Blaze e-catalogue - Catalog - Page 76
Margaret
Harper
1879-1964
Paediatrician and
infant health pioneer
Dr Margaret Harper held a number of lead
NSW Government public health appointments
in a career that spanned four decades.
She was appointed Honorary Physician
at Alexandria Baby Health Clinic—the first
Government-run clinic opened during
WWI to reduce infant mortality. In 1918, the
NSW Government established the Royal Society
for the Welfare of Mothers and Babies. It later
opened the first Infant Welfare Training School
and the first Baby Health Centre, ‘Tresillian’,
in Petersham. Harper was Honorary Director
until 1949.
“Dr Harper must have saved
the lives of millions of babies
by her discoveries and
methods. She ought to be
a national heroine.”
‘Australian women doctors fought through
to recognition’, Tribune, 14 January 1959, p. 6
Harper was the first woman appointed Chief
Resident Medical Officer, and first woman
Honorary Physician, at Royal Alexandra Hospital
for Children (1914). She was the first woman
on the Adulterated Food and Drug Committee
(1929), and the first mothercraft university
lecturer in the British Empire. One of six women
doctors to found The Rachel Forster Hospital
for Women (1921), and one of four women
foundation Fellows of the Royal Australasian
College of Physicians (1938), Harper retired
in 1947, undertaking numerous honorary roles
until her death in 1964.
Above left
Margaret Harper
The Swiss Studios Sydney, n.d. NRS 9873, R292
health
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