5:30pm Thursday 19th July 2012
A FORMER Amman Valley nurse has been honoured for her services to medicine in Australia.
Mair Margaretta Jones, originally fromGlanaman,received the Order of Australia medal from the Governor General of NewSouth Wales, on June 28.
Mair, born on July 1, 1926, trained as anurse after thewar and set sail for Australia in 1962 with mother Elizabeth and sister Nan.
Mair’s brother Tud had already set up home on the outskirts of Sydney and was joined by his family when they arrived.
Uponarrivaldownunder,Maircontinued her nursing career at Sydney Hospital and in 1967, volunteered to take her surgical team to south east Asia, where she treated civilians injured during the VietnamWar While rising through the nursing ranks, including spells as a theatre sister, a nursing team leader and a nurse administrator,Maircarved a nichefor herself by specialising in the history and preservation of medical artefacts.
She became the founding member of the Society for the Preservation of Artefacts of Surgery and Medicine and continued in her role as honorary curator.
Between 1987 and 2011, she was made honorary archivist of the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Museum.
She was also president of the New South Wales Operating Theatre Association in the 1970s and was the founding member of the committee that established the Australian College of Operating RoomNurses.
Although currently seriously ill in hospital, Mair was able to receive her award from the Governor General of New South Wales Marie Bashir, as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Mair received Order of Australia, along with her colleague Helen Croll- Wilson, for her services to thecommunity, particularly through the preservation of medical artefacts.
Sadly, Mair’s sister Nan passed away last year.
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