Mona Grey
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Mona Elizabeth Clara Grey OBE FRCN (24 September 1910 – 27 May 2009) was a British nurse who was named Northern Ireland's first Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) in 1960.[1]
Mona Elizabeth Clara Grey | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1910 |
| Died | 2009 (aged 98–99) |
| Occupation | Nurse leader |
| Employer | Royal College of Nursing Department of Health (Northern Ireland) |
Grey was born and raised in Rawalpindi, British India (now Pakistan), the daughter of missionaries. Her mother died when she was six and so Grey and her elder sister, Trixie, attended Oakgrove boarding school near the Himalayas. The pair then went to the Church of England Missionary School in Bombay, where her sister died of tuberculosis.[2]
She prepared to be a teacher at St. Bede's College, Shimla, where she graduated with honours and remained in India to work at Lawerence College in Murree Hills. In the 1930s she moved to London, looking for a teaching post. In 1933, she took a job at Royal London, then known as London Hospital.[2] It was there that she decided to become a nurse.[3] Whilst at London Hospital she also qualified as a midwife.[1]
Grey subsequently played a significant role in restructuring its health services in Northern Ireland. In 1960, she was appointed chief nursing officer in Northern Ireland, the first person to be appointed to the role, a post she held until 1975, when she retired. She helped establish a research chair in nursing at the University of Ulster, and received an honorary doctorate from the university in 1999. She died in Holywood, County Down on 27 May 2009 aged 98.[2]
