Olive Anstey

Olive Eva Anstey CBE (9 August 1920 – 18 August 1983) was an Australian hospital matron. Born at Fremantle to sawmill benchman Terence Edwin Anstey and Eva Annie, née Donovan, Olive and her family moved to Sydney when she was eighteen months old. She moved back to Western Australia in 1934, learning shorthand and typing at Perth Technical College before starting work at a box factory in 1935 at the age of 15 (continuing her studies at night). She began training to be a nurse at the Royal Perth Hospital in 1941, despite the disapproval of her family who viewed nursing as "servitude". Passing her final examinations in 1944, she won election to the local council of the Australasian Trained Nurses Association. She campaigned in 1946 for better pay and conditions before returning to Sydney to s

Olive Anstey

Olive Eva Anstey CBE (9 August 1920 – 18 August 1983) was an Australian hospital matron. Born at Fremantle to sawmill benchman Terence Edwin Anstey and Eva Annie, née Donovan, Olive and her family moved to Sydney when she was eighteen months old. She moved back to Western Australia in 1934, learning shorthand and typing at Perth Technical College before starting work at a box factory in 1935 at the age of 15 (continuing her studies at night). She began training to be a nurse at the Royal Perth Hospital in 1941, despite the disapproval of her family who viewed nursing as "servitude". Passing her final examinations in 1944, she won election to the local council of the Australasian Trained Nurses Association. She campaigned in 1946 for better pay and conditions before returning to Sydney to s