Jane Bell (nurse)

Jane Bell (1873 to 1959) was a Scotland-born Australian nurse and midwife. Born at Middlebie in Scotland, she migrated to Sydney as a child, trained at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and became a founding member of the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association in 1899. After midwifery training at Queen Charlotte's Hospital in London she was matron of the Melbourne Hospital from 1910 to 1934, where she created the post of theatre sister and a preliminary training school for nurses. As principal matron of the First Australian General Hospital in Egypt in the First World War she challenged the military establishment, and an inquiry later vindicated her. She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1944.