Southcott, Mary Meager National Historic Person
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Mary Meager Southcott
(© Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador, 2004)
Address :
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Recognition Statute:
Historic Sites and Monuments Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. H-4)
Designation Date:
1998-07-15
Life Date:
1862 to 1943
Other Name(s):
-
Southcott, Mary Meager
(Designation Name)
Research Report Number:
1998-013, 2005-072
Importance:
Leader in professionalization of nursing in Newfoundland, introducing the Nightingale system
Plaque(s)
Existing plaque: Southcott Hall St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Educator, suffragist, and prominent nursing leader, Mary Southcott led the campaign to professionalize nursing in early 20th-century Newfoundland. Trained in London, England, she founded the St. John's General Hospital School of Nursing in 1903, the only one of its kind in Newfoundland until 1929. As Superintendent of Nurses, she fought for the autonomy of the profession and realized her dream of building a nurses' residence. Southcott also helped to raise educational standards, develop unique training programs for midwives, and establish a professional association of nurses.