Maker: Brenda Sinclair

Panel number: 470

Petition sheet number: Unknown

Person honouring: Ellen Dougherty

Relationship to maker: None

In September 1901 New Zealand became the first country to have separate legislation for the registration and regulation of nurses. When the Nurses Registration Act became law in January 1902, Ellen Dougherty was the first name entered – on 10 January 1902.

Ellen’s registration recognised she’d been nursing since the 1880s. She completed her nursing certificate in 1887 then headed the accident and the surgery wards at Wellington Hospital before she became assistant matron there in 1893.

Four years later Ellen became matron of Palmerston North’s new hospital. This seems to have been a particularly challenging task because few materials were provided and money was scarce. Her first act was to organise sewing bees to ensure a large supply of linen to help prevent infection.

Accidents were common in this region, due to railway construction and forestry activity – many patients arrived with gruesome injuries for Ellen and her small staff to manage.

Ellen was 64 when she retired. She died in Carterton in 1919, aged 75, and was buried at Clareville cemetery.

The panel depicts the New Zealand Nursing Pin. 

Panel materials: Recylced fabrics, doily, and gold embroidery thread.