Alice Tibbits

Alice Tibbits (1854–1932) was a South Australian nursing pioneer who was matron and owner of the Private Hospital, Wakefield Street in the 1880s. She was one of the first to train nurses in Australia and was known as the "Florence Nightingale of South Australia".

Early life and education Alice Tibbits was born in Walsall, Staffordshire, England in 1854. She and her friend Kate Hill were influenced by Anglican community nurse Sister Dora (Dorothy Wyndlow Pattison) in Staffordshire. The two friends emigrated to South Australia in 1879 and began nursing at the newly opened Adelaide Children's Hospital. Tibbits was the first person to receive a certificate of training from the hospital in 1881. The training included care of sick children, maternity nursing, and secondment to the lying-in wards of the Destitute Asylum.

Career Tibbits returned to South Australia in 1884 and worked for William Gardner, who requested that she become matron of the Private Hospital, Wakefield Street. She purchased the hospital in 1888 and doubled its bed capacity to 30.

In 1902, Hill joined her as a partner and owner of the Wakefield Street Hospital. Under her leadership, it became the first training hospital for nurses in the colony, and later state, of South Australia. and was alongside Hill involved in founding, the South Australian branch of the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association at a meeting chaired by suffragist Rosetta Jane Birks. where she died on 2 February 1932 after a long illness.

Tibbits left £1,000 in her will to the Walsall Hospital for a bed in memory of her grandfather. Newspapers at the time said she was known as the "Florence Nightingale of South Australia". after nurses trained by her suggested the need to "perpetuate her memory".