Edna Pengelly
Teacher, civilian and military nurse, matron
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Edna Pengelly (5 July 1874 – 20 August 1959) was a New Zealand teacher, civilian and military nurse and matron.
Early life and education
Pengelly was born in Canada in 1874 and came to New Zealand as a child. She attended primary schools in Waddington and Annat in Canterbury. She then attended Christchurch West School before boarding at Christchurch Girls' High School.[1]
Career
Pengelly taught in Rangiora after leaving school.[1] She did her nursing training at Wellington Hospital and continued to work there after she gained her nursing registration in 1908.[1][2] She was also matron of the nurse's home.[1]
During World War 1 she served with the New Zealand Army Nursing Service in Egypt and England.[1][3] She left New Zealand in 1915 on the ship Rotorua.[4] She published some experiences of nursing in Egypt in the nursing journal Kai Tiaki in 1916.[5] In England she was assistant matron at the No. 3 New Zealand General Hospital at the camp in Codford in Wiltshire and then took charge of the Oatlands Park Hospital, an off-shoot of the No. 2 New Zealand General Hospital in Weybridge, Surrey for convalescing New Zealand soldiers.[6][7][8][9]
She returned to New Zealand in 1919 to become matron of Queen Mary Hospital in Hanmer Springs, a hospital providing rehabilitation services for returned servicemen.[1] From 1921 to 1929 she was matron of a private hospital in Hobson St in Wellington, after which she became matron at Whanganui Collegiate School until 1937.[1][10] In 1956 she published her diaries Nursing in peace and war which were one of the few accounts of a nurse's wartime service.[1][11] She retired in 1941.[1]
Pengelly died in Wellington Hospital on 20 August 1959.[1]
Awards
Pengelly was awarded two medals in World War 1: the Associate Royal Red Cross in 1917 and the Royal Red Cross in 1919.[4][12][13]