Maud McCarthy

Dame Emma Maud McCarthy, (22 September 1859 – 1 April 1949) was a nursing sister and British Army matron-in-chief.

Early life McCarthy was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, the eldest child of William Frederick McCarthy, a solicitor, and his Sydney-born wife, Emma Mary à Beckett. McCarthy was educated at Springfield College, Sydney, and passed with honours the University of Sydney's senior examination. After her father's death in 1881 she helped her mother to rear her brothers and sisters.

Nursing career By 1891, McCarthy was in England, and on 10 October 1891, entered The London Hospital, Whitechapel, to begin general nursing training as a probationer. She trained under Eva Luckes between 1891 and 1893. Hospital records state that "she had an exceptionally nice disposition" and was "most ladylike and interested in her work" although "she found it hard to control others, or to take firm action when necessary". She was nonetheless promoted to sister in January 1894.

McCarthy was Nursing Sister-in-Charge of the Sophia Women's Ward at the outbreak of the Second Boer War, and was one of the six sisters selected from The London Hospital by Princess Alexandra to go to South Africa as her own "military" nursing sisters. Resigning from the hospital on 25 December 1899, McCarthy served with distinction throughout 1899–1902 with the Army Nursing Service Reserve, receiving the Queen's and the King's Medal and the Royal Red Cross. Returning to England in July 1902, she was awarded a special decoration by Queen Alexandra. She then became involved in the formation of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, was promoted to matron within the service in February 1903 and during the next seven years was successively matron of the Cambridge Military Hospital at Aldershot, Netley Hospital and the Queen Alexandra Military Hospital in Millbank. In 1910 she was appointed principal matron at the War Office, a position she held until the outbreak of the First World War. She was matron-in-chief of the Territorial Army Nursing Service from 1920 until her retirement in 1925. She became a member of the Royal College of Nursing in 1920.

Personal life McCarthy never married, and died at her home at Chelsea, London on 1 April 1949, aged 89. A pastel portrait of her by Austin Spare hangs in the Imperial War Museum. In 2014 she was honoured by having a blue plaque placed on her Chelsea former home.