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Margaret Elwyn Sparshott
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Margaret Elwyn Sparshott
Margaret Elwyn Sparshott (4 August 1870 – 9 October 1940) was a British nurse. She was the principal matron of Manchester Royal Infirmary, and of the Territorial Force Nursing Service at Manchester, England. During the First World War, she used 2nd Western General Hospital as a base, and had the assistance of St John Ambulance, the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VADs) and the Red Cross. Within this framework she was responsible for the running of twenty-two large auxiliary hospitals, including the field hospitals for the war wounded, in Stockport, Salford and Manchester. Her duty extended to coping with increased patient numbers during the 1918–1920 flu pandemic.
Sparshott was one of the instrumental founding members of the Royal College of Nursing. As a member she campaigned for appropriate pay and training systems for nurses, and was its president in 1930–1933. Sparshott never married, and her dedication to her career brought her appointment as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), the award of the Royal Red Cross, her name on a nurses' training establishment, and a blue plaque in her honour, affixed to the wall of Manchester Royal Infirmary.
Margaret Elwyn "Peggy" Sparshott was born on 4 August 1870 in Mahé, Seychelles. She was the eldest surviving child of the English missionary Reverend Thomas Henry Sparshott and his Scottish wife Margaret McArthur, daughter of Hugh McArthur of Greenock. In 1881 the census records Sparshott living with her parents and siblings in Cholmondeley Parsonage, Cheshire. On 14 July 1885, when Sparshott was not yet fifteen years old, her mother Margaret died, after suffering "acute mania" for twelve days, followed by exhaustion. Sparshott was educated at the Clergy Daughters' School in Casterton, Cumberland.
In 1929, at the age of 59, Sparshott retired from her employment as matron, receiving an annual pension of £300 (equivalent to £16,478 in 2025) and removed to 49 Avenue Road, Penge, London. The 1939 England and Wales Register finds her living at the same address. Her home address was still 49 Avenue Road, Penge, when she died on 9 October 1940 of neurodegenerative disease and arteriosclerosis, at 6 Brackley Road, Beckenham. Her brother William Romaine Sparshott was the registrar's informant. Her will was proved on 10 December 1940; she left £1,648 8s 1d (equivalent to £79,782.83 in 2025), her brother William Romaine Sparshott being named as executor.
Throughout her career, Sparshott was "actively involved in the promotion of nursing as a profession". By 1891 she was training as a nurse and living in nurses' accommodation at Nottingham General Hospital for the Sick Poor. At that hospital between 1891 and 1895, Sparshott completed her three years' probational training, before accepting the position of sister for two years in the men's accident and surgical ward at the same institution. She was subsequently employed at Birmingham General Hospital as night sister or night superintendent for three years, before taking the post of matron at Grimsby District General Hospital before 1901. So, in 1901, the census finds Sparshott as a matron aged 30, in residential accommodation at the latter hospital. She was then appointed matron at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, where she remained until 1907.
Sparshott was the lady superintendent (or matron) of Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) from 17 August 1907 to 1929. Thus in 1911, at the age of 40, she was living at the same infirmary, identifying herself under her official title of lady superintendent of nurses, i.e., matron. On arrival at her post, at the age of 37, she "immediately set out to improve the standards of the nursing school and the administration of the hospital ... [She began] a register of nurses [at the MRI] ... and helped establish a Manchester branch of the [Royal College of Nursing]". She oversaw the rebuilding of the hospital, which was completed in 1909, and the transfer of staff and facilities to the new site. In 1923, Sparshott found herself amid some controversy about her refusal to admit nurses with bobbed hair for training. She was backed by the London hospital matrons, who considered the hairstyle untidy, while long hair could be neatly tied back.
After her retirement in 1929, Sparshott "continued wholeheartedly to support nurse training at the hospital". By 1911, she was being paid £200 (equivalent to £20,368 in 2025) per annum, with extra pay for other duties.
"Miss Sparshott's administrative ability and the energy and skill of her nursing staff were stretched to the utmost during the war years." She became a matron of the Territorial Force Nursing Service in 1909, and was co-opted as a member of the East Lancashire Territorial Army Association. Preparations for war service began in 1910, when the War Office requested that fifteen Manchester nurses be selected as a reserve for service in local wartime hospitals, and thus the idea of the registration of nurses began to be put into practice.
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Margaret Elwyn Sparshott
Margaret Elwyn Sparshott (4 August 1870 – 9 October 1940) was a British nurse. She was the principal matron of Manchester Royal Infirmary, and of the Territorial Force Nursing Service at Manchester, England. During the First World War, she used 2nd Western General Hospital as a base, and had the assistance of St John Ambulance, the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VADs) and the Red Cross. Within this framework she was responsible for the running of twenty-two large auxiliary hospitals, including the field hospitals for the war wounded, in Stockport, Salford and Manchester. Her duty extended to coping with increased patient numbers during the 1918–1920 flu pandemic.
Sparshott was one of the instrumental founding members of the Royal College of Nursing. As a member she campaigned for appropriate pay and training systems for nurses, and was its president in 1930–1933. Sparshott never married, and her dedication to her career brought her appointment as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), the award of the Royal Red Cross, her name on a nurses' training establishment, and a blue plaque in her honour, affixed to the wall of Manchester Royal Infirmary.
Margaret Elwyn "Peggy" Sparshott was born on 4 August 1870 in Mahé, Seychelles. She was the eldest surviving child of the English missionary Reverend Thomas Henry Sparshott and his Scottish wife Margaret McArthur, daughter of Hugh McArthur of Greenock. In 1881 the census records Sparshott living with her parents and siblings in Cholmondeley Parsonage, Cheshire. On 14 July 1885, when Sparshott was not yet fifteen years old, her mother Margaret died, after suffering "acute mania" for twelve days, followed by exhaustion. Sparshott was educated at the Clergy Daughters' School in Casterton, Cumberland.
In 1929, at the age of 59, Sparshott retired from her employment as matron, receiving an annual pension of £300 (equivalent to £16,478 in 2025) and removed to 49 Avenue Road, Penge, London. The 1939 England and Wales Register finds her living at the same address. Her home address was still 49 Avenue Road, Penge, when she died on 9 October 1940 of neurodegenerative disease and arteriosclerosis, at 6 Brackley Road, Beckenham. Her brother William Romaine Sparshott was the registrar's informant. Her will was proved on 10 December 1940; she left £1,648 8s 1d (equivalent to £79,782.83 in 2025), her brother William Romaine Sparshott being named as executor.
Throughout her career, Sparshott was "actively involved in the promotion of nursing as a profession". By 1891 she was training as a nurse and living in nurses' accommodation at Nottingham General Hospital for the Sick Poor. At that hospital between 1891 and 1895, Sparshott completed her three years' probational training, before accepting the position of sister for two years in the men's accident and surgical ward at the same institution. She was subsequently employed at Birmingham General Hospital as night sister or night superintendent for three years, before taking the post of matron at Grimsby District General Hospital before 1901. So, in 1901, the census finds Sparshott as a matron aged 30, in residential accommodation at the latter hospital. She was then appointed matron at the Derbyshire Royal Infirmary, where she remained until 1907.
Sparshott was the lady superintendent (or matron) of Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) from 17 August 1907 to 1929. Thus in 1911, at the age of 40, she was living at the same infirmary, identifying herself under her official title of lady superintendent of nurses, i.e., matron. On arrival at her post, at the age of 37, she "immediately set out to improve the standards of the nursing school and the administration of the hospital ... [She began] a register of nurses [at the MRI] ... and helped establish a Manchester branch of the [Royal College of Nursing]". She oversaw the rebuilding of the hospital, which was completed in 1909, and the transfer of staff and facilities to the new site. In 1923, Sparshott found herself amid some controversy about her refusal to admit nurses with bobbed hair for training. She was backed by the London hospital matrons, who considered the hairstyle untidy, while long hair could be neatly tied back.
After her retirement in 1929, Sparshott "continued wholeheartedly to support nurse training at the hospital". By 1911, she was being paid £200 (equivalent to £20,368 in 2025) per annum, with extra pay for other duties.
"Miss Sparshott's administrative ability and the energy and skill of her nursing staff were stretched to the utmost during the war years." She became a matron of the Territorial Force Nursing Service in 1909, and was co-opted as a member of the East Lancashire Territorial Army Association. Preparations for war service began in 1910, when the War Office requested that fifteen Manchester nurses be selected as a reserve for service in local wartime hospitals, and thus the idea of the registration of nurses began to be put into practice.
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