The Australian Women's Register

1 hour Marjorie Ladkin, nee Soady, was born in Sydney, New South Wales, completed schooling in 1930 and worked as a clerk in her father’s manufacturing business. In 1933 she began training at the Sydney Hospital, and upon graduation worked for a nursing agency. She married in 1939 and during the war worked as a clerk in the Department of Labour and Industry. In 1954, when her children were at school, she took up nursing again and back in Adelaide in 1959 took an appointment at Abergeldie Private Hospital. In 1965 she was the first full-time secretary of the Royal Australian Nursing Federation (SA Branch). For the next ten years Marjorie gave herself wholeheartedly to the RANF which grew in membership, in its range of activities, and in strength as a professional and industrial organization for nurses. Marjorie retired in 1975.