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St Martin’s War Memorial Hospital

Saturday July 27

St Martin’s House legacy celebrated at centenary celebrations

“During the recent centenary celebrations, the St Martin’s House corridors were filled once again with nurse chatter as tours were conducted to the top-floor operating theatre and the old ground-floor wards – now the staff kitchen, music room and Darnell Room,” says the Cathedral’s, Helen Wootton

The history and origins of St Martin’s House and Pyrmont Private Hospital

“Today, St Martin’s House still serves a vital role for the Cathedral and our wider Diocesan community. Its role as a hospital ceased in 1971, and after much debate about its future, it was renovated and is now used as office space for our Archbishop, Regional Bishops and clergy and staff for the Cathedral and various Commissions. However, there are still some mysteries that my research is yet to solve,” says Diocesan Archivist Michael Rogers

Sister Joan, as Matron of St Martin’s War Memorial Hospital, in 1971 with the last group of nursing graduates – (Image courtesy of St Martin’s Hospital: A History by Val Donovan – Records and Archives Centre Library)

The Stinson plane crash and the SSA

“Sister Joan serves as yet another example of how sometimes it is the small brush strokes on a large canvas that can make all the difference,” writes Archives Researcher Adrian Gibb on Sister Joan Michael SSA, who nursed one of the Stinson plane crash survivors to recovery