The Australian Women's Register

Summary

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

• 1937

  Employed briefly by the Canberra Community Hospital

• 1937 - 1940

  Travelled in England

• 2040

  Enlisted in the Australian Army at Windsor, Qld. Appointed matron of the 2/6 Australian General Hospital

• 2041

  Disembarked with 55 nurses and masseuses to Greece

• 2041

  Ordered to evacuate to Alexandria, Egypt

• 2041 - 2042

  Temporarily located at Jerusalem

• 2043

  Awarded the Royal Red Cross Medal, 1st Class

• 2042

  2/6 A.G.H. expanded from 600 to 1500 beds

• 2042

  Nursing staff handled 615 admissions and 235 discharges in one day

• 2043

  Repatriated to Australia

• 2043

  Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and posted to the Queensland Lines of Communication Area

• 2044

  Became principal matron

• 1946

  Winner of the Florence Nightingale International Foundation scholarship and studied for 18 months at the Royal College of Nursing, London

• 1929

  Employed as a tutor sister by the Brisbane and South Coast Hospitals Board

• 2048

  Appointed principal matron of the Citizen Military Forces at the Northern Command headquarters

• 1948

  Member of the tutorial staff of the Brisbane Hospital

• 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

• 1925

  Completed State child-welfare course

• 1926 - 1928

  Worked in baby clinics

• 1923

  Awarded gold medal for theoretical and practical work

• 1924

  Completed general nursing certificate

• 1924

  Obtained midwifery certificate at the Lady Bowen Hospital, Wickham Terrace, Brisbane

• 1975

  Died: Bethesda Hospital and her body was given to the school of anatomy, University of Queensland

• 1970

  Born: daughter of John William and Isabella (née Stevenson) Abbott

• 1920

  Probationer at the Brisbane General Hospital