Nora Milnes BSc (23rd October 1882- 13th November 1972) was appointed as the first Director of the School of Social Study and Training in 1918 at the age of 36 years. She continued in this position until 1951, by which time she was 69 years old.

Before coming to Edinburgh, she had been a Lecturer at London School of Economics for five years (at a time when Clement Attlee was also on staff) and at King’s College for Women (the future Queen Elizabeth College) for three years. She had also been involved in the very beginnings of a professional association for social work in the UK, in her role as Secretary of the Provisonal Committee of the British Federation of Social Workers (the future British Association of Social Workers) from its inception in November 1917, as reported in the Charity Organisation Review for April 1918. She published her first research paper at this time, entitled, 'Some aspects of the infant welfare question', which appeared in Sociological Review, Autumn, 9(3): 121-128.

Nora subsequently published three books: on child welfare in 1920, on the economics of wages and labour in 1926 (this was from her father’s notes and was published after his death), and also a community profile of industrial Edinburgh in 1936. Paul H. Douglas reviewed her 1926 book in Political Science Quarterly in 1927 - see 42(3): 477-479. He found her analysis to be sound, but not especially new. However, her work on child welfare was exceptional, written at a time when social science ideas were struggling for prominence in the academy. In her 1920 book, she wrote: “a wise understanding of social influence is necessary for the solving of the child health problems”. She continued:

"The person with an exclusively medical training can no more expect to tackle a social question unaided than a person with an exclusively social training can be expected to recognise and tackle the symptoms of disease. Both are essential if the linked thread of cumulative social evil is to be severed; as essential as the two blades to the shears that sever a material thread” (p20).

She concluded with a strong case for social workers working towards not being needed:

"Those whose lives are devoted to this work must keep ever in view that the measure of their success will be in the rapidity with which the need for them ceases to be. Not in the extension, but rather in the reduction, of their functions will their ultimate success be shown."

Nora played a prominent part in the Scottish community while at Edinburgh. In 1922, she was appointed to the first General Nursing Council for Scotland by the Scottish Education Department as it nominee on the Council. Nurse registration had begun the previous year on 30th September 1921, and remained voluntary until the Nurses Act 1943.

Nora communicated with Sir William Beveridge on two occasions that we know of: in February and May 1924 concerning the possibility of setting up a Diploma for civil servants; Beveridge was, at that time, Director of the London School of Economics, a post that he held from 1919 to 1937, when he went to Oxford University before becoming a Member of Parliament in 1940.

Nora was highly critical of the Charity Organisation Society's approach to social welfare and its mistrust of the state, as demonstrated in her paper read to the Kendal Conference of Charity Organisation & Kindred Societies, COQ, V, July 1931. Her views were close to those of Elizabeth Macadam, who argued in her 1934 book that the state and voluntary sector needed to work together to support members of society. Nora contributed a chapter on voluntary social services to Mess’s edited collection on social work in 1948.

In 1958, the University recognised her contribution by giving her an Hon LLD.

Her three books were as follows:

• Nora Milnes (1920) Child Welfare from the Social Point of View, London: J.M. Dent & Sons. Available at: Main Library Ref. 3627(42) Mil
• Nora Milnes (1926) The Economics of Wages and Labour, London: P.S. King & Son. Available at: Main Library Ref. .331 Mil
• Nora Milnes (1936) A Study of Industrial Edinburgh and the Surrounding Area, 1923-1934, London: P.S. King & Son. Available at: Main Library Ref. .338(41445) Mil

Source: Edinburgh School of Social Study and Training, First Annual Report, 1917-18, p. [2]. Reference code - EUA IN1/ACU/S2 (Acc.2011/002)