Olive Anstey CBE (1920 - 1983)

Born 9 Aug 1920 in Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia

Ancestors

Died 18 Aug 1983 at age 63 in Shoalwater, Western Australia, Australia

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Biography

Olive Anstey CBE is Notable.

Olive Anstey was awarded the Commander of the order of the British Empire, for services to nursing, in 1982. She was on the inaugural list of women for the WA Women's Hall of Fame.^[1]

Olive was born on 9 August 1920 at Fremantle, Western Australia, youngest of three children of Terence Edwin Anstey, a sawmill benchman from Victoria, and his Western Australian-born wife Eva Annie, née Donovan.

She started work at Royal Perth Hospital in 1941. She was appointed matron of the new Perth Chest Hospital in 1958. In 1963, it was renamed the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital and began admitting general patients.

She initiated, encouraged and supported innovative programs in areas of nursing practice, education and administration.

In 1958, she was elected to the council of the State branch of the Australian Nursing Federation and later served as its president, helping to establish the Australian Nursing Journal. She was president (1977-81) of the International Council of Nurses.

Having been appointed MBE in 1969, in 1982 she was elevated to CBE.

She died suddenly on the night of 18-19 August 1983 at Shoalwater, Perth, and was buried with Catholic rites in Karrakatta cemetery.

An accommodation block for student nurses at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital had been named after her in 1974; shortly after her death the hospital’s board of management established the Olive Anstey Nursing Fund.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ WA Women's Hall of Fame, Inductees for 2011, retrieved online on 11 October 2020, http://www.wawomenshalloffame.com.au/index.php/2011-inductee-biographies/
2. ↑ Criena Fitzgerald, 'Anstey, Olive Eva (1920–1983)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/anstey-olive-eva-12143/text21757, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 11 October 2020.

• Criena Fitzgerald, 'Anstey, Olive Eva (1920–1983)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/anstey-olive-eva-12143/text21757, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 21 November 2022.