Mary Frances Looney (6 August 1886 – 29 August 1961) was a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

civilian and wartime nurse. She served in World War I and was made an Associate of the Royal Red Cross.

Early life

Looney was born in Winton, in the province of Southland, New Zealand, on 6 August 1886. She was the second of 11 children of a farming family. Her parents were John and Mary (née Colgan). She was educated at St Catherine's College in

Invercargill Invercargill ( , ) is the southernmost and westernmost list of cities in New Zealand, city in New Zealand, and one of the Southernmost settlements, southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland Region, Southlan ...

and trained as a nurse at Southland Hospital.

Career

After qualifying, Looney nursed at Southland Hospital, and was promoted to acting matron in 1913. In 1914, she was appointed matron at Gore Hospital. Later the same year, she enlisted in the

New Zealand Army Nursing Service The New Zealand Army Nursing Service (NZANS) formally came into being in early 1915, when the Army Council in London accepted an offer of nurses to help in the war effort during the First World War from the New Zealand Government. The heavy losses ...

and embarked on the hospital ship '' Maheno.'' She served both on the hospital ship and at the New Zealand Stationary Hospital in

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. In October 1915, Looney was with other medical staff from the hospital travelling aboard the British troop ship, the SS ''Marquette'', when it was torpedoed and sunk in the

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. Looney survived by clinging to the tail of a mule, and was rescued after eight hours in the water. She suffered scalp injuries and lost all her hair, which later grew back white. Looney continued to nurse to the end of the war, serving as night superintendent of a 1200-bed hospital in France, and also nursing in military hospitals in England. She was made an Associate of the Royal Red Cross by King George V. After the war, Looney returned to New Zealand and worked as matron of the Queen Mary Hospital in

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, and the Red Cross Convalescent Home in Invercargill. She later opened her own private hospital, Cairnsmore, and nursed there until her marriage in 1921 to police officer Thomas Clarke Muir. The Muirs ran hotels in

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

, Napier,

Otautau Otautau is a small farming, forestry and milling town located inland on the western edge of the Southland Plains of New Zealand on the banks of the Aparima River. Otautau is located approximately north west of Invercargill. The average elevatio ...

, Winton and

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; ) is the second-most populous city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from ("fort of Edin"), the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of S ...

, and raised two sons and a daughter. She died in Dunedin on 29 August 1961; she and her husband were proprietors of Gresham Hotel at the time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Looney, Mary 1886 births 1961 deaths New Zealand nurses Female nurses in World War I World War I nurses Sinking of the SS Marquette People from Winton, New Zealand New Zealand associate members of the Royal Red Cross