Hilda Mary Hanton

Hilda Mary Hanton MBE (23 June 1884 – 14 April 1954) was an Australian hospital matron known for her long service at Adelaide's Memorial Hospital. She was President of the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association during the second world war.

Life Hanton was born in 1884 in Yankalilla, south of Adelaide. Her parents were Fannie (born Roach) and her husband Walter Hardy Hanton. Her father was a Wesleyan minister and she was the penultimate child of his five children. She continued her own training and she passed the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association's exams as an obstetric nurse in 1924.

Hanton's sister had been a semi-invalid and she had cared for her when she was young. Now as a matron she made close relationships with invalids, who were at the hospital for some time. She also bonded with new mothers as she cared for them after the births which she had attended. She imposed high standards on her nurses and that included the trainees. The hospital's four years of training for nurses was approved by the South Australia's Nurses Board. Hanton's staff appreciated her fairness and organisation In 1948 Hanton was made a Member of The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. Hanton died in her home in the Adelaide suburb of Toorak Gardens in 1954.