A NOTABLE CAREER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20988, 26 September 1931, Page 16

A NOTABLE CAREER.

MRS. A. R. ATKINSON. '

An unusual career camo to an end in the passing of Mrs. A. R. Atkinson, of Wellington, whose death occurred at her homo at Wadestown on Tuesday night. Mrs. Atkinson, formerly Miss Banfield, began her training for the nursing profession about tho end of the eighties at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London. Later she went to America and was appointed superintendent of the Polyclinic Hospital, Philadelphia, a public and undenominational institution which also was badly in need of reorganisation. The young Englishwoman thus attained at the ago of 25 to the headship of one of the great American hospitals, a position which at that time at any rate had not often been held by a woman and probably never with greater distinction. The superintendent of tho Polyclinic Hospital was its supreme executive officer, with powers over its staff, including its medical officers, which extended even to tho point of suspension. For 15 years Miss Ban field held that position, and evidence of tho standing which she thus acquired in tho profession is supplied by the- fact that during nine of those years she was honorary lecturer at the Teachers' College, Columbia University, N.Y. Another indication was the invitation she received to read a paper to the International Congress held in Buffalo in 1901 on " Some Unsettled Questions in Hospital Administration in the United States " —a paper which, subject to some excisions dictated by a regard for the law of libel, was published in " The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science " for September, 1902. In 1910 Miss Banfield returned to England, and when the Great War broke out she was unable, though over the military age, to resist tho call. In 1914-15 she served with a British Bed Cross unit in France, but after her return to England she accepted service under tho War Office,and continued until after the armistice. For three years she was on the staff of the Lord Derby War Hospital at Warrington. As matron of the British War Hospital at Rouen she arrived there iri time to feel at close quarters the thrill of Lord Haig's famous " backs to the wall " order, and to join with the " Tommies," whom she adored, in carrying it out. Her military decorations were tho Koval Bed Cross and a mention in despatches " for gallant and distinguished conduct in the field," but she always maintained that a large share in the honours was due to her four-footed comrade, a Gordon setter, who " never let her down."