Margaret Looker
{{Short description|Australian hospital matron and nurse}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}{{Infobox person
| name = Margaret Looker
| image = Nursing sister of the 2 1st AGH, Merredin. Margaret Frances Looker (sq cropped).jpg
| caption = Sister Martha Looker in 1943
| birth_name = Martha Fanny Looker
| birth_date = {{birth date|1910|10|14|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Hobart, Tasmania
| death_date = {{death date and age|1988|08|25|1910|10|14|df=yes}}
| death_place = Narrabundah, Australian Capital Territory
| death_cause =
| other_names = Margaret Frances Guy
| occupation = Nurse
| spouse = {{marriage|John William Guy|1955}}
| awards = Officer of the Order of the British Empire
}}
Margaret Frances Guy, {{postnominals|country=AUS|size=100|OBE}} (born Martha Fanny Looker; 14 October 1910 – 25 August 1988) was at the time Australia's youngest hospital matron. She was a founding member of the New South Wales College of Nursing.
Early life
Born Martha Fanny Looker in Hobart, Tasmania, on 14 October 1910, she was the daughter of New Zealand-born Martha Fanny ({{nee}} Smith) and English pastry cook Edward William Looker. She had four elder siblings and two more arrived after her.{{Citation |last=Forsyth |first=Sue |title=Margaret Frances Looker (1910–1988) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/looker-margaret-frances-14163 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |access-date=2023-12-14 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}} Her elder brother became the businessperson Sir Cecil Looker. Her father's business failed in 1917 leaving the family poor and living in the Sydney suburn of Normanhurst.{{Citation |last=Leckey |first=John A. |title=Sir Cecil Thomas Looker (1913–1988) |url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/looker-sir-cecil-thomas-14349 |work=Australian Dictionary of Biography |access-date=2023-12-14 |place=Canberra |publisher=National Centre of Biography, Australian National University |language=en}}
Nursing career
After graduating from Sydney Girls’ High School, Looker went to the University of Sydney to take medicine but she left in 1932 to train as a nurse at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. She completed that in 1936 and later also studied midwifery at Crown Street Women’s Hospital in 1939. On the second day of 1940 she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service as part of the Second Australian Imperial Force. When she left in 1945, after serving in the Middle East, Papua New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands, she held the rank of captain. She changed her name by deed poll to Margaret Frances Looker in July 1944.
In 1948 Looker became a matron at Sydney's Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Every other matron in Australia was older than her.{{Cite web |title=Guy, Margaret Frances – Person – Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation |url=https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P004114b.htm |access-date=2023-12-14 |website=www.eoas.info |language=en-gb}} She was a founding member of the New South Wales College of Nursing (now part of Australian College of Nursing. The others were Georgina McCready, Muriel Knox Doherty and Agnes Mary Lions. The four of them met a week after a meeting of nurses on 5 January 1949 in Sydney, which resolved to create a College of Nursing.{{Cite web |date=2023 |title=Our history |url=https://www.acn.edu.au/about-us/our-history |website=Australian College of Nursing}}
Later life
Looker married John William Guy on 17 December 1955. In 1961 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire is recognition of her contribution to nursing. Margaret Guy died in the Canberra suburb of Narrabundah on 25 August 1988.
References
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Category:Australian Army personnel of World War II
Category:Australian military nurses
Category:Australian women nurses
Category:Australian Officers of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Women in the Australian military
Category:Female wartime nurses