Mary Southcott

Mary Meager Southcott (1862–1943) was a Newfoundland-born nurse, hospital administrator and campaigner.

In 1899 Southcott went to London, England and trained as nurse under Eva Luckes between 1899 and 1901, at The London Hospital, in Whitechapel in the East End of London. She was interested in raising educational standards for nurses and, more generally, in the professionalisation of nursing. Southcott implemented Nightingale style nursing, which included the matron being autonomous for the nursing department. She set up a Nurses' Register and founded the Graduate Nurses’ Association of Newfoundland. She was a Member of Grace Maternity Hospital Association, Newfoundland, and helped design an eighteen-month midwifery programme. Southcott was an advocate of women's suffrage and Member of the Ladies Reading Room and Current Events Club, St John’s, who promoted suffrage.