Hester MacLean RRC (1859 - 1932)

Born 25 Feb 1859 in Sofala, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Died 2 Sep 1932 at age 73 in Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand

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Biography

Hester MacLean RRC is Notable.

The New Zealand electoral rolls between 1911 and 1928 give her occupation as 'spinster' which belittles the work of this fascinating woman. It is said that after her watching his nurse look after her father, young Hester decided to follow in her footsteps. She started training straight from school at Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney graduating in 1893. She then held a number of Matron positions at hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne before taking her midwifery CMB certificate in England.

In 1906, she was persuaded to 'cross the pond' and take up the position of Assistant Inspector of Hospitals and Deputy Registrar of Nurses and Midwives in New Zealand. She set about initiating a number reforms to not only benefit her nurses but those they treated as well. With the restructure of the Health Department in 1920, Hester became Director of the Division of Nursing.

During the first World War, as Matron in Chief, she set about selecting, training, and equipping her contingents of nurses who were sent overseas and later, employed locally looking after those returning from the fronts and the resulting influenza epidemic.

Hester's ideals of the professionalism of nursing saw her initiating the joining of the different organisations and branches of nursing in New Zealand into one group, the New Zealand Trained Nurses' Association - she was elected its first president in 1909. To facilitate the dissemination of information and ideas, she proposed then produced and edited Kai Tiaki, The Journal of the Nurses of New Zealand. Although later sold to the Association in 1923, Hester continued as editor till her death in 1932. After her retirement from public life, she wrote her memoire Nursing in New Zealand.

Hester was awarded the Royal Red Cross (First Class) in 1918, for her services in the organisation of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service, and the Florence Nightingale Medal in 1920. She was accorded a full military funeral.

She has been recognised as one of the key figures in the development of nursing in New Zealand. At least in the 1903 electoral roll, she was allowed to give her occupation as 'Matron'.

Sources

• birth:
  • New South Wales birth 1859/5054
  • Birth notice, The Sydney Morning Herald March 4 1859 p1: "On the 25th February, at Sofala, the wife of Harold Maclean, Esq, of a daughter."
• death:
  • New Zealand death 1932/8040 71y
  • Buried Karori Cemetery, Wellington, New Zealand, 29Q
  • Obituary The New Zealand Nursing Journal, 15 Sep 1932
  • Obituary Evening Post, September 2 1932
• New Zealand Electoral Rolls 1908 to 1928
• He Toa Taumata Rau, Online Cenopath Hester MacLean
• Imperial War Museum, Lives of the First World War, Life story: Hester Maclean RRC
• Edtd A. H. McLintock,Te Ara - An Encyclopedia of New Zealand; 1966 Biography, Nancy Joan Kinross: MACLEAN, Hester RRC; Updated Biography, Patricia A. Sargison Maclean, Hester
• Wikipedia entry: Hester MacLean
• Maclean, Hester, Nursing in New Zealand: History and Reminiscences (Tolan, 1932)
• Australian book for this branch of the MacLeans: Percival Conrad Mowle, A Genealogical History of the Pioneer Families of Australia, John Sands, Sydney, 1939 [Caution should be taken as some information is incorrect]