The Prince Henry Hospital Trained Nurses Association Inc ABN 19 429 143 343 WELCOME TO OUR JULY 2016 NEWSLETTER PRESIDENT’S REPORT Hello Everyone, Our reunion this year will be held on Saturday 29th October. The Chapel Service will start at 1pm, and will be followed by high tea in the museum at 2pm. The cost of the high tea will be $30. I urge all PHH and NEC graduates to attend. Frida Kitas and Randwick Council have sponsored our “Back to Prince Henry Hospital Day, “Spirits of Prince Henry Twilight Tour” and “Your Brain Matters” day. Frida on behalf of Randwick City Council, hires out our museum and arranges publicity and the catering for each event. All events have been very well attended, and we are very grateful for the council’s support. Lyn, Billee, Yvonne and I still speak at our bus tours, and the museum is much admired. Our beautiful chapel was broken into on 22nd May 2016. The glass side door was smashed and the alarm pads were torn from the walls. All that damage was promptly repaired. In the horrendous storm of Sunday 5th June tiles were blown from the chapel roof, and that damage is also being repaired now. The new executive is settling in nicely, and I thank Ailsa for coming from Bateau Bay, and Carol from Meadow Flat – also a big thank you to Lyn and Billee. Peter Armstrong is our chapel booking officer and also a volunteer each Sunday. Many thanks also to our volunteers Yvonne, Anne, Deidre, Nan and Maria. We are also very grateful to Mauricio, our wonderful cleaner, and to James who keeps our lawns and trees so beautiful. Ann Bowen, our honorary solicitor, Mr. Howard, our auditor and our patron General David Hurley. AC DSC (Ret’d) have all been wonderful. Please do not forget the museum is open from 10am to 4pm on Sundays. We would love to see you all at the reunion on Saturday 29th October 2016. Margaret Paterson. EMAIL ADDRESSES With over 400 members our postage bill for Newsletter etc. is LARGE! We have appealed for email addresses with fair success. We would much appreciate email addresses from any member who has one to help us reduce this postage cost. All items are sent out Bcc – so your address will be private. Just email your name to: [email protected] we will add you to our list. 1 Nurses Reunion 29/10/2016 1pm All nurses who trained or worked at PHH are cordially invited to join us on reunion day. The celebration will begin with a short service of thanksgiving in the Nurses Memorial Chapel followed by high tea and cutting of the celebration cake by the ‘golden girls’ in the Nurse’s Museum. The tradition of the “Golden girls” is those who started in 1966 are the innocents and those who graduated in 1966 are the perfects. The most senior nurse has the honour of cutting the cake, and the golden girls then distribute the cake. This day is a great social opportunity to catch up with old nursing comrades and share life experiences. It will be well worth the effort so come along and make it a special day. You can also tour and admire the Museum. COST; $30. Please:  Send cheque to the Hon Treasurer at PO Box 303, Matraville, 2036 by 13/10/16 or  Direct Deposit to BSB: 0621, Account no: 9810356590, Account Name: Prince Henry Trained Nurses Association Museum Account. Please mark your deposit as R16 followed by your name to aid us in identifying your payment. Then send confirmation email to Ailsa Ransom, our Treasurer at [email protected] with name and receipt number please. Looking forward to seeing you there! “Back to Prince Henry” day attracted a large croud. 2 SECRETARY’S REPORT When I nominated for Assistant Secretary in March I thought I could be of assistance to the incoming Secretary, but living 40kms out of Bathurst I thought this was the best I could do. When no nominations for Secretary were received at the AGM, I was persuaded to take the position of Secretary and Barbara Newman accepted Assistant Secretary. What a journey it has been, trying to fill some very big shoes – those of outgoing Secretary Lyn Smith. It has been wonderful to have the support from other members of the executive, association members and volunteers as I make the journey. We have tackled a few projects, when visiting the White Pages 2016 directory you will now find us under Prince Henry Hospital Trained Nurses Association. Our new web site is being constructed, many thanks to Lyn Overton, the new site will be found at princehenryhospitalnursingandmedicalmuseum.com.au The new computer is up and running. I have loaded onto it items like correspondence, newsletters, minutes of meetings, accounts etc. – any member of the Association can access the computer. We will add further items as we receive them. We are also working towards getting a full inventory of the museum onto the computer. Many thanks to the volunteers and Lyn as museum coordinator who are working on this project. With the addition of a computer to the museum we have needed to obtain other insurances, quite a task I assure you. Along the journey we have also had a break in to the chapel and in recent storms roof damage to the chapel too. Both of which have had their own “making good” problems. We also have a presence in social media with 2 Facebook pages. Gail Mayze set up the Prince Henry Hospital Community page, after a quite beginning, it now enjoys many posts from visitors to the site, the “Gracie” stories and experiences make great reading. We have also had many photos added by members – great memories. Many thanks to Gail for setting this up. Our Treasurer Ailsa Ransom has set up our second page: Prince Henry Hospital and NEC Nurses. The executive will post current and upcoming events, reports, photographs of events and more. Thanks to Ailsa for this page. So if you have not visited either site, please do, “like” both sites, it’s good to know you are out there. I must give my own and all Association members appreciation and thanks to our retired Treasurer Billee King and Secretary Lyn Smith. What a great job they have done over the past several years – but don’t worry they haven’t disappeared but are still very active within the Association. Billee is now Vice President and Lyn is Museum Coordinator. We thank them both for their continued support within the Association. It is great to see new faces at our Bi Monthly General meetings – please keep coming along, and bring somebody with you too! Future dates for 2016 General meetings are: Wednesday 17th August, Wednesday 16th November both commencing at 11.00 am. The nurses reunion falls between these dates on 29th October. Carol Parker. VOLUNTEERS Volunteers are always welcomed. Our band of volunteers do a marvelous job keeping the museum in tip top condition – and are just embarking on the museum inventory. If you can spare a day here and there to help please contact us, we could really use your help. Email: [email protected]. Write to: PHHTNA, P.O. Box 303, Matraville 2036, Phone: 02 9019 0784 3 TREASURERS REPORT Firstly I would like to thank Billee King for the years she has given to PHHTNA Inc as a very capable Treasurer. Secondly I thank Billee for all the training and information she has willingly given to me as I aim to walk in her footsteps. I would also like to thank Mr. J Howard, OAM, our accountant for the guidance he has given me. We have had a busy year so far both in the Chapel with 53 weddings, 4 funerals and 5 baptisms and in the Museum we have had 2 major events supported by Randwick Council plus 15 museum group tours. Both the Back to Prince Henry Day and the Twilight Tour were successful and enjoyed by those who attended. Bondi Guides ran the Sausage Sizzle on the Back to PHH Day which was a great success and we thank them for their support. It was good to see many young families, ex patients, ex staff and mature folk browsing through the museum. We thank Randwick Council and staff for their support on these events. With the above events we have been able to manage and cover our costs. Ailsa Ransom. Yvonne Anderson with “Back to Prince Henry” visitors. QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS LIST The Queen’s Birthday Honours list has just been published. As you know there are several members and non members of the association who have received an OAM in previous years listings and the Association and museum hold a record of these recipients. If there are any members who received on OAM in the 2016 listing can you please let us know so we can add you to our records. Either email: [email protected] or write to: PHHTNA P.O. Box 303, Malabar NSW 2036. 4 MUSEUM MAGIC Since the AGM in March, we have had 11 tours of the Nursing and Medical Museum, some small groups and others bigger, but all with the same result eg: wonderful, great, I didn’t realise you had so much stuff, how clean this is, what a great presentation, and lots more. It really makes all the work done by the team worthwhile. My sincere thanks to Peter Armstrong who works with me every Sunday and at events held in the museum sponsored by Randwick City Council. To the monthly volunteers, Ailsa, Anne, Deidre and Maria, we all work well together and get lots done, my thanks. I have been working with the production crew of “A Place to Call Home” by hiring our humidicrib and medical equipment for authenticity for the next program of this series, this will be our third show. It also gives us some extra finance. You may all have heard about the horrific storms that we had here in Sydney 5 – 6th June, 2016. We did not escape entirely, but not as bad as some locals. The museum had some water in from the easterly side of the building but no real damage. The Nurses War Memorial Chapel lost tiles on the roof over the stained glass window easterly and water got onto the carpet behind the alter. We are waiting for the roofer to get the repairs done as soon as possible and just hope the weather stays kind. The Banksia tree beside the Observation Deck, split in two, waiting for Council to come and check the split, but the tree still stands firm, here’s hoping. Am still receiving little extras about WW1 nurses so those files are still active. Have started WW11, 22 so far, a work in progress. The Twilight Tour, “Spirits of Prince Henry” held in April, was packed to the rafters, 136 paying guests plus guest speakers and staff, a magical night! A big “thank you” to Frida Kitas and Randwick City Council for their ongoing support. The next Twilight tour on 6th July, 2016 at 6.30pm is on Polio, with Dr. Nick Dorsch, his wife Barbara (a physio), and Professor C.R. Broughton. Hope some of you will try to come out, please ring and book in on 9387 4412. Please take car, best wishes. Lyn Smith O.A.M. Museum Coordinator. NOT A MEMBER YET? No matter what year you graduated, whether from Prince Henry Hospital or as a NEC nurse, we welcome you to join YOUR Association. Joining fee is a One Off $100.00 Please send to [email protected] or PHHTNA P.O. Box 303, Matraville NSW 2036 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING FOR 2017 The AGM for 2017 will be held on Wednesday 15th March commencing at 11.00am in the Nursing and Medical Museum. We encourage all members to attend. Nominations for Executive Officers for 2017 need to be in the hands of the Secretary by 4pm Tuesday 7th March 2017. Nomination form attached to this Newsletter. 5 WHO WAS GRACIE? This is a question asked by visitors to the museum and nurses who trained in the latter half of last century. Gracie Andrews was an older RN who worked at Prince Henry Hospital in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. She did not train at Prince Henry and was renowned for the weird things she said and did with regard to the patients under her care. During the time I knew her she was in charge of A 3 – 4 which was the Diphtheria ward. She was very eccentric and most nurses disliked working on her ward. At meal times the main topics of conversation were the latest of Gracie’s antics. Many nurses threatened to resign because of Gracie. When Gracie left Prince Henry Hospital she apparently was admitted to a Nursing home somewhere on the North Shore. At about this time someone started a rumour she had died after falling down the stairwell/liftwell in B Block. To this day the rumour persists and people claim that Gracie haunts the hospital. Many people have experienced strange events and blame Gracie for them, e.g. lights going on, call bells going on in empty rooms etc. I wonder what the new residents on the hospital site think about Gracie. Does she haunt them too? Billee King. B Block 2016 Refurbished YOUR 2016 EXECUTIVE President: Margaret Paterson Secretary: Carol Parker Vice President: Anne Thompson Assistant Secretary: Barbara Newman Vice President: Billee King Treasurer: Ailsa Ransom Museum Sub Committee: Lyn Smith, Deidre Phoon, Anne Thompson, Maria Luff. IN MEMORIUM Mrs Ailsa Sieber Miss M York Mrs Jan Read (Galvin) (1966) Mrs Helen Moore (Thomas) (1969) (1943) 6 The Prince Henry Hospital Trained Nurses Association Inc. P.O. Box 303, Matraville. NSW. 2036 NOMINATION FORM FOR ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING I hereby nominate: For the Executive position of: SIGNED: DATE: SECONDED: DATE: I agree to the above nomination for the position specified. SIGNED: DATE: Return no later than 4.00pm on Tuesday 7th March 2017 (one week prior to the AGM) To: The Hon Secretary PHHTNA Inc P.O. Box 1375 BATHURST N.S.W. 2795 Or email to: [email protected] 7