Dr Rosemary Cresswell

Rosemary’s previous experience includes teaching medical and nursing students and practitioners at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Therefore, she is very experienced in guiding students to adapt their learning and writing styles in order to change disciplines and enjoys this part of her teaching role here at Oxford Lifelong Learning. She also has eight years of experience as a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at the University of Hull, and enjoys tutoring students who are studying at university for the first time.

Rosemary is an experienced postgraduate supervisor and examiner at Masters and DPhil levels. She has a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

Rosemary’s first book, Rosemary Wall, Bacteria in Britain, 1880-1939 (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2013), investigated the use of bacteriology in hospitals, workplaces and local communities. She is currently writing The History of the British Red Cross, 1870-2020: Health and Humanitarianism, under contract with Bloomsbury, and has published various chapters and articles on the history of infectious disease, health care, and humanitarianism.

Rosemary has recently been the Principal Investigator for research grants including: ‘Crossing Boundaries: The History of First Aid in Britain and France, 1909-1989’, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, with Co-Investigator Barry Doyle (2016-2021);

‘Oxfam and the History of War, Health and Humanitarianism’, funded by Wellcome (2019-21);

‘War, Humanitarianism and the British Red Cross’, University of Oxford Bodleian Libraries Sassoon Visiting Fellowship (2017).

Rosemary enjoys outreach relating to her research, including television and radio. The project on the history of first aid has led to appearances on popular programmes, for example the BBC’s ‘Celebrity Antiques Road Trip’ (2022), and on Channel 5’s documentary series, ‘Countdown to War’ (2021). She uses re-enacting as a public engagement and research tool to understand the physicality of first aiders’ experiences, and their use of material culture, past and present.

Book:

• Rosemary Wall, Bacteria in Britain, 1880-1939 (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2013; Routledge, 2015, paperback 2016).

Selected articles:

• Ellen Stewart, Rosemary Cresswell & Christian Möller, ‘National charitable fundraising for the NHS, 1948–2023’, Social Policy and Administration, 58 (2024): 960-72, open access.
• Bernard Harris & Rosemary Cresswell, ‘The legacy of voluntarism: charitable funding in the early NHS’, Economic History Review, 77 (2024): 554-583, open access.
• Ellen Stewart & Rosemary Cresswell, ‘All the trimmings: patient and staff wellbeing should not be left to charitable funding’, British Medical Journal, 383 (2023): 2669, open access.
• Rosemary Cresswell, ‘Lord Woolton: A life of “social work” and humanitarianism’, Cultural and Social History, 20 (2023): 405-28, open access.
• M. Oppenheimer, N. Wylie, S. Schech, R. Fathi, R. Cresswell, ‘Resilient humanitarianism: Using assemblage to re-evaluate the history of the League of Red Cross Societies’, International History Review, 43:3 (2021): 579-97,  open access.
• Stefan Ramsden & Rosemary Cresswell, ‘First Aid and Voluntarism in England, 1945-1985’, Twentieth Century British History, 30:4 (2019): 504-30, open access.
• Rosemary Wall, ‘Using bacteriology in elite hospital practice: London and Cambridge, 1880-1920’, Social History of Medicine, 24:4 (2011): 776-95.

Selected book chapters:

• Rosemary Cresswell, ‘Constructing the “Sanitary Officer”: The Pathologist’s role in infection prevention and control at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, 1892-1939’ in Anne Marie Rafferty, Marguerite Dupree & Fay Bound Alberti (eds.), Germs and governance: The past, present and future of hospital infection, prevention and control (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2021), 193-218.
• Rosemary Cresswell, ‘The British Red Cross and the University of Oxford in the First World War’, in Filiberto Agostini (ed.), Università in Europa e Grande Guerra (Milan: Franco Angeli, 2020), 100-18.
• Rosemary Cresswell, ‘The “British Red Cross still exists”, 1947-74: finding a role after the Second World War’, in Neville Wylie, Melanie Oppenheimer & James Crossland (eds.), The Red Cross Movement: Myths, Practices and Turning Points (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020), 148-63.
• Rosemary Wall & Christine Hallett, ‘Nursing and Surgery: Professionalisation, Education and Innovation’ in Thomas Schlich (ed.), Palgrave Handbook of the History of Surgery (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 153-74.
• Rosemary Wall & Anne Marie Rafferty, ‘Trouble with “status”: Competing models of British and North American public health nursing education and practice in British Malaya’ in Hans Pols, Michele Thompson & John Harley Warner (eds.), Translating the Body: Medical Education in Southeast Asia (Singapore: NUS Press, 2017), 67-94, open access.
• Rosemary Wall, ‘Complaining about typhoid in 1930s Britain’ in Jonathan Reinarz & Rebecca Wynter (eds.), Complaints, Controversies and Grievances in Medicine: Historical and Social Science Perspectives (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2015), 184-201.
• Rosemary Wall & Anne Marie Rafferty, ‘Nursing and the “Hearts and Minds” Campaign: Malaya, 1948-1958’ in Patricia D’Antonio, Julie A. Fairman & Jean C. Whelan (eds.), Handbook on the Global History of Nursing (New York: Routledge, 2013), 218-36.

Shorter pieces include:

• Rosemary Cresswell & Abigail Cornick, ‘John Furley’ [founder of St John Ambulance and a founder of the British Red Cross], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.013.90000369145
• Henry Irving, Rosemary Cresswell, Barry Doyle, Shane Ewen, Mark Roodhouse, Charlotte Tomlinson & Marc Wiggam, ‘The real lessons of the Blitz for Covid-19’, History and Policy, 3 April 2020.
• Rosemary Cresswell, ‘First Aid to the Injured, 39th edition’ and ‘ARP Helmet’ in Tom Foakes (ed.), Treasures: Faith, Care, Valour. Highlights from the Collection of the Museum of the Order of St John (London: Order of St John, 2019), pp. 130-1 and 170-1.
• Barry Doyle & Rosemary Wall, ‘What was Healthcare Like Before the NHS?’, The Conversation (3 July 2018
• Rosemary Wall, ‘Frank C. Eve’ [expert in artificial respiration], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), index no. 101109545.