Lucy Duff Grant

Lucy Gwendoline Duff Grant (12 June 1894 – 27 January 1984), was a British nurse, matron, President of the Royal College of Nursing (1951–53) and leader of her profession.

Early life Duff Grant was born 12 June 1894 in Sydenham London, eldest of two daughters of Edith and Lachlan Gordon Duff Grant. She was educated in London, Germany, and Paris. Duff Grant undertook midwifery training before becoming a ward sister. She studied for a sister tutor qualification at King's College for Household and Social Science in 1922 and took up post as principal tutor at the General Infirmary in Leeds.

Later nursing career In 1929, on the retirement of Matron Margaret Sparshott, Duff Grant was appointed matron of the Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI). a position she held for 26 years. After the war Duff Grant travelled overseas with the Territorial Army Nursing Service and became involved with the work of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which sought her hospitality at MRI in retraining Jewish nurses who had been forbidden to nurse under the Nazis. In 1950 Duff Grant succeeded Dame Louisa Wilkinson as president of the RCN, serving for two years. From 1951 to 1957 she was also president of the National Council of Nurses (an organization that merged with the RCN in 1963). Duff Grant also represented the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on the board of The Queen's Institute for District Nurses.

As a practicing Anglican, she was a member of the Guild of St Barnabas throughout her nursing career, becoming president and chairman 1953–1980.

In 1955, she took a voluntary role as the headquarters training advisor to St. John's Ambulance, later becoming the chief nursing officer (1959–1965).

Awards and honours Royal Red Cross 1942.

Death Lucy Duff Grant died of cardiac failure at St John Nursing Home, Whitstable, Kent, on 27 January 1984.