Haldane Colquhoun Turriff

Haldane Colquhoun Turriff (12 January 1834 – 5 February 1922) was an Australian hospital nurse, administrator.

Early life and education
On January 12, 1834, Haldane was born at Paisley in Renfrewshire, Scotland. She was the eldest child of the Scottish iron founder and engineer Alexander Turriff and his wife Janet Hardie (née Hardie). In August 1866, Haldane enrolled at the nightingale training school attached to St. Thomas's Hospital in London. In December 1867, she was one of five nurses who accompanied Lucy Osburn to Sydney Infirmary & Dispensary.

Life
The progressive administrators of the Alfred Hospital had written the autonomy of the nursing establishment into the hospital’s constitution, but they could not have anticipated the stubbornness of their beloved matron, or the prejudice of doctors who regarded nurses as ‘unclean housewives’. With the help of the brilliant journalism of the Argus and the ‘Vagabond’, complaints about the matron’s ill temper, the alleged abuse of power and her command over female staff boiled over in 1877. The issue at stake was control of the hospital, but this was clouded by personal disagreements. The hospital president, James Service, had a strong influence on the matron, and most of the complainants resigned or were discharged.

The remainder of the matrons tenure was quiet. The failure of the matron to fulfill her duties as a ‘nightingale’ graduate and to set up a training school may have been due to a lack of talent in the formal teacher’s part. Even her critics agreed, however, that she was one of the best nurses in Melbourne. In 1878, two women who had first nursed under her were appointed to run the training school.