Matilda Blythe (1898-2003)

Black and white photogtraph of Matilda Blythe. She is pictured in a head-and-shoulders portrait, wearing a nurses uniform, including a cap which covers her hair. Though she faces the camera, her eyes look left at something out of frame. She is wearing dark lipstick. Text at the bottom of the picture states her name and the year, 1926.

HSV member. Nurse. Radiographer.

“A strong, very kind and intelligent woman.” (Coral Wood, friend)

Matilda Blythe was born in Bunbury in 1898 and died in Melbourne in 2003. She was the youngest of eleven children and grew up on a farm owned by her parents, Albert and Jane. It had been originally owned by her grandfather James, acquired in 1840 when he was demobilised from the 21st Regiment of Foot.

At 14, Matilda was an accomplished pianist passing the exams from the Trinity College of Music, London. She decided to undertake nursing training in 1920 at Wooroloo Sanatorium, Western Australia and stayed there for three years. She then served at Kalgoorlie Hospital before moving to Perth’s Mount Hospital. In 1927 she was part of a group of experienced gynaecological nurses who headed to the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne to assist with staff shortages. She started as a senior nurse and stayed for 40 years.

It is unclear why she joined the Historical Society of Victoria, but an influence may have been her boss, Dr Colin Macdonald, who was the Royal Women’s Hospital’s Director of Radiology. He was an HSV member from 1932 to 1968, a Councillor of HSV from 1939-47 and 1952-1968, VP from 1942 to 1946 and RHSV President from 1959 to 1961. He was made a Fellow in 1960. He was also the honorary historian of the Royal Women’s Hospital. Matilda joined the HSV in October 1934, which was also the Centenary Year, so she may have seen it as a way of contributing to the story of her adopted city.

Matilda became passionate about radiography and went on to study a three year diploma of radiography and worked as an expert in this area. She was awarded a prestigious Fellowship from the Australian Institute of Radiographers and ended her career as the most senior female radiographer in Australia.

As well as her work, Matilda loved travelling, reading and music. She was part of one of the first travel groups to visit China. On retirement, she took up piano playing once again.

Helen Laffin, July 2024

Sources:
RHSV Archives
RHSV manuscript collection, MS 001811.01-07. Colin Ferguson Macdonald scrapbooks
Rod Moran, The West, Obituaries, 20 June 2003