Kerr, Margaret (1900-1976)

Margaret Kerr was born in Amherst, Ontario; after qualifying as a teacher in Vancouver she taught two years in Kaslo.  She graduated from VGH in 1925 was one of the early graduates (in 1926) from the UBC nursing program. She was a school nurse for 2 years and with the support of a Rockefeller Foundation Scholarship she graduated with a Master of Arts from Columbia University in 1929.  Subsequently she taught public health nursing for fourteen years at UBC.  During these years, she was active in professional organizations.

In 1944 she was elected President of the RNABC, and in the same year joined the staff of The Canadian Nurse.  In her more than twenty years as editor she made this journal a leader in its field; by the time of her retirement it reached 113 countries outside Canada.  Margaret’s objective was to further the cause of her profession, to develop a body of well-informed nurses and to encourage them to write so that others might benefit from their experiences.

Contents of Biographical File

  1. Nomination to the RNABC Memorial Book.
  2. Nomination to the CNA Memorial Book.
  3. Ethel Johns, “Introducing Margaret Kerr,” The Canadian Nurse (1939) 35 (4), pp.201-202.
  4. Kerr, Margaret E. “Public Health Nursing:  Some Pertinent Facts,” The Canadian Nurse (June 1941), 37 (6), 413-415.
  5. Kerr, Margaret, “Teaching Material for First Aid Instruction,” The Canadian Nurse (September 1942), 36 (9), 661-663.
  6. Lindeburgh, Marion, “The New Editor of the Journal,” The Canadian Nurse (1944), 40 (5), 310.
  7. Kerr, Margaret, “Brief History of the Registered Nurses’ Association of British Columbia”, (1944).
  8. [Kerr, Margaret?], The Canadian Nurse: Historical Data, February 1959.
  9. Kerr, Margaret, “Fifty Years Young,” The Canadian Nurse, (March 1955), 51 (3), 175-177.
  10. Obituary, The Canadian Nurse, August 1976, p. 10.
  11. Application for registration as a nurse. -1925
  12. Support for Canadian Nurses’ Association honorary membership. -1966
  13. From American Nursing, Vol.3, ed. Vern L. Bullough and Lili Sentz, pp. 162-164
  14. Photograph