Ella Webb

Isabella ("Ella") Gertrude Amy Webb (16 October 1877 – 24 August 1946) was a pioneering Irish paediatrician and founder of the Children's Sunshine Home for Convalescents (now LauraLynn Ireland Children's Hospice) a convalescence home for children with life limiting diseases.

Early life and education Isabella Gertrude Amy Ovenden Webb's parents were Charles Ovenden, the Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and his wife Isabella Mary Ovenden (née Robinson). Webb is not to be confused with her cousin also called Isabella Gertrude, born 28 October 1877, whose parents, William Henry (Charles' brother) and Edith Ovenden née Lamb, who fought contentious divorce and custody proceedings in New Zealand, as a result of which a judge placed Webb's cousin in the custody of Charles and Isabella in Ireland.

Webb attended Alexandra College, Dublin, later continuing her education in Queen's College, London and subsequently University of Göttingen, then entering the Catholic University of Ireland.

Career Webb worked in Trinity College

Following her marriage, Webb ran a private practice on Hatch Street. For her bravery during this time she was awarded the Order of St. John Life Saving Medal (Silver) and later made a Lady of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem (1916), and later awarded an MBE (1918). Webb became focused on the treatment of childhood ailments, particularly those relating to poor diet and hygiene, reporting on the high mortality rate in children under one in Dublin. Webb is recognised as originating the first formal role for medical social workers in Ireland, then known as almoners.

In 1925 she founded the Children's Sunshine Home for Convalescents in Stillorgan, Dublin with help from Letitia and Naomi Overend. The Home initially specialised in treating children with rickets.

Webb was a physician in Saint Ultan's Children's Hospital, founded by Kathleen Lynn and Madeleine ffrench-Mullen from 1929 to 1946.

Legacy The General Medicine and Cardiology ward in Adelaide Hospital is named in her honour.

Publications Hospital social service (1922) Ten years work at the Children's Sunshine Home, Stillorgan (Ir. Jn. Med. Sc., no. 113 (May 1935), 225–9) Maternity and child welfare in Dublin county borough (Dubl. Jn. Med. Sc., cxliv (August 1917), 86–97)