Ella Pirrie

Ella Pirrie (1857 to 1929), christened Isabella Barbour Pirrie, was a pioneering nurse born in Ulster to a Belfast doctor. She trained at the Liverpool Royal Infirmary and gained experience of the deaconesses in Berlin, and Florence Nightingale acted as her mentor for many years, writing her letters in Belfast. In November 1884 she became Superintendent and Head Nurse at the Belfast Union Workhouse Infirmary, now Belfast City Hospital, where she introduced uniforms for paid nurses and founded the first nurse training school in 1887. She resigned in 1892 from stress, having cared for between 800 and 1000 patients. From 1894 to 1914 she was the first matron of the Church of Scotland Deaconess Hospital in Edinburgh, then superintended the Deaconess Rest House from 1916 to 1923. A statue at Belfast City Hospital and a plaque in Edinburgh commemorate her.