Beryl Burbridge

Beryl Emma Burbridge, (4 March 1902 – 27 November 1988) was an Australian hospital matron during the Second World War, working at a research unit creating new malaria treatments. She later worked at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and was president of the Queensland branch of the Royal Australian Nursing Federation from 1959 to 1960.

Early life
Burbridge was born on 4 March 1902 in Gympie, Queensland. Her Australian-born parents were Maria Esther ( Wardle) and William Edward Burbidge. Her father was an assayer who became mayor. He had moved to Gympie in 1893 during the goldrush. Beryl was the last child and she had eight elder siblings. She trained as a nurse at the Royal Brisbane Hospital.

Nursing career
In May 1941 Burbridge joined the Australian Army Nursing Service. She was initially a sister in Ipswich at the 6th Casualty Clearing Station. In November 1942 she joined the Second Australian Imperial Force and became a captain in March 1943. She was in Papua New Guinea for just four months before she returned to Cairns in Queensland in 1944, where she led the nurses at the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit until the end of the war. In 1945 the war artist Nora Heysen completed a painting of her. Heysen was in Australia and Papua New Guinea from 1944 to 1946. During her time at the Land Headquarters Medical Research Unit there were secret experiments involving malaria experiments on volunteers. The breakthroughs gave a distinct advantage to the Australian military as rates for malaria fell from 74% to under 3%. Another painting by Nora Hensen of a nurse treating a patient at the unit shows Burbridge in the background. There were later enquiries into a speculation that the Americans and British had exploited Australian volunteers. After a wide enquiry it was found that the work was very valuable and there was no conspiracy.

In 1958 Burbridge became the General Matron at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. She was an imposing figure who used discipline to command. She retired in 1968 and she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the same year.

Burbridge died in her home in Stafford, Queensland on 27 November 1988.