Flora Madeline Shaw

Flora Madeline Shaw (January 15, 1864 – August 27, 1927) was a Canadian nurse and nursing teacher. She began her career as second and later first assistant to the Montreal General Hospital Training School for Nurses's superintendent before becoming matron of the Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Shaw was the first Director of the McGill School for Graduate Nurses in Montreal; she was president of each of the Canadian Association of Nursing Education, the Association of Registered Nurses of the Province of Quebec and the Canadian Nurses Association. A memorial fund scholarship, a memorial tablet and the Chair of Nursing at McGill University were all dedicated to her.

Biography On January 15, 1864, Shaw was born in Perth, Canada West. She was the daughter of the merchant businessperson Henry Dowsley Shaw and her two grandfathers, James Shaw and Roderick Matheson, were businessmen and members of Upper Canada's Legislative Council. She got her first education at a private school in Perth and then attended the middle-class school Mrs. Mercer's Academy in Montreal. in 1894, Shaw enrolled at Montreal General Hospital Training School for Nurses. She did not marry. A 1929 book profiling the lives of Canadian nursing pioneers was dedicated to her by the History of Nursing Society at McGill School for Graduate Nurses. In May 1934, a memorial tablet of Shaw was unveiled by the Alumnae Association of the Montreal General Hospital for Nurses. McGill University setup the Flora Madeline Shaw Chair of Nursing in Shaw's name in 1957.