Margaret Graham core of the growing furore between government and board in Adelaide Hospital row (1894-98)
Adelaide Hospital in the 1890s. Top left: The newest wards, Flinders and Light, on the eastern boundary. Bottom left: The operating theatre, with observation seats for medical students. Right: Mercy Ward.
Images by Walter Scott-Barry, courtesy State Library of South Australia
Probationary nurse Margaret Graham became central to the major community split opened by the Adelaide Hospital row (1894-98).
The South Australian government of Charles Cameron Kingston insisted that Graham and charge nurse Louisa Hawkins be reinstated to their positions. They had been suspended by the board for their “offensive expressions against the government and the hospital” over the appointment of Hannah Gordon (a sister of the South Australian government chief secretary John Gordon, the minister in charge of the hospital) to the position of superintendent of nurses over more senior nurses.
The board refused to reinstate Graham and Hawkins because it would destroy discipline and harmony within the hospital. Doctors represented by the South Australian branch of the British Medical Association backed the board. Eventually, the board relented regarding Hawkins but still refused to recommend Graham for appointment as a charge nurse.
In August, 1895, the Kingston government made it clear that the board would not be reappointed when its term expired at the end of February 1896. The medical superintendent, Dr R.H. Perks, resigned in September, and was followed in February by the matron Robina McLeod and Hannah Gordon (after declining the position of matron). Two of the protesting nurses had also resigned.
A new hospital board was appointed in February 1896 but, before it met, the government appointed Margaret Graham a charge nurse and allotted a ward to her, Intensifying the situation, a seat on the new board was given to Dr T.A. Hynes, who’d been expelled from the South Australian branch of the British Medical Association or unprofessional conduct: allegedly accusing another doctor of having performed a vaccination improperly.
Secondly, no seat on and board had been given to a member of the hospital's honorary medical staff – something they had since the restored board in 1867. This prompted the 17 members of Adelaide Hospital’s honorary medical staff to resign. The South Australian branch of the British Medical Association supported the honorary staff in its boycott.
