Who was Dr Margaret Sheehy?

This month, we are joined by Jane Smith, the Heritage and Archives Lead and Pandora Bevan, Marketing and Communications Specialist, at St Vincent’s Hospital, Toowoomba. They share the incredible story of Dr Margaret Sheehy, the hospital’s first Resident Medical Officer.

Photograph of Dr Margaret Sheehy. [Image courtesy of NSW State Archives]

Three generations at Dr Peter Jones' graduation University of Sydney 1988, with Dr Margaret Jones and Dr Brian Jones. [Image courtesy of Peter Jones]

Dr Margaret Sheehy departs for Queensland

St Vincent’s Private Hospital Toowoomba has recently uncovered new evidence that its first resident medical officer might have been – very unusually for the early 1920s – a woman.

Dr Margaret Mary Madeleine Sheehy served at St Vincent’s Private Hospital Toowoomba from 1923 to 1924 after graduating with an MB ChM (Bachelor of Medicine, Master of Surgery) from the University of Sydney. She was one of only 10 women in a graduating class of 100. According to family history, in spite of her excellent results Dr Sheehy had trouble finding a job in a hospital due to her gender. Being from a devout Irish Catholic family, she appealed to Archbishop James Duhig of Brisbane, who encouraged her to apply for the post in the new hospital in Toowoomba. The Sisters of Charity had officially opened St Vincent’s in November 1922 and admitted the first patient in March 1923. While it was served by visiting doctors initially, no evidence has yet been found that any resident doctor was employed before Dr Sheehy arrived in November 1923.

At a time when female doctors were often viewed with scepticism she quickly earned the respect and admiration of the Sisters, nurses and honorary medical staff, who praised both her clinical skill and her gracious manner.

Her career also reflects the challenges faced by women in medicine at the time. While working later in New South Wales, Dr Sheehy was initially delighted to be paid the same as her male colleagues, only to discover that her first two pays had been made in error, and that as a woman she would receive roughly half the rate. She had to go without pay for a while to correct the overpayment.

After her marriage in 1928, Dr Margaret Jones – as she was then known – took a break from medicine to raise her family. During the war years, however, she was encouraged to return to work at the blood bank and outpatients at Rachel Forster Hospital in Redfern, a hospital for women and children that was staffed by women. After the war, she continued working part-time – possibly pioneering the concept of part-time employment for female doctors with children.

Dr Sheehy’s legacy lives on not only in our hospital’s history, but through generations of her family. One of her sons and a grandson both followed in her footsteps, becoming doctors themselves.

She lived to almost 100 years of age and leaves behind an extraordinary family legacy, including four children, 19 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.

Dr Margaret Sheehy’s vital contribution to St Vincent’s Toowoomba was almost lost to history because the first annual report was published months after she had left, and her name was therefore omitted from it. Thanks to this archival discovery more than a century later, Dr Margaret Sheehy’s place as a pioneer in our story has now been rightfully restored.

Jane Smith was interviewed about Dr Sheehy by David Iliffe on ABC Southern Queensland:https://broadcast.meltwater.com/public-api/segment/MzQ0NzM=