Badge, NZRN
Production date
1909
Description
A star shaped New Zealand Registered Nurse badge with bar and pin. The star has a red border with a blue centre, and a red cross situated in a white centre in the middle of the star. The bar is connected to the star badge by a metal ring, and on the bar is blue enamel with brass letters " N Z R N ". The reverse of the badge is bronze with engraved markings " 812 / MARY MUIR / New Plymouth Hosp. / 1909 ".
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Object detail
In 1915 Mary joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Nursing Service, and embarked on the hospital ship Maheno. Her time at war was distinguished and busy. She was returned home with typhoid in 1916, served on the Marama hospital ship in Alexandria, was Sister in Charge of Ward 8 at the Walton-on-Thames New Zealand General Hospital, and served on the front at the New Zealand Stationary Hospital at Amiens, about 24 kilometres from the front line. Mary suffered terribly from trench foot, but after the Armistice was chosen to meet the Queen - which meant her feet were treated!
Mary returned to Taranaki in early 1919. After some time as the assistant matron at a private hospital in New Plymouth, she and her sister Catherine, also a nurse, set up the Iona Private Hospital on Young Street, New Plymouth. Mary and Catherine ran the hospital until 1943, when they and their sister Jessica retired to Auckland. They still made regular trips to New Plymouth after their retirement, setting up a timetable for family members to visit them!
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