Amelia Bagley
{{short description|Midwife and nursing administrator}}
Amelia Bagley (2 October 1870 – 30 January 1956) was a New Zealand hospital matron, midwife and nursing administrator. She was born in Dunedin, New Zealand on 2 October 1870.{{DNZB|title=Amelia Bagley|first= Linda|last= Bryder|id=3b2|accessdate=23 April 2017}}{{Cite web |date=14 May 2025 |title=Amelia Bagley - Online Cenotaph |url=https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C35464?srt=relevance&n=Amelia+Bagley&from=%2Fwar-memorial%2Fonline-cenotaph%2Fsearch&ordinal=0 |url-status=live |website=Auckland War Memorial Museum Online Cenotaph}}
Career
Bagley trained in Dunedin from 1892 to 1895, first working as a ward sister at Auckland Hospital and then as matron of Masterton Hospital from 1903 to 1905. In 1905, she became a registered midwife, one of the first trainees at St Helens Hospital in Wellington.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28180678|title=The Book of New Zealand women = Ko kui ma te kaupapa|last=Macdonald|first=Charlotte|last2=Penfold|first2=Merimeri|last3=Williams|first3=Bridget|publisher=Bridget Williams Books|year=1991|isbn=0908912048|location=Wellington, N.Z.|pages=33–36|oclc=28180678|access-date=8 May 2019|archive-date=27 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127082206/https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28180678|url-status=live}}{{Cite journal|last=Sparkes|first=E.M.|date=August 1958|title=Historic Notes on Obstetric Nursing in New Zealand|journal=New Zealand Nursing Journal|volume=51|issue=4|pages=140–145}} She then spent two years private nursing.
From 1908 to 1911, she was Assistant Inspector of Private Hospitals and Midwives in the Department of Hospitals and Charitable Aid inspecting small maternity hospitals and the practices of traditional midwives.{{Citation|last=Bryder|first=Linda|title=They do what you wish; they like you; you the good nurse!: colonialism and native health nursing in New Zealand, 1900-1940|date=2018|url=http://www.manchesterhive.com/view/9781526129369/9781526129369.00010.xml|work=Colonial caring: a history of colonial and post-colonial nursing|pages=84–103|editor-last=Sweet|editor-first=Helen|publisher=Manchester University Press|doi=10.7765/9781526129369.00010|isbn=9781526129369|access-date=2019-05-08|editor2-last=Hawkins|editor2-first=Sue|doi-access=free|archive-date=12 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230112053657/https://www.manchesteropenhive.com/view/9781526129369/9781526129369.00010.xml|url-status=live}}
Bagley, with Hester Maclean and Jessie Bicknell, had a major role in supervising the implementation of the Midwives Act 1904 and setting midwifery standards.{{Cite book |title=Looking back, moving forward : essays in the history of New Zealand nursing and midwifery|last=Chick|first=Norma|last2=Rodgers|first2=Jan A.|date=1997|publisher=Massey University, Dept. of Nursing and Midwifery |isbn=0473047543|location=Palmerston North, NZ|pages=39|oclc=45549938}} In 1911 the Department of Health launched a Native Health nursing scheme to address the health needs of Māori. Bagley was appointed as a superintendent nurse. In 1913, she went to Ahipara, Northland during typhoid and smallpox epidemics where she set up a temporary hospital at the local marae and provided nursing care and advice. She established five nursing stations around the country by the end of 1912, and was made Superintendent of Native Health Nurses in 1913.
File:Native Health Nurses, Rotorua, 1920 (13703216253).jpg
Bagley wanted well qualified general and midwifery nurses for the Native Health nursing scheme as they would often be working in isolated areas where they would need to take responsibility and use their initiative. Additional attributes required by Bagley were physical stamina and personal qualities which enabled cooperation with the patients and community.
During World War 1 Bagley served firstly as Assistant Inspector of Hospitals/Civilian and then from 1917 as Matron/Military with the New Zealand Army Nursing Service on the hospital ships "Maheno" and "Marama".
After World War I, Bagley developed a Rural Nursing Service for the Auckland Public Health Service and a post-graduate qualification in rural nursing.{{Cite web |title=Amelia Bagley - Online Cenotaph |url=http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C35464 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190423074741/http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C35464 |archive-date=23 April 2019 |access-date=6 May 2019 |website=Auckland Museum Cenotaph Record}}
Bagley retired in 1930 and died on 30 January 1956 in Auckland, aged 85.
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2017}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bagley, Amelia}}
Category:New Zealand military nurses