Margaret Frances Looker
2/1st AGH, Merredin. Margaret Frances Looker
Born
Martha Fanny Looker

14 October 1910
Hobart
Died25 August 1988 (aged 77)
Narrabundah
NationalityAustralian
Other namesMargaret Frances Guy
Occupationnurse
SpouseGuy

Margaret Frances Looker born Martha Fanny Looker became Margaret Frances Guy OBE (14 October 1910 – 25 August 1988) was at the time Australia's youngest hospital matron. She was a founding member of the New South Wales College of Nursing.

Life

Looker was born in Tasmania at Hobart in 1910. Her mother, Martha Fanny (born Smith) was from New Zealand and her father, Edward William Looker was a pastry cook, had been born in England. She had four elder siblings and two more arrived after her. Her name was then Martha Fanny Looker.[1] Her elder brother became the businessperson Sir Cecil Looker. Her father's business failed in 1917 leaving the family poor and living in the Sydney suburn of Normanhurst.[2]

When she left Sydney Girls’ High School she went to the University of Sydney to take medicine but she left in 1932 to train as a nurse at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She completed that in 1936 and later also studied midwifery at Crown Street Women’s Hospital in 1939. On the second day of 1940 she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service as part of the Australian Imperial Force. When she left in 1945, after serving in the Middle East, Papua New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands, she had the rank of Captain.[1]

In 1948 she became a matron at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Every other matron in Australia was older than her.[3]

In 1949 she changed her name officially from Martha Fanny to Margaret Frances. She was a founding member of the New South Wales College of Nursing (now part of Australian College of Nursing. The others were Georgina McCready MBE, Muriel Knox Doherty RRC and Agnes Mary Lions OBE. The four of them met a week after a meeting of nurses on 5 January 1949 in Sydney which resolved to create a College of Nursing.[4] 

In 1961 she was awarded an OBE is recognition of her contribution to nursing.[3]

Looker died in the Canberra suburb of Narrabundah in 1988.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Forsyth, Sue, "Margaret Frances Looker (1910–1988)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 14 December 2023
  2. ↑ Leckey, John A., "Sir Cecil Thomas Looker (1913–1988)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 14 December 2023
  3. 1 2 "Guy, Margaret Frances - Person - Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation". www.eoas.info. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  4. ↑ "Our history". Australian College of Nursing. 2023.
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