Joan Abbott - Infinite Women

Born: 11 December 1899, Australia
Died: 27 November 1975
Country most active: Australia, International
Also known as: Judy

This biography has been shared from The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, published by the Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology, under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Joan Abbott was a nurse and midwife at hospitals in Brisbane and Canberra. She also served as a matron in the Middle East while enlisted by the Australian Army Nursing Service. As matron she was in charge of fifty-five nurses and masseuses while they served in Greece, Egypt and Palestine. She was awarded the Royal Red Cross, 1st Class for her leadership and dedication when her Gaza Ridge hospital was expanded from 600 to 1500 beds in 1942. Joan Abbott finished her full-time duty in 1946 at the high rank of lieutenant colonel. In the same year she was awarded the Florence Nightingale International Foundation Scholarship to pursue eighteen months study at the Royal College of Nursing, London. Abbott later received the prestigious Florence Nightingale Medal – the Red Cross’s highest international distinction award for the nursing – in 1957. After returning to Australia Joan Abbott continued her nursing duties, firstly as staff nurse for five years with the Commonwealth Savings Bank, then with a doctor in a private medical practice.

Chronology
1920
Career position – Probationer at the Brisbane General Hospital
1924
Education – General (nurse) certificate
c. 1924
Education – Midwifery Certificate, Lady Bowen Hospital in Wickham Terrace, Qld
c. 1925
Education – State Child-Welfare Certificate completed in Queensland
1926 – 1928
Career position – Worked in baby clinics
1929 – 1937
Career position – Tutor Sister with the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board
1937
Career position – Midwife at the Canberra Community Hospital, Australian National Territory (NT)
c. 1937 – c. 1940
Life event – Travelled to England
August 1940 – August 1943
Military service – Matron with the Australian Army Nursing Service 2nd and 6th Australian General Hospital in Greece, Egypt and Palestine
1943
Award – Royal Red Cross (RRC)
12 April 1943
Military service – Made Lieutenant Colonel and posted to the Queensland Lines of Communication Area
December 1943 – 1946
Military service – Matron then Principal Matron with the Australian Army Nursing Service in Qld
1946
Life event – Retired from army service
1946 – 1948
Career position – Florence Nightingale International Foundation Scholarship for study at the Royal College of Nursing, London
1948
Military service – Principal Matron with the Citizen Military Forces at the Northern Command headquarters
1948 – 1950s
Career position – Tutor at Brisbane Hospital
1954 – 1956
Career position – President, Australian Trained Nurses’ Association, Queensland division
1955 – 1958
Career position – Member of the Queensland State Nurses and Masseurs Registration Board
1957
Award – Florence Nightingale Medal, International Committee of the Red Cross
1962
Career position – Honorary Colonel in the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps