P000997 revised AU-VU:EOAS Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation

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 English AACR2 Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules Person created 1993-10-20 human McCarthy, G.J & Annette Alafaci updated 2025-10-29 human https://www.eoas.info/biogs/P000997b.htm person Abbott Gertrude AACR2 Sister Ignatius of Jesus O'Brien, Mary Jane 11 July 1846 12 May 1934 Place of Birth Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Place of Death Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Medical administrator Nun Gertrude Abbott founded the St Margaret's Maternity Home (1894), which became the third largest obstetric hospital in Sydney. After Abbott's death the hospital passed to the Sisters of St Joseph. Gertrude Abbott was born Mary Jane O'Brien. In February 1868 she entered the religious Order of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and adopted the name Sister Ignatius of Jesus. She, along with another nun, claimed to witness visions, but it was later discovered that these manifestations had been faked by the other nun. Although Sister Ignatius of Jesus was not involved in the deception, she left the order in 1872 and adopted the name Mrs Gertrude Abbott.

For twenty years after leaving the convent, Gertrude Abbott unsuccessfully strove to get approval for an order of contemplative nuns. During this time, the women she had gathered supported themselves through dressmaking. However in 1889 Abbott's fortunes changed when she inherited the £609 estate of Julian Tenison-Woods. He was co-founder (with Mary McKillop) of the Order of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart and a major influence in Abbott's life. Abbott cared for Tenison-Woods until his death in 1889 and used the inheritance to set up St Margaret's Maternity Home at 561 Elizabeth St Sydney. The home "provide(d) shelter and care for unmarried girls of the comparatively respectable class" and was "unsectarian". Within two years the home had over 30 female patients (including at least 9 married), 3 midwifes and 8 trainee midwifes. Abbott ran the home then hospital for the next forty years. She got approval for Mass to be celebrated in the hospital chapel up to three times per week and introduced an outpatients department and a home-visiting service in 1904. The hospital moved to bigger premises in Bourke St, Sydney in 1910. Because it was not officially a Catholic institution, Abbott had to raise most of the funding herself, mostly through lotteries. After the death of long term colleague Sister Magdalen Foley in 1934, Abbott withdrew from the hospital administration. The hospital was handed over to the Sisters of St Joseph, in accordance with her wishes, after Gertrude Abbott died.

1868 1872 Career position - Nun in the Order of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart 1872 1893 Career position - Dressmaking 1889 1889 Life event - Estate of Julian Tenison-Woods inherited 1893 c. 1926 Career position - Founder and President of the managing committee and later Matron at St Margaret's Maternity Home 1904 1904 Career position - Outpatients department opened and shift to include treating 'diseases of women' 1910 1910 Career position - St Margaret's Maternity Hospital relocates to Bourke St in Sydney 1921 1921 Career position - First government subsidy (£250) received 1926 1926 Career position - Relinquished role of running the hospital c. 1934 c. 1934 Career position - Hospital handed over to the Sisters of St Joseph Tenison-Woods, Julian Edmund (1832 - 1889)

Wikidata

 Abbott, Gertrude (1846-1934)

Trove

 'Abbott, Gertrude', in Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation, Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology Abbott, Gertrude Swinburne University of Technology, Centre for Transformative Innovation Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation Book Section: Abbott, Gertrude (1846-1934), founder of a hospital for women Cunneen, C. Abbott, Gertrude (1846-1934), founder of a hospital for women Melbourne Melbourne University Press 1979 Australian dictionary of biography, volume 7: 1891 - 1939 A-Ch Bede Nairn and Geoffrey Serle 1 Gertrude Abbott - Records Sisters of St Joseph, Nundah Gertrude Abbott - Records Gertrude Abbott - Records Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales Gertrude Abbott - Records 1894 - 1934 Annual reports of the St Margaret's Maternity Home, Sydney, later St Margaret's Hospital c1894-1934.