Edna Pengelly

Edna Pengelly (5 July 1874 – 20 August 1959) was a New Zealand teacher, civilian and military nurse and matron.

Early life and education Pengelly was born in Canada in 1874 and came to New Zealand as a child. She attended primary schools in Waddington and Annat in Canterbury. She then attended Christchurch West School before boarding at Christchurch Girls' High School.

Career Pengelly taught in Rangiora after leaving school. She was also matron of the nurse's home. She left New Zealand in 1915 on the ship Rotorua. In England she was assistant matron at the No. 3 New Zealand General Hospital at the camp in Codford in Wiltshire and then took charge of the Oatlands Park Hospital, an off-shoot of the No. 2 New Zealand General Hospital in Weybridge, Surrey for convalescing New Zealand soldiers.

She returned to New Zealand in 1919 to become matron of Queen Mary Hospital in Hanmer Springs, a hospital providing rehabilitation services for returned servicemen. In 1956 she published her diaries Nursing in peace and war which were one of the few accounts of a nurse's wartime service. She retired in 1941.