Beryl Grant


Beryl Grant was an Australian nurse, community worker, and public servant.

Life

Grant was the daughter of Norman William Grant and Annie, born on 11 September 1921 in Subiaco, Western Australia, one of three siblings. Her father died when she was five and her mother died when she was 14; she was then adopted by Agnes Robertson, her godmother.
Grant attended Thomas Street State School and the Perth Girls' School. She trained as a nurse at the Perth Children's Hospital and King Edward Memorial Hospital, and then in 1957 won a Florence Nightingale Scholarship to study at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Grant returned to Western Australia in 1959 and was appointed matron of Ngala – a nursing training facility in South Perth which also provided lodging for mothers and children in difficult circumstances. She held that position until 1980.
In 1979, Grant was appointed as a special magistrate of the Perth Children's Court. In 1989 she also became chair of the Child Care Services Board, serving until 1996. She was a member of several state government task forces, and chaired an inquiry into prostitution in 1990.
In 1968, Grant was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship to study adoption and foster care overseas. She served for periods as state president of the Royal Australian Nursing Federation and president of the Australian College of Nursing, and was also on the board of the Australian Inland Mission. Grant was also prominent in the Uniting Church. In 1985, she became Moderator of the Synod of Western Australia, the first woman to hold that position.
Grant was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1976 New Year Honours, "in recognition of service to nursing". In 2000, she was made an Officer of the Order of Australia, "in recognition of service to nursing and to the community through the support and development of services and programmes for children and families, particularly in rural and remote areas of Australia". A biography of Grant was published in 2002, written by Ian B. Tanner.
Grant died at a nursing home in Balcatta in November 2017, aged 97. A few weeks before her death, a multi-purpose facility was opened in Albany and named the Beryl Grant Community Centre in her honour.