Margaret Turner Clarke

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Margaret Turner Clarke (née McLachlan; c. 1836-8 – August 1887) was an Australian nurse and philanthropist. She was a pioneer within nursing in Australia. A student of the Florence Nightingale School for Nurses, she was the founder of the Visiting Relief Society (for health care in the gold fields) in 1865, and a co-founder of the pioneer nursing education Home and Training School for Nurses in Sydney (1882).

Early life and education[edit]

Clarke was born in Tasmania,[1] one of eight children of Charles McLachlan,[1][2] a merchant in Hobart and a member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council, and his wife Isabella, née Dick.[2][3] Charles McLachlan's work took him to Britain during Margaret's childhood,[3] and she was educated in England,[2] becoming proficient on the harp.[2]

Adult life and philanthropy[edit]

Clarke married her first husband, Captain John Lunan Wilkie of the 12th Regiment of Foot[1][4] on 22 April 1856, at St David's Cathedral, Hobart.[5] They had three daughters, one still-born in Hobart in 1857,[6] one born in London in 1859,[7] who did not survive infancy, and the third still-born in Sydney in 1861.[8] In 1861, the regiment was sent to Lambing Flat,[2][4] the scene of a gold rush and anti-Chinese violence. Clarke found the poor living conditions of the 15,000 miners shocking.[2] On 1 February 1862, her husband died of apoplexy[9] after falling from his horse,[4] and Clarke returned to England.[2][4] There, she trained at the Nightingale School for Nurses set up by Florence Nightingale at St. Thomas' Hospital, London.[2][4][10]

She returned to Australia, and to Lambing Flat (renamed Young in 1863), by 1865.[2][4] She had inherited about £3,000 on Wilkie's death,[2] and "it was her favorite study to seek for all who were in trouble or poverty, and relieve their necessities to the utmost of her power."[11] In November 1865, after a season of famine there,[12] she established a Visiting Relief Society in Young.[2][10] The following year, on 9 August 1866 at Trinity Church, Melbourne,[13] she married George O'Malley Clarke, a magistrate and gold commissioner at Young,[1][2][11][14]

Clarke also gave a great deal of support to the Church of England in the Young area. She donated £500[2] towards the total cost of £1,500[2][15] of building St. John's Church in Young as a memorial to her first husband,[2][11][12] and also worked to raise additional funds, engage an architect, import materials, and she sewed the church needlework.[2] She also helped to raise funds for a Church of England school and parsonage, and a public school, at Young,[2][12] and for St Matthew's Church of England in the small village of Wombat.[2]

In 1882, Clarke and her husband moved to Sydney.[2] There, she helped to establish the Home and Training School for Nurses for the Sick,[1][2][10][12] and donated £150-£200 per year to the Sydney City Mission.[14][16] The Home and Training School for Nurses, situated in Phillip Street, Sydney,[17] as well as having more than twenty nurses available for paid employment,[12][17] also provided nurses to "seek out and relieve, with food and proper attendance, the sick whose poverty would otherwise place such relief beyond their reach."[2][12]

Clarke died at her home in Woollahra, Sydney, on 8 August 1887, of heart failure.[1][2] She was buried at Waverley Cemetery,[1][10] with the service conducted by the Rev. Henry Wallace Mort, rector of All Saints Anglican Church, Woollahra.[1] She left bequests to the Sydney City Mission and the Church Society of the Anglican Diocese of Goulburn, among others.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "NEWS OF THE DAY". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 15, 406. 11 August 1887. p. 7. Retrieved 1 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Teale, Ruth. "Clarke, Margaret Turner (1836–1887)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  3. ^ a b Macmillan, David S.; Morris, J. R. "McLachlan, Charles (1795–1855)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Christison, Ray (2008). Thematic History of Young Shire (PDF). High Ground Consulting. p. 103. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  5. ^ "Family Notices". The Courier (Hobart). Vol. XXX, no. 2885. Tasmania, Australia. 23 April 1856. p. 2. Retrieved 4 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "Births". Saunders's News-Letter. Dublin, Ireland. 30 September 1857. p. 3. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  7. ^ "Family Notices". The Argus. No. 4, 157. Melbourne. 8 October 1859. p. 4. Retrieved 4 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol. XLIV, no. 7242. 24 August 1861. p. 1. Retrieved 4 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ "THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN J. L. WILKIE, OF H. M. 12TH REGIMENT". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol. XLV, no. 7[?]96. 19 February 1862. p. 7. Retrieved 4 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ a b c d "Waverley Cemetery Walk 2". Waverley Council. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  11. ^ a b c "Obituary". Australian Town and Country Journal. Vol. XXXVI, no. 919. New South Wales, Australia. 20 August 1887. p. 12. Retrieved 4 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ a b c d e f "DEATH OF MRS. G. O'M CLARKE". The Burrangong Argus. New South Wales, Australia. 10 August 1887. p. 2. Retrieved 4 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ^ "Family Notices". The Sydney Morning Herald. Vol. LIV, no. [?]810. 17 August 1866. p. 1. Retrieved 4 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ a b "OLD SYDNEY". Truth. No. 1141. Sydney. 8 June 1913. p. 12. Retrieved 4 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ "RELIGIOUS". Illustrated Sydney News. Vol. II, no. 16. New South Wales, Australia. 16 September 1865. p. 6. Retrieved 4 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "Public Notices. Sydney City Mission". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 15, 439. 19 September 1887. p. 2. Retrieved 4 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ a b "LOCAL AND GENERAL". The Burrangong Argus. New South Wales, Australia. 30 July 1887. p. 2. Retrieved 4 October 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
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