Margaret Huxley

Margaret Rachel Huxley (1854–1940) was an English nurse who introduced structured, scientific nursing training in Ireland. Her initiatives led to the establishment of the first nursing school in Dublin. She was involved in numerous organisations promoting professionalism in nursing and campaigning for nurse registration throughout the British Isles.

Early life

She was born in Croydon, Surrey on 21 December 1854 to Esther (née Hopkins) and William Thomas Huxley, a railway official who was the brother of the biologist Thomas Henry Huxley. She was inspired by Florence Nightingale's work and decided to become a nurse, even though her family were opposed to this idea.

Career Her first job was at the Dublin National Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1883. She was soon invited to become Matron and Lady Superintendent at Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital where she started a new scientific training course for nurses leading to an examination. This had such a good effect on the quality of nursing there that Huxley got agreement from the medical establishment that a citywide school should be set up to cater for nurses from all local hospitals. Huxley was its first Honorary Secretary. She "worked wholeheartedly to secure the Higher Education of Nurses" said one report in a nursing journal. At this time she established a "Margaret Huxley memorial medal" for the best nurse in training. She is remembered with a stained glass window at the Unitarian church in St. Stephen's Green.

During the First World War Huxley worked for the Red Cross and the Voluntary Aid Detachment Hospital in Dublin but refused the honour of a Royal Red Cross for her work: because she disliked "publicity and honours" and was described by her contemporary, Alice Reeves, as a "woman of very simple tastes... unostentatious and self-disciplined". Later she accepted honorary membership of the Finnish Nurses' Association (1925) and an honorary degree from Dublin University in 1928, at which time she was called the "pioneer of scientific nursing in Ireland". She died on 10 January 1940 and her funeral service was at the Unitarian church.