Elisabeth Earnshaw-Smith was employed as a Social Worker at the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh,
and by Kensington Social Services in St Charles’ Hospital in London, where she worked for ten years doing family work in a
children’s unit and rose to the position of Principle Social Worker. Elisabeth Earnshaw-Smith had first heard Cicely Saunders
speak at Edinburgh University, and had been impressed by her compassion and humanity. Thus, when a social work position was
advertised at St Christopher’s, she contacted the Hospice to suggest that the position should be a more senior one than originally
conceived, and include a remit to be part of the education programme of the hospice in the care of the dying patient and family.
In January 1980, it was Elisabeth Earnshaw-Smith herself who took up this new post. The interview talks about management and
communication at the hospice, the importance of ‘endings’ and family work for bereaved relatives, the St Christopher’s Memorial
Services, education, staff stress, and lastly the Association of Hospice Social Workers, which Elisabeth Earnshaw-Smith founded
and chaired until the late 1980s.
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| Interview conducted by Neil Small, 30 January 1996 |
| Interview Duration: 1 hour, 3 minutes |
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