{{Infobox person | name = Edith Mary Rudd | honorific_suffix = | image = Matron Edith Mary Lewis of the Wairau Hospital, Marlborough, SI, NZ.jpg | alt = | caption = Matron Edith Mary Rudd of the Wairau Hospital, Marlborough | birth_name = | birth_date = 14 February 1882 | birth_place = Northampton, England | death_date = 7 May 1967 | death_place = Blenheim, New Zealand | occupation = Matron Nurse | years_active = | known_for = | relatives = }} {{Short description|New Zealand nurse (1882–1967)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}} {{Use New Zealand English|date=December 2016}} '''Edith Mary Rudd''' {{post-nominals|country=NZL|RRC|size=85%}} (née '''Lewis'''; 14 February 1882 – 7 May 1967) was a New Zealand civilian and military nurse. She served in both World War I and World War II, and received the Florence Nightingale Medal from the Red Cross in 1961.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/9008462/Matrons-medal-on-display-at-RSA|title=Matron's medal on display at RSA|last=Duggan|first=Kat|date=2013-08-07|newspaper=Stuff.co.nz|language=English|access-date=2016-08-31}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.redcross.org.nz/what-we-do/overseas/international-aid-worker-programme/|title=International Aid Worker Programme {{!}} New Zealand Red Cross|website=www.redcross.org.nz|access-date=2016-08-31}}</ref>
== Early life == Rudd was born in Northampton, England, the daughter of George Llewellyn Lewis and Mary Hunter née Littlejohn.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/C48352|title=Edith Mary Lewis|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=Auckland War Memorial Museum|access-date=31 August 2016}}</ref> She trained as a nurse at Whanganui Hospital in the North Island of New Zealand.<ref name=":3" />
==Career== Rudd worked as a nurse at Rostrevor Hospital in Gisborne, in the North Island of New Zealand, until 1915, when she enlisted with the New Zealand Army Nursing Service.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://gisborneherald.co.nz/lifestyle/2276751-135/nurses-at-war|title=Nurses at war|work=Gisborne Herald|date=24 April 2016|access-date=2016-08-31}}</ref> In December that year she sailed from Wellington on the ship SS ''Marama''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.marlborough.museums.org.nz/mhs/vewebsite32/exhibit6/e60037a.htm|title=Matron E.M. Lewis, Wairau Hospital|website=WW1 Marlborough Sacrifice, The People|publisher=Marlborough Museums|access-date=2016-08-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911052524/http://www.marlborough.museums.org.nz/mhs/vewebsite32/exhibit6/e60037a.htm|archive-date=11 September 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> She served in Egypt until 1918, nursing soldiers injured on the Western Front.<ref name=":0" /> On returning to New Zealand, Rudd continued nursing and from 1921 to 1941 she was Matron of Wairau Hospital in Blenheim.<ref name=":1" /> She also became involved with the New Zealand Red Cross, joining the Marlborough branch in 1925.<ref name=":1" />
Rudd served as a nurse again in World War II, as Matron of the New Zealand Hospital Ship ''Maunganui'' from 1941 to 1945''.''<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=http://www.armymuseum.co.nz/newsletter/museum-news-june-2015.html#story1|title=Matron 'Momma' Lewis |work=National Army Museum Newsletter |date=June–July 2015|access-date=2016-08-31}}</ref> Rudd and the ''Maunganui'' sailed from Wellington to Suez in April 1941 with a group of 20 New Zealand nurses.<ref name=":0" /> She became known as the "Momma of the Black Dressing Gown" as she wore a black silk dressing gown to make her night rounds during blackout conditions on board the ship.<ref name=":2" /> By the end of Rudd's service, in 1945, the ship had carried more than 5,600 patients.<ref name=":0" /> Rudd spent some time in 1945 and 1946 nursing at Trentham Military Hospital in Wellington on her return to New Zealand.<ref name=":3" />
In 1952, Rudd became president of the Marlborough branch of the Red Cross.<ref name=":1" /> In 1963, she published her memoirs, titled ''Joy in the Caring''.<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18039479?selectedversion=NBD7111608|title=Joy in the Caring |first=Edith M. |last=Rudd |publisher=N. M. Peryer |location=Christchurch NZ |date=1963 }}</ref>
=== Honours === In the 1944 King's Birthday Honours, Rudd received the highest military nursing award, the Royal Red Cross (First Class). In 1953, she received the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal.<ref name=":1" /> In 1961, she was presented with the Florence Nightingale Medal by the Red Cross.<ref name=":0" />
In 2013, Rudd's Florence Nightingale Medal was loaned to the Marlborough RSA for display in its rooms.<ref name=":1" />
== Personal life == In 1927, Rudd was engaged to a Mr Nees, chairman of Wairau Hospital.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/KT19270401.2.66.2|title=Papers Past {{!}} Marriages and Engagements (Kai Tiaki : the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, 1927-04-01)|last=National Library of New Zealand|date=|website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz|publisher=|access-date=2016-08-31}}</ref> Rudd married William George Rudd in 1946.<ref name=":0" />
Edith Rudd died in Blenheim on 7 February 1967 and is buried at Omaka Cemetery.<ref name=":3" />
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudd, Edith}} Category:Female nurses in World War I Category:World War I nurses Category:World War II nurses Category:1882 births Category:1967 deaths Category:New Zealand military nurses Category:People from Northampton Category:English emigrants to New Zealand Category:New Zealand memoirists Category:New Zealand Members of the Royal Red Cross Category:Burials at Omaka Cemetery Category:Florence Nightingale Medal recipients Category:20th-century memoirists Category:20th-century New Zealand nurses