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The College of Nursing (Incorporating The New South Wales College of Nursing)

Guy, Margaret Frances (1910 - 1988)

OBE
Go to Gallery Page Guy, Margaret Frances
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Nurse, Nurse administrator and Nurse educator
Born: 10 October 1910  Tasmania, Australia.  Died: 25 August 1988.
Margaret Frances Guy qualified as a nurse in 1937, and served with the Army Nursing Service during the Second World War. The recipient of a number of grants (Rotary, Fulbright, and the first Churchill Fellowship awarded to a woman) she undertook studies in the UK and USA in nurse education and administration. She was one of four founders of the New South Wales College of Nursing in 1949. At the time of her appointment to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, New South Wales, in 1948, she was the youngest Matron in Australia. Margaret Guy is remembered as a skilful administrator and passionate educator. In 1961 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to nursing.

Career Highlights
Alternative Names: Looker, Margaret Frances (maiden name)
Margaret Frances Guy (née Looker) was born 10 October 1910, in Tasmania (she was named Martha Fannie) and died 25 August 1988 in Canberra, ACT. A memorial service was held at the Royal Canberra Hospital, 25 August 1988. She married John Guy in England in December 1955. In 1937, Miss Looker, as she was then, received her General Nursing Certificate from the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in New South Wales, and took up a position in the same year as Charge Nurse at the hospital. The following year, 1938, she was a sister with the School Medical Service and in 1939 completed her Midwifery Certificate at the Crown Street Women's Hospital, Sydney. After service with the Army Nursing Service during the Second World War, in which she achieved the rank of captain, she travelled to London to study. In June 1947 she was awarded a Sister Tutor Diploma, Royal College of Nursing, London, UK and in November of the same year Part A, Diploma of Nursing, from the University of London, UK. In 1955 she received a Diploma of Nursing Administration from the University of Chicago, Illinois, USA. A member of the Florence Nightingale Memorial Committee (New South Wales) she was recognised in 1946-47 as the Foundation Florence Nightingale (International) Scholar for New South Wales. Her studies in the USA, 1954-55, were facilitated by Rotary and Fulbright Travel Grants, and she was the first woman to receive a Churchill Fellowship in 1966.

Margaret Guy was one of four founders of the New South Wales College of Nursing (NSWCN) serving as Vice-President of the Provisional Council 19 May 1949 to 31 January 1950; Vice-President 1 July 1951 to 4 November 1952; President 4 November 1952 to 8 July 1953 (resigning to take up Travel Grant). She was recognised as a Founder and invested as Foundation Fellow, 18 September 1952, delivering the Annual Oration, 'The Practice of Nursing', on 16 September 1964. A supervisor of the Sister Tutor Diploma 1949, she convened the first Sister Tutor Conference in 1951 and acted as assistant convenor of the first Ward Sisters Conference, 1951. In 1961 she was awarded the OBE for services to nursing.

Chronology
1937General Nursing Certificate completed at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, New South Wales
1937 - 1938Sister at the School Medical Service, New South Wales
1938 - 1939Sister at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
1939Midwifery Certificate completed at the Crown Street Women’s Hospita in Sydney
1940 - 1946Lieutenant and later Captain in the Army Nursing Service
1946 - 1947Sister at St Thomas’s Hospital in London and Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, UK
1948 - 1954Matron and Superintendent of Nursing at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, New South Wales
1955Tutor Sister in Winchester, UK
1956 - 1972Matron at Canberra Community Hospital (early retirement due to ill health)

 
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Structure based on ISAAR(CPF) - click here for an explanation of the fields.Prepared by: Australian Nursing History Project, Judith Cornell
Created: 8 February 2002
Modified: 9 October 2006

Published by The University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre on ASAPWeb, 1994 - 2007
Originally published 1994-1999 by Australian Science Archives Project, 1999-2006 by the Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre
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Updated: 26 February 2007
http://www.asap.unimelb.edu.au/bsparcs/biogs/P004114b.htm

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