Mildred Nodal

Mildred Alice Nodal (8 December 1861–26 June 1947), RRC, was Matron of Salford Royal Hospital, Salford, Lancashire, for nearly 20 years, and a founding member of the College of Nursing (now Royal College of Nursing) and the Institute of Massage and Remedial Gymnastics.

Early life Nodal was born on 8 December 1861 in the Chorlton district of Manchester, to her parents, John Howard, a newspaper editor of the Manchester City News and chairman of Manchester Arts Club, and his wife Helen. Her mother Helen had died just a few months before in May 1895. In January 1900 Nodal was appointed as Assistant Matron, National Hospital for Neurological Diseases, London where she worked for at least a year. She subsequently worked at the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, London, and the General Lying in Hospital, London. Nodal remained there until 1924, during which time she oversaw the opening of a new nurses home, which included a theatre and flat roof garden. Nodal was involved with the East Lancashire Territorial Force Association and accepted candidates who wished to sign up as territorial nurses during the build up to the First World War. In 1916 she was a founding member of the Institute of Massage and Remedial Gymnastics (the precursor to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy). Nodal was an active member of the East Lancashire Branch of the College of Nursing and shortly before Nurse Registration was enacted she attended a talk in 1921 given by Ethel Fenwick.

Retirement and death Nodal retired in 1924. She was living in Rhyl, Wales at the outbreak of the Second World War, and she died there on 26 June 1947.

Honours

Royal Red Cross, 1917