Beryl Emma Burbridge

OBE
Born(1902-03-04)4 March 1902
Gympie, Queensland, Australia
Died27 November 1988(1988-11-27) (aged 86)
Stafford, Queensland, Australia
Occupation(s)Military and hospital matron

Beryl Emma Burbridge OBE (4 March 1902 – 27 November 1988) was an Australian hospital matron during the Second World War at a research unit creating new malaria treatments and she worked later at the Royal Brisbane Hospital.

Life

Burbridge was born in 1902 in Gympie, Queensland. Her Australian-born parents were Maria Esther (born Wardle) and William Edward Burbidge. Her father was an assayer who became mayor. He had moved to Gympie in 1893 during the goldrush. Beryl was the last child and she had eight elder siblings. She trained as a nurse at the Royal Brisbane Hospital.[1]

Private Hazel Lugge caring for Ken Glover's malaria at the Medical Research Unit with Matron Burbidge in the background[2]

At the beginning of 1942 she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service. She was initially a sister in Ipswich at the 6th Casualty Clearing Station. In that November she joined the Australian Imperial Force on 2 November and she became a captain in March 1943. She was in Papua New Guinea for just four months before she returned to Cairns in Queensland in 1944[1] where she led the nurses at the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit until the end of the war. In 1945 the war artist Nora Heysen completed a painting of her. Heysen was in Australia and Papua New Guinea from 1944 to 1946.[3] During her time at the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit there were secret experiments involving malaria experiments on volunteers. The breakthroughs gave a distinct advantage to the Australian military as rates for malaria fell from 74% to under 3%.[4] Another painting by Nora Hensen of a nurse treating a patient at the unit shows Burbridge in the background.[2] There were later enquiries into a speculation that the Americans and British had exploited Australian volunteers. After a wide enquiry it was found that the work was very valuable and there was no conspiracy.[5]

In 1958 she became the General Matron at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. She was an imposing figure who used discipline to command.[1] She retired in 1968 and she was awarded an OBE in the same year.[6]

Burbridge died in her home in Stafford, Queensland in 1988.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Cooke, Marie, "Beryl Emma Burbridge (1902–1988)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 10 December 2023
  2. 1 2 "Sponging a malaria patient". www.awm.gov.au. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  3. ↑ "Sister-in-charge LHQ Medical Research Unit, Cairns: Sister B Burbidge". www.awm.gov.au. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  4. ↑ "EXPERIMENT WITH SECRET DRUGS IN WAR ON MALARIA - Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954) - 25 Oct 1945". Trove. Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  5. ↑ Howie-Willis, Ian (5 May 2016). Unending War: The Australian Army's struggle against malaria 1885-2015. Simon and Schuster. p. 180. ISBN 978-1-925275-73-5.
  6. ↑ The Gazette in 1968
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