McCARTHY, Dame EMMA MAUD (1859-1949), nursing sister and army matron-in-chief,
was born on 22 September 1859 at Paddington, Sydney, eldest child of William
Frederick McCarthy, solicitor, and his Sydney-born wife Emma Mary, née à Beckett,
niece of Sir William and Thomas Turner à Beckett. Maud was educated at a school
run by Lady Murray, wife of Sir Terence Murray, known as Springfield College,
Sydney, and passed with honours the University of Sydney's senior examination.
After her father's death in 1881 she helped her mother to rear her brothers and
sisters.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography Online
(Dame) Emma Maud McCarthy was a highly decorated war-time nurse. She received the Queen's and King's Medal (1902), the Royal Red Cross (1902) and a Bar (1918c), the Florence Nightingale Medal, the Belgian Medaille de la Reine Elizabeth, the French Légion d'honneur and Medaille des Epidémies and was appointed Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE). In 1891 McCarthy left Australia to study nursing in England. After graduating, she was appointed Sister at the London Hospital and served as Sister-in-Charge at the Sophia Women's Ward during the South African War. This was followed by seven years service with the Army Nursing Service Reserve. When World War I broke out McCarthy was posted to the British Expeditionary Force and served in France and Flanders. As Matron-in-Chief, she was in charge of all British and Allied Nurses working in the extended region – around 6000 nurses at its peak. Dame Emma McCarthy returned to England after the war and worked as Matron-in-Chief of the Territorial Army Nursing Service from 1920 until her retirement in 1925.
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1891 - c. 1894
Education - Probationer undertaking general nursing training at London Hospital in Whitechapel
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1894 - 1899
Career position - Sister at the London Hospital
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1899 - 1902
Career position - Sister in the Army Nursing Service Reserve
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c. 1902
Award - Royal Red Cross received
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c. 1902
Award - Queen's and King's Medal received
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1903 - 1910
Career position - Matron with the Army Nursing Service Reserve at Aldersshot, Netley and Millbank military hospitals
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1910 - c. 1914
Career position - Principal Matron at the War Office
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1914 - c. 1919
Career position - Matron, then Matron-in-Chief appointed to the British Expeditionary Force in Abbeville, France and Flanders
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1918
Award - Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE)
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1920 - 1925
Career position - Matron-in-Chief with the Territorial Army Nursing Service
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1925
Life event - Retired
View the full record at
Encyclopedia of Australian Science