The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Mother Mary Gertrude of the Order of St John of God, trained as a nurse at the Order’s hospital in Perth, Western Australia. After nursing in Western Australia and Victoria, from 1929 she worked at the Beagle Bay mission in the north of Western Australia where four of her sisters, all members of the same religious order, preceded her. She cared for Aboriginal patients suffering from Hansen’s bacillus (leprosy). In 1947 she was appointed provincial superior of the North-West and served in that capacity until 1953. She held the position again from 1956 until 1962. In 1948 she was appointed MBE for her work.