Margaret Elwyn Sparshott

Margaret Elwyn Sparshott (4 August 1870 – 9 October 1940) was a British nurse. She was the principal matron of Manchester Royal Infirmary, and of the Territorial Force Nursing Service at Manchester, England. During the First World War, she used 2nd Western General Hospital as a base, and had the assistance of St John Ambulance, the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VADs) and the Red Cross. Within this framework she was responsible for the running of twenty-two large auxiliary hospitals, including the field hospitals for the war wounded, in Stockport, Salford and Manchester. Her duty extended to coping with increased patient numbers during the 1918–1920 flu pandemic.

Sparshott was one of the instrumental founding members of the Royal College of Nursing. As a member she campaigned for appropriate pay and training systems for nurses, and was its president in 1930–1933. Sparshott never married, and her dedication to her career brought her appointment as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), the award of the Royal Red Cross, her name on a nurses' training establishment, and a blue plaque in her honour, affixed to the wall of Manchester Royal Infirmary.

Background Margaret Elwyn "Peggy" Sparshott was born on 4 August 1870 in Mahé, Seychelles. On 14 July 1885, when Sparshott was not yet fifteen years old, her mother Margaret died, after suffering "acute mania" for twelve days, followed by exhaustion.

In 1929, at the age of 59, Sparshott retired from her employment as matron, receiving an annual pension of £300 and removed to 49 Avenue Road, Penge, London. Her home address was still 49 Avenue Road, Penge, when she died on 9 October 1940 of neurodegenerative disease and arteriosclerosis, at 6 Brackley Road, Beckenham. Her brother William Romaine Sparshott was the registrar's informant.

Career Throughout her career, Sparshott was "actively involved in the promotion of nursing as a profession". So, in 1901, the census finds Sparshott as a matron aged 30, in residential accommodation at the latter hospital.

Sparshott was the lady superintendent (or matron) of Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) from 17 August 1907 to 1929. Thus in 1911, at the age of 40, she was living at the same infirmary, identifying herself under her official title of lady superintendent of nurses, i.e., matron. She oversaw the rebuilding of the hospital, which was completed in 1909, and the transfer of staff and facilities to the new site. In 1923, Sparshott found herself amid some controversy about her refusal to admit nurses with bobbed hair for training. She was backed by the London hospital matrons, who considered the hairstyle untidy, while long hair could be neatly tied back.

After her retirement in 1929, Sparshott "continued wholeheartedly to support nurse training at the hospital". Although an extra 250 beds were provided by the War Office, making Manchester Royal Infirmary an 884-bed facility, by October 1914 those beds were filled with military patients. In due course 520 beds were taken by the war-wounded.

Institutions The idea of a college of nursing was first mooted in 1915 by Sir Arthur Stanley, an MP. On 28 July 1916, a meeting of 600 people, led by Sparshott, took place in the MRI outpatient department, where it was decided that a Bill would be "presented to Parliament to promote the foundation of the College". and was its president between 1930 and 1933. She was a "committed supporter of the College and state registration". After the First World War ended, "she challenged standards of pay and emoluments", and she campaigned for a system in which nurse-teachers trained probationer nurses. The RCN commented as follows: and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1919 Birthday Honours.

Sparshott gave "a large donation to the Building Fund for the new nurses' home at Manchester Royal Infirmary, which would house 266 probationers and nurses and allow 80 nurses to join the hospital staff". and there is a blue plaque on the hospital in her honour. The institutions which subscribed to the plaque were: Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, The Priory of St John, 207 (Manchester) Field Hospital, RCN History of Nursing Society, The Royal College of Nursing North West, and The Manchester Royal Infirmary Nurses' Fellowship.