1894-1989
Father
William Thomas Little
Mother
Adelaide Clara Swain
Siblings
Nita May, William Clement, Arthur Patrick, George Thomas, Alexander Irwin, Jessie (Swain, Little, Chapman, Stewart)
Married
Children
Wilma, William Bede, Paula Catherine (Burnheim, O’Connor)
Ivy’s Life
Ivy Little always wanted to be a nurse and began her career aged 16 at the Bundarra Hospital. She trained at Wellington and Western Suburbs Hospital. War service years were done at Victoria Barracks Military Hospital, Poona and Rawalpindi, in India, British Military Hospitals.
After the war ended in 1918 Ivy bought into a private hospital, then District Nursing with the Sisters of Mercy Hospital in the Maitland area. She moved to Grafton Hospital as Matron then to England to work at an Exclusive Private Hospital in Dorset Square. Here she nursed maharajahs, Parker of Parker pen fame, a governor from one of the islands and many millionaires.
She holidayed all over the continent and then a friend passed on the news of a job available for a matron for 160 Australian boys and 8 Aussie men in the YAL (Young Australian League} as they toured England and Scotland. She was interviewed successfully at Australia House. After the trip the group went to Buckingham Palace to meet King George V where he spoke to her and ‘had quite a chat’. On the following day the Sydney papers were reported as carrying the following headline ‘Matron steals the show (at the Palace presentation)’.
Still in England she became the sister in charge of a women’s surgical ward at Middlesex Hospital. The sadness of the incurable ward took its toll and Ivy booked her passage home. This was changed to a free passage when she was engaged to look after 30 girls travelling as migrants on the same ship. But unfortunately, one girl was very ill and died and mum had to prepare her for burial at sea.
Home again mum applied for matron’s positions at four hospitals and eventually settled on Quirindi. This town was divided on religious lines Catholic and non-Catholic. She found this very hard to take and resigned from her position.
William Ernest Waterford, Solicitor and widower with seven children was courting her and despite attempts to undermine this process she married William Waterford but was never happy living in Quirindi. While never officially nursing again she was always in demand in her community for care of the sick, dying and laying out of the dead.
When asked, Ivy said she had married a man with seven children because ‘she fell in love with him’. William was a man of strong character and Ivy would and could compete as she had walked into a real hornet’s nest when she married him. My mother became and always was the wicked stepmother to Marie, her oldest stepdaughter, who was 15 but the other children realized how my mother enhanced their lives.
She was a loving, caring Mother and Grandmother. A dedicated voluntary worker within her community particularly Red Cross, Hospital Auxiliary and her beloved Returned Soldiers Club of which she was a life member.
Authored by Paula O’Connor