[6] Eleven matrons signed the founding articles of Association , one of whom was Margaret Elwyn Sparshott.

[7] It attempted amalgamation with the Royal British Nurses' Association, but this was frustrated, largely by the efforts of Ethel Gordon Fenwick.

[8] Annie Warren Gill was one of the founders of the Scottish board of the College of Nursing which held its first meeting on 1 November 1916 in Edinburgh.

[9] Gill also proposed in 1922 that married members be considered part of the College, having realised that there would be a nursing shortage following World War 1.

[10] A royal charter was granted in 1928.The organisation became the College of Nursing[11] and Frances Goodall its Assistant General Secretary.

In 1935 Frances Goodall became General Secretary[12] and the Trades Union Congress promoted a Parliamentary bill to secure a 48-hour working week for all hospital employees.

The Ministry of Health guaranteed a salary of £40 to nursing students in training in 1941, about double what voluntary hospitals were paying before the war.

[14] In 1943 the College held nine seats to represent 'employees' on the Nurses Salaries Committee chaired by Lord Rushcliffe which published two reports in 1943.

[15][16] In 1963, active RCN member Grace Margery Westbrook became the first practising nurse to be elected Chair of the Staff Side Committee, Nurses and Midwives Whitley Council 1963-1969; her RCN activities had included being elected Council member representing Southern England in 1959.

[18] In 2018, after a pay agreement was not clearly explained to the membership, the Chief Executive and General Secretary Janet Davies resigned and Dame Donna Kinnair was appointed in an acting capacity.

[26] In August 2021, the RCN cancelled its annual meeting of members in Liverpool following allegations of sexual harassment and said the 2021 Congress would now be held virtually in order to safeguard those attending.

[28][29] The RCN commented that from 2010 (the start of the government's austerity programme) to 2022, pay for nurses had fallen by 20%.

[31] The UK headquarters are at 20 Cavendish Square, London, a Grade II listed building.

[33] Additional England regional offices are located in Birmingham, Bolton, Bury St Edmunds, Croydon, Exeter, Leeds, Newbury, Nottingham, and Sunderland.

These include responsibilities as set out in the royal charter and in trade union legislation.