Dr Mary O’Brien
1900s Irish missionary sister and doctor in Africa
1900s Irish missionary sister and doctor in Africa
Ethel Gray enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS), Australian Imperial Force, on 9 February 1915 as matron. Over the subsequent five years Gray was matron of several hospitals in England and France, returning to Australia in 1920.
Paediatrician and the first woman to be appointed to the honorary staff of Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children; the Medical Officer of the first baby clinic established in New South Wales (1914); the first Director of the Mothercraft Homes and Nurses’ Training Schools; the first person to differentiate between coeliac disease and cystic fibrosis.
Evelyn Paget Evans became secretary of both the Australasian Trained Nurses Association and the Australian Massage Association (1917), which later became the Australian Physiotherapy Association.
Ida O’Dwyer served in the Australian Army Nursing Service. She served in Egypt and was in charge of the Nurses’ Hospital in London and was head sister of the No. 3 Australian Casualty Clearing Station in France. From 1920 to her retirement in 1938 O’Dwyer was matron of the Caulfield Military Hospital.
A founding member of the New South Wales Nurses Association (NSWNA) in 1931, she was its first Honorary Secretary and the first woman to hold such a position in an industrial organisation in Australia.
Daphne Goulston was a Cancer Research Fellow at the University of Sydney 1928-1931, 1932-1934, at the Radium Institute London 1931-1932 and Research Associate in Biochemistry at the University of Sydney 1946-1949.
Irish watercolour artist and traveller
Ellen Barron worked at the Queensland Government Baby Clinics from 1918. From 1923-1939 she was superintendent of the Baby Clinics and started a training course for infant nurses. She was a foundation member and trustee of the Nurses’ Rest Home and Benevolent Fund.
Jenefer Blackwell is renowned for her research into host susceptibility and resistance to infectious diseases, particularly those from tropical parasitic diseases including leishmaniasis. Her discoveries facilitate genome-based approaches to the development of vaccines.