Ellis, Kathleen Wilhelmina (1887-1968)

Born in Penticton, Ellis graduated from Baltimore’s John Hopkins School of Nursing in 1915.  During WW1, she was matron of the Vancouver Island Military Hospital in Victoria.  After positions in Detroit and Toronto, she returned to Vancouver to become Superintendent of Nurses at the Vancouver General Hospital and Principal of the School from 1921 to 1929.  In collaboration with Ethel Johns, she helped develop the five-year baccalaureate nursing course at UBC and VGH. She was the 6th president of the Graduate Nurses Association of BC. From 1931 – 1936, she was Director of Nursing at the Winnipeg General Hospital. During WW II she was secretary-treasurer and national emergency adviser for CNA.  In 1937 she received a BS from Columbia University, New York and from 1930-1932, was First Vice-President of CNA. For 13 years, she was registrar for the Saskatchewan Registered Nurses Association.

In 1938 she opened the University of Saskatchewan School Of Nursing and was Director of Education. From 1946-1950, she was Professor and Director of the School where she remained until her retirement to Penticton in 1950. She received an honorary degree from the University of Saskatchewan in 1955 and a Centennial Medal in 1967. In 1956 the new nurses’ residence at the University Hospital in Saskatoon, was named “Ellis Hall” in her honour.

Contents of Biographical File

  1. Biographical Information file from The Canadian Nurse.
  2. Materials in support of nomination to the RNABC Memorial Book.
  3. Biographical information.
  4. U of S citation for the presentation of an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
  5. Citation for 1967 Centennial medal.
  6. “Miss Kathleen W. Ellis”, The Canadian Nurse 26 (12) (December 1930), p. 649.
  7. “A Forward Step”, The Canadian Nurse 33 (5), (May 1937), p. 219.
  8. “The C.N.A. Appoints a General Secretary and National Adviser”. The Canadian Nurse 39 (9) (September 1943).
  9. “Nursing Profiles”, The Canadian Nurse 46 (11) (November 1950), p. 902.
  10. “Miss K.W. Ellis Honoured by University”, The Canadian Nurse, August 1955.
  11. Newspaper clippings
  12. Excerpt from Legacy: History of Nursing at the University of British Columbia.
  13. Photograph