DR. AGNES BENNETT

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 84, 8 April 1936, Page 13

DR. AGNES BENNETT

FAREWELL GATHERING

SERVICE IN THE WAR

"■' Dr. Agnes Bennett, medical officer !.','..in charge of St. Helens Hospital, Wellington, -lington, who is retiring after 32 years'

•■■r" service, was farewelled today by the ■'"' medical and nursing stalls of the *•■•"■■■ Health Department. Amongst those ;- present at the gathering were the Hon. P. Fraser, Minister of Health, and Mrs. '""" Fraser, Dr. T. L. Paget, Inspector of lV" Private Hospitals, Dr. Ada Paterson (School Hygiene Division), Miss M. Lambie (Nursing Division), and a number of members of the medical professiori ■of the city. In the absence of the Director-Gen-eral of Health (Dr. M. H. Watt), Dr. Paget, on behalf of the Department, referred to Dr. Bennett's skill, and to her devotion to duty during her long official career. Since 1924, he said, Dr. Bennett had developed . ante-natal ,'j clinics, which had done so much to reduce eclampsia, a maternal danger. She had also conducted the training of midwives and maternity nurses, and had played a worthy part in improving New Zealand's position with re- * gard to maternal welfare. ■■■'.., Several other speakers eulogised Dr. "." Bennett's work and expressed best .'' wishes for her future health and hap- "'., piness. :,,- Dr. Agnes Bennett, B.Sc. (Sydney), M.D. (Edinburgh), proceeded overseas on the outbreak Jof the Great War. . She enlisted as a medical officer of the New, Zealand Expeditionary Force in Egypt and remained there until the first stationary hospital was established at Pont de Koubbeh. Subsequently, she joined the district medical service of the English army in Egypt, workn....ing in infectious diseases hospitals until ? the work ceased at Cairo; she then proceeded to England, and shortly afterwards went out to v Serbia in charge of one of the units of Scottish Women's Hospitals. Dr. Bennett was decorated for distinguished services with the Royal »Red Cross of Serbia, and Third Order of St. Sa'va of Serbia. The Crown Prince of Serbia (afterwards King Alexander, .who was assassinated;., at Marseilles) was a frequent visitor to the hospital. Dr. Bennett was invalided from this hospital, and;afterwards acted-.as,-medical, officer at'Netley until the end of the war.