Ella Macknight, daughter of Conway Montgomery Macknight and Eliza Jane Simpson, was educated at home by governesses and later attended Toorak College. She gained her MB BS in 1928 from the University of Melbourne. After qualifying as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, (MD, Melb.1931, DGO Melb 1936), she was associated with the Queen Victoria Hospital from 1935-1977. Her appointments included honorary obstetrician and gynaecologist from 1935-1964; vice-president of the Committee of Management for 1963-1971 and president from 1971-1977. She was president of the Council of the Royal College of Gynaecologists from 1970-1972 and served as chairmen of the Blood Transfusion Committee, Victorian Division of the Red Cross Society from 1964-1970 and a member of the Executive of the Victorian Division during the same period.

Ella Macknight had a well developed adventurous streak. In 1929, she was persuaded by her cousin to learn how to fly. She got her pilot's ticket and, in 1930, was one of six women pilots in Victoria who provided an escort for Amy Johnson from Laverton to Moonee Valley, where they landed on the race track.

Ella Macknight was appointed as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to medicine on 1 January 1969.

She died on 1 April 1997 in Malvern at the age of 92.

Events

1951

Member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (MRCOG)

1958

Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FRCOG)

1972

Honorary Doctor of Medicine, Monash University, Victoria

1973

Fellowship in Australia in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (FAGO)

1976

Fellow of the Australian Medical Association (FAMA)

1978

Fellow of the Australian College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Sources used to compile this entry: 'Macknight, Dame Ella Annie Noble, DBE', in Who's who in Australia 1996, 32nd edn, Information Australia Group Pty Ltd, Melbourne, 1996, p. 1046; Lofthouse, Andrea (ed.), Who's who of Australian women, Methuen Australia, North Ryde (NSW), 1982, 504 pp; Senyard, June, The Ties that Bind: A History of Sport at the University of Melbourne, Walla Walla Press, Petersham, New South Wales, 2004.