Rosalind Paget

Dame Mary Rosalind Paget, DBE, ARRC (4 January 1855 – 19 August 1948), was a noted British nurse, midwife and reformer. She was the first superintendent, later inspector general, of the Queen's Jubilee Institute for District Nursing, which was renamed as the Queen's Institute of District Nursing in 1928 and as the Queen's Nursing Institute in 1973.

Career

Rosalind Paget gained experience and trained at a number of hospitals and in a number of specialities including general and children's nursing, maternity care and medical massage. She worked at the Westminster Hospital, London in 1875 and for four months in 1876. Paget also gained experience at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary, Liverpool, and the East London Children's Hospital, and Manchester General Children's Hospital, Pendlebury where she worked under Eva Luckes. and stayed on there as Holiday Sister between 1884 and 1889.

The reverse of Paget's badge dated 1882–1884. It would have been bought after 1931 when the badges were first issued.

During her training at The London Hospital she completed maternity training at the British Lying-In Hospital, and obtained the London Obstetrical Society certificate in January 1885. In the 1890s she played an active role in the campaign for midwife registration, giving evidence in 1892 to the select committee on midwifery, but it was not until 1902 that the Midwives Act was passed. She was a founder member of the Society of Trained Masseuses, which later became the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. She never married. She died in 1948, aged 93. Paget is remembered on a family memorial in Brompton Cemetery.

Honours She was named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1935.

Legacies The Dame Rosalind Paget Memorial Lecture and Rosalind Paget Trust were established in her honour. The University of Greenwich operates The Rosalind Paget Lab, a clinical skills lab used to teach student midwives, nurses and paramedics.