Kate Hill (7 May 1859 – 2 February 1933) was an English-born orphan who became a leading Australian nurse. She owned the first private hospital in Adelaide to train nurses (later known as

Calvary Wakefield Hospital The Calvary Wakefield Hospital, formerly Private Hospital, Wakefield Street (PHWS) and variants, Wakefield Street Private Hospital, Wakefield Memorial Hospital and Wakefield Hospital, referred to informally as "the Wakefield", was a private ho ...

Life

Hill was born in 1859 in

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

in the English midlands. Her parents were Mary (born Evans) and her journeyman husband Joseph Hill. She lived with her married sister after her parents died. Kate and her friend

Alice Tibbits Alice Tibbits (1854–1932) was a South Australian nursing pioneer who was matron and owner of the Private Hospital, Wakefield Street in the 1880s. She was one of the first to train nurses in Australia and was known as the "Florence Nightingale of ...

were influenced by Anglican community nurse

Sister Dora Dorothy Wyndlow Pattison, better known as Sister Dora (16 January 1832 – 24 December 1878), was a 19th-century Anglican nun and nurse who worked in Walsall, Staffordshire. Life Dorothy Wyndlow Pattison was born in Hauxwell, North Ridin ...

(Dorothy Wyndlow Pattison) who cared for injured miners. Kate, her sister, and her husband and Alice Tibbits emigrated to South Australia in 1879. Alice and Kate began nursing and training at the newly opened

Adelaide Children's Hospital The Women's and Children's Hospital is located on King William Road in North Adelaide, Australia. It is one of the major hospitals in Adelaide and is a teaching hospital of the University of Adelaide, the University of South Australia and Flin ...

. Alice was the first ever to complete the one year of training, although the training was not well regarded by the trainees. By 1887, Hill was the hospital's head nurse. She left to rejoin Tibbits who was the owner of a hospital in Wakefield Street. She returned after fifteen months to become the hospital's superintendent of nursing. During the 1890s the hospital enjoyed fundraising and it opened a new wing funded by the philanthropist

John Howard Angas John Howard Angas (5 October 1823 – 17 May 1904) was an Australian pioneer, politician and philanthropist. Early life and education John Howard Angas was the second son of George Fife Angas and his wife Rosetta née French. He was born in New ...

. In 1902, Hill rejoined Tibbitts as a partner and co-owner of the Wakefield Street Hospital. Tibbits acquired further nearby properties in 1905. Under their leadership, it became the first private training hospital for nurses in the

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the ''metropole, metropolit ...

, and later state, of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

. Tibbits was an advocate for nurses to not rely on charity or to follow UK organisation. It was Hill who together with Doctors

Thomas George Wilson Sir Thomas George Wilson (March 27, 1876 – March 15, 1958) was an Australian obstetrician and gynaecologist. He was a founding fellow of Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and State Nur ...

and A. A. Lendon founded the South Australia branch of the

Australasian Trained Nurses' Association The Australasian Trained Nurses' Association was an association formed in 1899 to register nurses who had been trained in Australia. History Susan McGahey was a co-founder of the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association (ATNA) in December 1899 ...

. She retired in 1913 and sold the hospital to Sophy Lawrence. She was on the council of the District Trained Nursing Society from 1915. Hill died in

Woodside Woodside may refer to: Places and buildings Australia *Woodside, South Australia, a town *Woodside, Victoria, a town Canada *Woodside National Historic Site, the boyhood home of William Lyon Mackenzie King *Woodside, Nova Scotia, a neighborho ...

in 1933 and left her estate to her nieces some of which she had trained as nurses.

References

External links

Biography at ADB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, Kate 1859 births 1933 deaths People from Walsall Australian nurses People from Adelaide Hospital administrators