Margaret Hitchcock

Margaret (Daisy) Hitchcock (1883 - 13 March 1967) was a nurse from New Zealand who served in France in World War I.

Life and career Hitchcock was born in 1883 to Maria and Henry Hitchcock of Wellington.

Hitchcock and Lind volunteered their services to the newly formed French Flag Nursing Corps (FFNC), At the end of October 1914 the pair were part of the first contingent of nine nurses that the FFNC sent to France. They were posted to the Hotel Dieu in Rouen, where they worked alongside French nuns to nurse French, Belgian, Algerian, Turkish, and German soldiers. From December 1917 until May 1919, Hitchcock was posted to the New Zealand Expeditionary Force’s general hospitals at Brockenhurst and Codford.

On her return to New Zealand, Hitchcock spent some time nursing shell-shocked men at Queen Mary Hospital at Hanmer Springs. She then re-trained as an infant nurse with the Plunket Society and worked as a matron at Karitane Hospitals in Auckland, Dunedin and Wellington.

During her time in Europe, Hitchcock received several items of trench art and rehabilitative art from soldiers she nursed, and some of these were later donated to Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

During World War II Hitchcock worked in nurse management with the Royal New Zealand Air Force in Rongotai, Wellington. In 1946 she was awarded an MBE for her military nursing service. Hitchcock died in Palmerston North on 13 March 1967.