Originally posted by Ron Easthope in 2016
A small photograph album
For many years a small photograph album measuring 18x12cm lay undisturbed in “Annie’s Room”, a small room off the main corridor of the old public hospital in Newtown, Wellington. In the same room were many other nursing and general hospital archives.
I came across the album in 2001 and noted that there were many photographs of historical interest.
I took the liberty of scanning each album page for possible future use.
Inside the front cover of the album is a handwritten inscription.
A number of years later I showed the album contents to Jayne Krisjanous who had expressed an interest in old photographs of Wellington Hospital nurses. It was Jayne who asked me – “who was Barbara Mackenzie – do you know?” I said that I would see what I could find out, not for a moment expecting the rich story that would unfold.
I discovered a wealth of material about Barbara including her training as a nurse at Wellington Hospital during World War One, her subsequent association with the notable Robertson family of Toronto Canada, and the founding by Barbara and husband Irving Robertson of the Canadian Mothercraft Society.
