Abbott, Joan Stevenson (Judy) (1899 - 1970)

Judy Abbott was awarded the Royal Red Cross, 1st Class on 18 February 1943 for her leadership while matron with the 2/6 Australian General Hospital in the Middle East and Greece. After the war Abbott won the 1946 Florence Nightingale International Foundation scholarship, and studied at the Royal College of Nursing, London for 18 months. In 1948 she returned to her pre-war position on the tutorial staff at the Brisbane Hospital.

Abbott was appointed principal matron of the Citizen Military Forces and served with the 1st Camp Hospital, Brisbane, for a short time during the Korean War. From 1954 until 1956 she was president of the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association (Queensland Branch) and a member of the Queensland State Nurses and Masseurs Registration Board. Nearing the end of her career, she worked as a staff nurse with the Commonwealth Savings Bank for five years and then in a doctors' surgery before retiring in 1970.

Judy Abbott fractured her spine in 1975 and suffered quadriplegia. After her death on 27th November her body was given to the school of anatomy, University of Queensland.

Events

11 December 1899	Born: daughter of John William and Isabella (née Stevenson) Abbott
1920	Probationer at the Brisbane General Hospital
1923	Awarded gold medal for theoretical and practical work
1924	Completed general nursing certificate
c. 1924	Obtained midwifery certificate at the Lady Bowen Hospital, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane
c. 1925	Completed State child-welfare course
1926 - 1928	Worked in baby clinics
1929	Employed as a tutor sister by the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board
1937	Employed briefly by the Canberra Community Hospital
c. 1937 - c. 1940	Travelled in England
19 August 1940	Enlisted in the Australian Army at Windsor, Qld. Appointed matron of the 2/6 Australian General Hospital
31 March 1941	Disembarked with 55 nurses and masseuses to Greece
20 April 1941	Ordered to evacuate to Alexandria, Egypt
October 1941 - March 1942	Temporarily located at Jerusalem
May 1942 - August 1942	2/6 A.G.H. expanded from 600 to 1500 beds
November 1942	Nursing staff handled 615 admissions and 235 discharges in one day
February 1943	Repatriated to Australia
18 February 1943	Awarded the Royal Red Cross Medal, 1st Class
12 April 1943	Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and posted to the Queensland Lines of Communication Area
January 1944	Became principal matron
1946	Winner of the Florence Nightingale International Foundation scholarship and studied for 18 months at the Royal College of Nursing, London
1948	Member of the tutorial staff of the Brisbane Hospital
1 July 1948	Appointed principal matron of the Citizen Military Forces at the Northern Command headquarters
1954 - 1956	President of the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association (Queensland Branch)
1955 - 1958	Member of the Queensland State Nurses and Masseurs Registration Board
1957	Awarded the Florence Nightingale medal
1962	Appointed honorary Colonel of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps
27 November 1975	Died: Bethesda Hospital and her body was given to the school of anatomy, University of Queensland

Related Corporate Bodies

• Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) (1903 - 1948)

  Service nos: QFX700118 and QX6397

  [1940 - 1946]

• Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC) (1948 - )

  Honorary colonel

  [1962 - ]

Book Sections

• Fulloon, Gillian, 'Abbott, Joan Stevenson (1899-1975)', in Ritchie, John (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 13, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Vic., 1993, pp. 3-4. [ Details... ]

Online Resources

• Department of Veterans' Affairs, 'ABBOTT, JOAN STEVENSON', in World War 2 Nominal Roll, 2002, http://www.ww2roll.gov.au/script/veteran.asp?ServiceID=A&VeteranID=36440. [ Details... ]

See also

• Alexander, Joseph A (ed.), Who's who in Australia 1944, 12 edn, The Herald and Weekly Times, Melbourne, 1944, 906 pp. [ Details... ]
• Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 'Where are the Women in Australian science?', 22 August 2003, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/wisa/wisa.html. [ Details... ]