By Roselyn Fauth
Sister M. A. Hall was born in Timaru, arriving into the world in a private nursing home at a time when hospital maternity facilities were still limited and often reserved only for women deemed “necessitous”. Her life would come full circle when she later became one of the most influential figures in the development of modern maternity care in South Canterbury.
Miss Hall trained as a nurse at Napier Hospital, where she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Prize, recognising her as the student nurse with the most outstanding nursing qualities. This early acknowledgement marked the beginning of a career defined by professionalism, leadership, and deep commitment to women’s health.
She undertook her maternity training at Ashburton Hospital and went on to gain experience across the country, relieving at St George’s Hospital in Christchurch and Nelson Hospital. Her growing expertise led to her appointment in charge of the women’s section of Waimate Hospital, a significant leadership role at a time when senior nursing positions carried immense responsibility.
Miss Hall later completed her Plunket training at the Karitane Hospital in Dunedin, reinforcing her focus on maternal and infant wellbeing beyond the delivery room. In 1950, she returned to Timaru, bringing with her a breadth of national experience in nursing, maternity care, and public health.
In December 1952, she was appointed Sister in Charge of the Jean Todd Ward at Timaru Public Hospital. Under her leadership, maternity services expanded dramatically. She witnessed the transition from a single maternity ward to a purpose-built three-ward maternity annexe, constructed at a cost of approximately £260,000, reflecting both population growth and changing expectations of maternity care.
During her tenure, more than 6000 babies were born under her watchful care. For countless South Canterbury families, Sister M. A. Hall was a steady presence at one of life’s most profound moments. Her work helped normalise hospital births, improve standards of care, and shape the maternity experience for generations of women.
Despite the intensity of her professional life, she maintained personal interests beyond the hospital walls. She was known to value her leisure time and pursued photography as a hobby, a quiet counterbalance to a career spent caring for others.
Sister M. A. Hall’s legacy is not marked by statues or plaques, but by thousands of lives she helped safely into the world and by the professional standards she set for maternity care in Timaru. Her story is one of service, skill, and understated leadership, woven into the everyday history of South Canterbury families. Her story reminds me that I dont have to be a tsunami to make an impact. I can quietly chip away at things and make little ripples, and over time that can be a legacy created over a lifetime.
Survey Photography - 1956 Timaru Hospital. PA Group 00080 Whites Aviation Ltd Photographs. nlnzimage
The first public hospitals set up in New Zealand were in Wellington and Auckland in 1847, New Plymouth in 1848 and Dunedin and Whanganui in 1851. Christchurch followed in 1862.
Many hospitals were opened in the South Island during the gold rushes of the 1860s.
A wooden hospital was near the Bascilla on the edge of a swampy creek by the Canterbury Provincial Government at the corner of North Street and West Belt. Mrs. Simpson, wife of the clerk of works, agreed to serve as nurse for £50 a year. Dr Edward Butler was the first medical appointment as the Provincial Surgeon in December 1 1862. Local communities like Timaru were said to have a sense of civic pride in their hospitals, which were seen as a symbol of civilisation.
The nursing reform movement led by Florence Nightingale, which originated in Britain in the 1860s, was significant in the transformation of hospitals. It produced a new style of nurse who was efficient, obedient, clean, hard-working and sober. Nursing leaders (matrons) were posted around the British Empire and took ideas about cleanliness and discipline within hospitals with them. Auckland Hospital appointed its first matron in 1865, but it was not until 1883 that the Florence Nightingale-trained matron, Annie Crisp, transformed the hospital environment. She was an English-born nurse who established New Zealand's first school of nursing and served as superintendent of Auckland Hospital in New Zealand. She also established the Winnipeg Children's Hospital in Canada.
In 1939, Belgium issued a semi-postal stamp in honour of Nightingale in recognition of her work with the Red Cross when in Belgium.
Florence Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing and gave nursing a favourable reputation, and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night. She is credited with professionalising nursing roles for women. Nightingale wrote Notes on Nursing (1859), The book was the first of its kind ever to be written.. She set up the first nursing school 1860.
Nursing was feminised – the trained male nurses who had previously dominated hospitals now mainly worked in mental hospitals. However, the orderlies who performed physical tasks such as moving patients around remained mostly male. To encourage respectable young women to become nurses, supervised nurses’ homes were set up on hospital premises.
Unknown artist, ILN Staff, after Unidentified contributor to The Illustrated London News - The Illustrated London News, 24 February 1855. Miss Nightingale, in the Hospital, at Scutari. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 24 February 1855, page 176. original version
The Nurses Registration Act 1901 was the first legislation covering nursing training and registration in the world. This act formalised the hospital-based nature of nurse training through a system of apprenticeship, involving three years of training and a state examination. From the 1970s nurses were trained in tertiary institutions rather than in hospitals.
1956 Timaru Hospital - PA-Group-00080 Whites Aviation Ltd Photographs- nlnzimage
From 1885 public hospitals were run by charitable aid trusts.
The repercussions from the 1918 influenza pandemic called for major changes to New Zealand’s existing health law, the Health Act 1900.
This pandemic is estimated to have killed over 9000 New Zealanders during the two waves of the pandemic. Over 800 were soldiers, who died both abroad and in domestic camps, but the vast majority were New Zealand civilians. The Health Department was remodelled in 1920. The Act made wide-ranging changes to health in New Zealand. It gave greater powers to the Board of Health, increased the autonomy of local authorities, and considerably reduced the powers of medical officers of health (formerly the district health officers), who became more like advisors to local authorities. It was created so well that it survived with only minor amendments until it was replaced with the Health Act 1956 (which is still in force today), and which still follows the general outline of the 1920 Act.
Hospital Maternity Facilities Were Once Extremely Meagre (08 Jun 1961). Aoraki Heritage Collection, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/7694
he First Hospital - and a Libel Action (11 Jun 1964). Aoraki Heritage Collection, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/7684
The Jean Todd Maternity Ward was not just a place for mothers and babies. In its early days, it was also a place of learning. In 1925, it began training midwives, and four nurses completed their courses before the focus shifted to maternity care. Those first midwives — Miss A. Morten, Miss A. Horrell, Miss M. Philpott and M. McAlister — stood proudly with hospital staff in a photograph alongside Dr H. Barnett, Dr L. Austin and Sister A. Alley. It is a quiet reminder that the ward carried forward Jean’s legacy not only in care, but in education too — passing knowledge from one generation of women to the next.
Timaru Hospital Had Humble Start In Stormy Times (1960s). Aoraki Heritage Collection, accessed 15/06/2025, https://aorakiheritage.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/7631