Categories: L-M

Lum, Lillian Gertrude (1915-2007)

Lillian Lum graduated from VGH in 1939 and ran the Venereal Disease Clinic at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria from 1941 to 1965.  She took Public Health Nursing at UBC in 1966 and went on to work at the Saanich Health Department until her retirement in 1980.  She was active in the Girl Guide and Boy Scout movements and in many sports. She also travelled extensively, both locally and internationally.

Contents of Biographical File

Newspaper obituary from The Province

Mainwaring, Margaret Neily (1911-2018)

Also known as “North” (last name).

Margaret was born in Toronto and raised on a ranch in the East Kootenays.  She attended the VGH School of Nursing, from which she graduated in 1933.  After two years spent working in Port Alice, she joined the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps in 1941 and nursed in military hospitals in England, North Africa and Italy.  She was one of the first nurses to administer penicillin, which she recalls as ”brown coloured and it smelled a bit like horse manure”.

After the war she worked at the Vancouver Military Hospital, and in Montreal and Hawaii.  She lived briefly in Wells, where she met her husband, and in Quesnel, before they bought a home in Ladner in 1957.  With her husband she established and operated three long-term care nursing homes in the Lower Mainland.  After her husband died, she moved to White Rock, where she married Mainwaring, who died six months later.  In her retirement she curled, lawn bowled, attended dinner dances and enjoyed the occasional glass of sherry. She is a loyal member of the VGH SON Alumnae and attended annual lunches until 2014. She continues to live in her apartment with assistance.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical notes by Glennis Zilm
2. Photocopied photographs
3. Amy Reid, “Happy 100th this Weekend”, The Source (South Surrey), February 1, 2011.
4. “Still Laughing at 102,” Peace Arch News, February26, 2013, pp. 16-17.
5. Sarah Massah, “More than a Century Full of Memories”, Peace Arch News, February 12, 2015, p. 11.
6. Biographical information
7. Photograph
8. Power Point Presentation
9. Newspaper photograph

Mallory, Harriet Evelyn (1902-1993)

See UBC Archives

See School of Nursing Fonds 31

Following Ethel Johns and Mabel Gray, Evelyn Mallory was the third director of UBC’s School of Nursing.  She graduated from Winnipeg General in 1925, and obtained a degree in science in 1930, later followed by a Master of Arts degree in 1950.  She became Registrar and Educational Advisor to Schools of Nursing for RNABC in 1941, and in 1943 was offered the position of associate professor and head of the nursing department at UBC, a position she held until her retirement in 1967.

Under her direction UBC separated from the Vancouver General Hospital in 1958 to become an independent school.  In 1968 she was successful in implementing a Masters’ degree in nursing.  She wrote the first extensive history of the UBC School of Nursing.

Evelyn chaired a number of committees, on which she became known for her intelligence and extensive knowledge of nursing.  She served as both second and first vice-president of CNA, and as president of RNABC.  After her retirement she moved to Vernon to be near her family. The Harriet Evelyn Mallory Memorial Scholarship was established in recognition of her remarkable contribution to nursing.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Nomination for CNA Memorial Book.
2. UBC evaluation of faculty and staff, biographical notes, data for the academic staff records, academic and administrative executive personnel, and The Canadian Nurse journal biographical file.
3. Evelyn Mallory, “Ward Aides and Helpers”, The Canadian Nurse (1942), 36 (9), 715- 717.
4. Evelyn Mallory, “The Preparation of Nursing Personnel for the Care of the Mentally Ill”, The Canadian Nurse (1954), 50 (11), 869-878.
5. Letter from Mallory to E.B. Harkness in thanks for a retirement reception, May 29, 1967.
6. Letter from M. Robinson to the President, Executive Director and Board of Directors of the RNABC, July 20, 1993.
7. Notes on Evelyn Mallory by Esther Paulson, February 1993.
8. Evelyn Mallory: Biographical information from niece Georgie Irvine.
9. Letters from Rose Murakami concerning establishment of Harriet Evelyn Mallory Memorial Scholarship, August 5 and 9, 1993.
10. Rose Murakami, “Mallory Scholarship fund set up”, UBC Chronicle, 1994.
11. RNABC Annual Meeting, April 22-23, 1949.
12. Letter from Frances Howard to Mallory re Approved Schools of Nursing in Canada, February 13, 1961.  Reply from Mallory, February 17, 1961.
13. Letter from Gertrude Hall to Mallory re correct title and the relationship of the School of Nursing to the University, March 8, 1951.  Reply from Mallory, March 10, 1951.
14. Letter from Mallory with attachments to Dr. C.E. Dolman, Head, Department of Nursing and Health, UBC, re Kellogg Fellowship, July 7 1949.
15. Newspaper. Manitoba Association on Registered Nurses elects Miss Evelyn Mallory Head. (1939)
16. Letter from Ruth Morrison to Dr. MacKenzie UBC President, January 9, 1951
17. Nomination – RNABC Memorial Book, 1997.
18. Two photographs
19. In Memoriam, UBC Chronicle, n.d.
20. Obituaries
21. Nomination to RNABC Memorial book
22. Biographical information
23. “Manitoba Association of Registered Nurses Elects Miss Evelyn Mallory Head”,  April 17, 1939.
24. Letter [from Ruth Morrisone?] to President Dr. N.A.M. MacKenzie, January 9, 1951.
25. Letter from Mallory to E.B. Harkness in thanks for a retirement reception, May 29,1967
26. Photographs of Evelyn Mallory:  Portrait courtesy of UBC Library Special Collections (2); in classroom (2);  at her office desk; with students Barbara Blackwood and Lauree Larsen at open house in 1955 (2).

Martin (nee Wallace), Agnes Black “Nan” (1937-

See also oral history files Fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 8, AU0H27

Agnes Wallace was born and grew up in Scotland, where she received her training at Glasgow Royal Infirmary School of Nursing from 1955 to 1958.  She also took a six-month course in midwifery.  She immigrated to Canada where she was registered in Ontario in 1961 and in BC in 1969.

Balancing short term positions in gerontological nursing, while raising her three children, Nan later became a Head Nurse at Shaughnessy’s Brock Fahrni Pavilion from 1982 to 1986.  She was also Head Nurse at the Lions Gate Hospital (Evergreen House–Extended Care) from 1987 to 1997.  She regarded helping residents and family adjusting to extended care as a highlight of her career, and spent much of her time advocating for improved staffing levels. Nan was actively involved in the RNABC and CNA Gerontological Professional Practice Groups and received the RNABC Award of Excellence in Nursing Practice.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile
2. Photograph
3. Autobiography for Pages of History

Matheson, Jean (1874-1938)

Jean Matheson epitomizes the dedicated career nurse of the early twentieth century, especially with her work caring for tuberculosis patients.  She graduated from Winnipeg General Hospital in 1899.  From 1901 to 1906 she was Matron of the Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops, and in 1907 became the first matron of the new tuberculosis Sanatorium at Tranquille, which she helped make one of the premier provincial tuberculosis hospitals in Canada.

She signed on as a Nursing Sister during World War I with the No. 5 Canadian General Hospital at Salonika (Greece), and later England.  For her wartime service she received the Mons Medal, the Victory Medal, the Royal Red Cross and the King George Jubilee Medal.  She became Matron of Shaughnessy Military Hospital after the war; many of the returning veterans suffered from tuberculosis and respiratory disorders related to gas warfare. She worked there until her retirement in 1938.

In 1946 a new building at Shaughnessy, built to house veterans returning from WW II with tuberculosis, was named the Jean Matheson Pavilion in her honour.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Nomination to the CNA Memorial Book.
2. Information related to Jean Matheson and the former Jean Matheson pavilion, Shaughnessy site.  Compiled by Glennis Zilm, ca. 2007.
3. Information for Parks Canada Sites and Monuments Board relating to the nomination of Jean Matheson as a person of national historic significance.  Compiled by Glennis   Zilm, ca. 2007.
4. “Jean Matheson” from Glennis Zilm and Ethel Warbinek, “TB Nurses in BC 1895-1960:  A Biographical Dictionary”: White Rock, 2006.
5. MATHESON .The Canadian Nurse. (1936), 34, (6).p.314.
6. Photograph with Archives Deed of Gift form
7. Photograph
8. Application for Examination and Certificate as a Registered Nurse. – 1921. Photocopied.
9. Letter to Glennis Zilm (2009) and excerpts from minutes of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (2008).
10. Correspondence concerning the National Historic Board’s decision not to recommend  Jean Matheson as a person of national historic significance.
11. Correspondence re Jean Matheson portrait. — 2009
12. Obituary from The Canadian Nurse, 34, No. 6 (1938).
13. Other obituaries

Matusiak (nee Paul), Kathryn (1954-

OH115

Kathryn Matusiak’s deeply felt Christian beliefs infuse her nursing.  After receiving her BSN from Queens University in 1976, she worked as a staff nurse at Greenland Hospital in Auckland, New Zealand and Children’s Hospital in Ottawa.  From 1979 to 1996 she worked as a Community Health Nurse in prevention programs.  She has found that Public Health Nursing changed from the very wide general prevention focus in the 1980s to a specialized acute care focus.

She took a Parish Nursing Diploma from Trinity Western in 2000, and Lay Volunteer Chaplain Training in 2002.  From 2000 she has been the parish nurse for the First United Church, in White Rock BC, responsible for pastoral care, including hospital and home visiting, coordinating the prayer tree and the Seniors Tea, and taking part in funerals with support for family members.  She finds that her training and work has deepened her “understanding of God’s presence in the healing process of body, mind and spirit”.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile
2. Letter from Ethel Warbinek to Matusiak, February 3, 2007
3. Curriculum Vitae

May, Katharyn Antle

Katharyn May received her BSN from Duke University, and her MS and DNSc from the University of California, San Francisco.  Her varied career includes teaching at the University of California from 1979 to 1987 and Vanderbilt University in Nashville from 1987 to 1994.  She was Director of the School of Nursing at UBC from 1994-2000.  She left to take the position of Dean of the School of Nursing at Madison, Wisconsin, from which she retired in 2015.

Her publications include Maternal and Neonatal Nursing, and two editions of Comprehensive Maternity Nursing.  She has also published numerous articles and chapters in books, as well as presenting papers at conferences.  Much of her research relates to issues surrounding childbirth.

Contents of Biographical File

1.Curriculum Vitae (17 pages)

2.Photocopied photograph

Middleton (nee Lee), Jessie Annie (1916-2019)

See Oral History Files, Fonds 18, Series 3, Subseries 8, AUOH37

After her training at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, Jessie Lee joined the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps and nursed in England.  She regarded this work as “the greatest privilege for me”.  “The friendships formed a camaraderie over the years [that] has enriched my life greatly”.

While she took a year’s training in obstetrical nursing at McGill after World War II, marriage and living far from any hospitals prevented her from working as a nurse.  She has volunteered with hospital auxiliaries in Abbotsford and the Hospice Society, and also visited in hospitals and care homes.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile
2. Photograph
3. “Canada’s Nursing Sister: Jessie Middleton on Answering the Call of Duty,” Friday Newsmagazine, November 2007.  Cover + pp. 8, 9.
4. “Healing Hands and a Heavy Heart,” Langley Times, November 6, 2013.

Miller (nee Allsebrook), Naomi (1927-

Naomi Allsebrook grew up in the West Kootenays and completed nursing at VGH (1950) and her BScN at UBC (1951).  From 1951 to 1953 she was Head Nurse at the TB Willow Chest Centre.  After her marriage she moved frequently, and did little nursing.  She worked extensively with Girl Guides, and became increasingly involved with East Kootenay local history.  From 1968 to 1974 she worked to build and organize the Golden Museum, becoming curator there from 1974 to 1983.

Naomi brought to light nursing history from outside the Lower Mainland and Capital District.  She published two books of local history, and was winner of the British Columbia Heritage Award in 1999.  She was an active volunteer with Fort Steele, and from 2003 she has been Secretary of the Fort Steele Cemetery Society.  In 2010 she was awarded an honorary life membership in the BC History of Nursing Society.

Contents of Biographical File

1. Biographical Information Profile
2. Biographical Release Form
3. “Seeking Stories of Pioneer Nurses”, BC Historical News 35, (2), 40.
4. Nomination for Honorary Life Membership, BC History of Nursing Society, April 8, 2010.
5. Honorary Life Membership awarded to Naomi Allsebrook Miller, 2010.
6. Photograph

Montgomery (nee Sorenson), Marie (1922-2003)

Maria Sorenson was born in Hakkebo, Norway; hard times led her family to immigrate to Prince Rupert so her father could continue life as a fisherman.  She completed nursing at VGH in 1944 where she went to work on the children’s ward.  Working as superintendent of TB control at Willow Chest led her in 1949 to move to the West Coast Sanatorium in Newfoundland where she became superintendent of nurses.

She returned to Vancouver to work at the children’s hospital and get married, but retired from nursing in the late 1950s.  In 1961 she and her husband moved to Sechelt, where her active community volunteer involvement earned her the Good Citizen of Sechelt award in 1978.  She died of cancer in 2003.

Contents of Biographical File

Biographical information.  Author unidentified.