Janet Gillies Photo / Supplied
Janet Gillies' efforts in the field of nursing have gone largely unrecognised but this Whanganui-born woman was instrumental in bringing about major change to the country's army nursing services.
She was one of eight children of James and Janet Speed and was born in Whanganui on January 31, 1864.
Her father had business interests in Whanganui but soon after Janet's birth the family moved to Picton.
She began nursing training at Wellington Hospital in 1887 but returned to Picton seven years later.
Gillies was one of about 30 Kiwi nurses who served in the South African War between 1899 and 1902.
None were paid by the NZ government so local patriotic committees raised funds to send small groups of nurses while others joined the Army Nursing Service Reserve in England or travelled to South Africa at their own expense.
She was among those who paid their own fare but once in South Africa she joined the nursing reserve and her salary was paid by the British government. When the war ended in 1902 she received the King's South Africa Medal.
Shocked at the inefficiency of the hospitals she had worked in during the conflict, Gillies decided to further her knowledge of military nursing.
She travelled from South Africa to England in 1902 and, again at her own expense, undertook a course on the subject at the Royal Victoria Hospital.
She was back in Wellington in 1903 and worked with the newly formed St John Ambulance District Nursing Guild. The following year she married David Gillies, a surveyor.
In 1907 Princess Christian wrote to the governor, Lord Plunket, suggesting the formation of a NZ branch of the Army Nursing Service Reserve. Gillies was an enthusiastic supporter of the idea and offered her services as matron in chief.
The NZ Medical Corps Nursing Reserve was gazetted the next year and Gillies was appointed matron in chief.
But she was in an odd situation, leading a nursing reserve with no nurses and despite pressing the Minister of Defence, she was blocked in her attempts at recruitment. In fact everything she tried was in vain.
Married, not actively nursing, and living outside Wellington, some in high places felt she was out of touch with "the nurses' best fitted to take responsible charge".
In 1909 the acting director general of medical services recommended that the inspector general of hospitals and charitable institutions, Thomas Valintine, would be the best person to administer the nursing reserve.
Gillies was asked to resign as matron in chief which she did in June 1910. The experience left her deeply disappointed, but she didn't give up her vision.
Gillies kept offering to set up a nursing reserve but the Government and various ministers ignored her entreaties.
She died in Auckland in July 1947, with her work unrecognised. However, her plans were put into practice during World War 1, when her successor as matron in chief, Hester Maclean, began recruiting nurses for the NZ Army Nursing Service.
These nurses, who served with distinction during the war, proved the worth of an organised military nursing system for New Zealand's defence forces.
Source – Dictionary of NZ Biography