Agnes Macready (1855–1935) was an Australian nurse and journalist. She is considered Australia's first female war correspondent.

Life

Macready was born in 1855 in Rathfriland, Ireland, the eldest of five children of Jane and Henry Macready. The family emigrated to New South Wales when she was 12 years old. When she was 25 she began nursing training at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, followed by further training in Melbourne to become a

surgical nurse A surgical nurse, also referred to as a theatre nurse or scrub nurse, specializes in perioperative care, providing care to patients before, during and after surgery. To become a theatre nurse, Registered Nurses or Enrolled Nurses must complete e ...

. In 1898 Macready began writing articles and poems, and creating drawings, for the Sydney newspaper ''The Catholic Press'' under the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Arrah Luen. Some of this work was reprinted in American and Irish newspapers. Agnes was appointed as Matron at the Berrima District Cottage Hospital in the Southern Highland of New South Wales on 11 October 1894. She resigned from this post in December 1898. On 24 October 1899, just two weeks after war was declared in South Africa, Macready bought her own steamship ticket and departed Sydney for Durban, keen to assist with nursing soldiers wounded in the Boer War. She arrived before the first contingent of Australian troops, and initially the British War Office told her that no nurses were needed in the country and advised to leave. However, she was also advised to apply to rural locations, which she did, and was offered a position at Fort Napier Military Hospital in

Pietermaritzburg Pietermaritzburg (; Zulu: umGungundlovu) is the capital and second-largest city in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. It was founded in 1838 and is currently governed by the Msunduzi Local Municipality. Its Zulu name umGungundlovu ...

. She carried on to nurse in Ladysmith during and after the town's siege, Wyburg and Pretoria, and in a camp for Boer prisoners at Simon's Town. Prior to leaving Sydney, ''The Catholic Press'' had commissioned Macready as a special correspondent, and she filed reports for the newspaper from South Africa on her experiences there. Her writing was often critical of the British and sympathetic to the Boers. In September 1901 Macready returned to Sydney on a hospital ship, overseeing the nursing of wounded soldiers from

Dawes Point Dawes Point is a suburb of the City of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Dawes Point is located on the north-western edge of the Sydney central business district, at the southern end of Sydney Harbour Bridge, adjacent to The R ...

, Sydney. She became matron of

Wyalong Wyalong is part of the Bland Shire located in the Northern Riverina Region of New South Wales, Australia. Established as a gold mining town, it is now a quiet town with historic buildings a few kilometres east of West Wyalong, the major distric ...

Hospital, moving to Kurri Kurri Hospital in 1904. She continued to write for ''The Catholic Press''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macready, Agnes Australian war correspondents Australian military nurses Australian women nurses People of the Second Boer War 1855 births 1935 deaths 19th-century Australian writers Colony of New South Wales people Writers from New South Wales British emigrants to the Colony of New South Wales People from Rathfriland Writers from County Down