Agnes Marion McLean WalshOBE (née Gibson; 10 June 1884 – 12 August 1967) was head
matron of
King Edward Memorial Hospital, a
Western Australianmaternity hospital[1] from 1922 until her retirement in December 1954, during which time more than 60,000 babies were born under her supervision.[2] In that capacity she advised the Commonwealth Government on midwifery policy and was on the National Medical Research Council.[3]
In the 1930s
Dot Edis was working for her at the King Edward Memorial Hospital after taking further training in child care and midwifery there. Walsh made her responsible for the post-natal ward and she became so enamoured with a baby, who was under developed, that she adopted Reginald as her own child. Edis was to go on have a leading career in nursing.[4]
The Agnes Walsh Nurses’ Home was opened by the West Australian Minister for Health, Dame
Florence Cardell-Oliver in January 1953.[7]
References
^Martyr, Philippa, '
Walsh, Agnes Marion McLean (1884–1967)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, accessed 16 September 2011.
^Gare, Deborah,
"Edis, Margaret Dorothy (Dot) (1890–1981)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 22 September 2023