South Auckland

Manurewa

29 August 1921: The Manurewa Town Board resolves to support the establishment of a maternity home in the town and offers one of its workers' houses for the purpose. (Manukau's Journey, Auckland Libraries)

Elleray Nursing Home, James Road (1924-1935). Practitioner: Mrs Jane Letitia Campbell. Obtains building permit 1924 (Manukau's Journey). According to info from Genealogy NZ & Beyond page on Facebook (21 April 2016) -- "Sister J L Campbell, was in the NZANS and she was formerly of Dunedin. She was in London in WW1."

Sister Macdonald, Browns Road (1931)

Nurse Palmer (1938)

Blair Esmonde, Massey (now Maich) Road (1940-1951). Nurse Margaret Elizabeth Laskey, born 17 September 1910, died 1994. Listed as a midwife at 131 Great South Road into the 1960s.

Papakura

Nurse (Hilda Lena?) Dryland, "Cliff House," King Street, Papakura (1917-c.1941). From Jennifer Clark (via email), whose mother Sheila Evans was born at Nurse Dryland's home: "Nurse Dryland was widowed with three children. She put them in an orphanage, trained, got children back and went to work. She was loaned money for a maternity hospital and was allowed 4 patients who were in hospital for a fortnight." Husband may have been Albert James Dryland, a bandmaster in the early 1900s. He died in 1915. In 1929 Hilda Dryland married Andrew McLean Richardson, and continued as Nurse Richardson (1929-1941). She died in 1949.

Ellerdine, 33 Elliot Street (1933-c.1943), then 2 Clevedon Road (c.1943-1958) Nurses Lucy May Cliffe and Winifred Rebecca Tomlinson (from Putaruru). Clevedon Road old farmhouse site (formerly Willis family home) now site for Papakura Primary Birthing Unit. run by Healthpoint Ltd (as at January 2023). Elliot Street property owned by Mrs W R Clarke and Public Trust Office. The site is now a tennis court.

Nurse Swinsdale/Swinsdail (?), (1933-1936). Two notices, NZ Herald, 18 July 1933 & NZ Herald, 5 November 1936. No further record.

Clevedon Road (former Willis Homestead) (1941-1950). Became Papakura Obstetric Hospital 1950 on takeover by Auckland Hospital Board (Manukau's Journey)

Linton Private Hospital, Great South Road (1919-c.1934). Taken over 1932 by Dr Walter Granville Carew from Sister E M Shepherd (Mrs), who took it back again in 1933. "Linton" appears to be connected with Thomas Dirret Shepherd, youngest son of Alexander Shepherd, first Colonial Treasurer of NZ. Thomas died 18 December 1916.

Papatoetoe

Renfrews, Rangitoto Road, Nurse Annie Sophia Gillender Pohlen (1922-1935)

Annie Sophia Gillender Watkins was born in 1883, to George Eccles Watkins (1856-1942), a millhand, and Eliza. Watkins was born in Antigua, West Indies, according to his obituary, and came to Auckland in 1881. Ultimately he worked for the Leyland-O’Brien Timber Company for 52 years. He was married twice.

In 1904, Annie married John Hubert Pohlen (1874-1918). A farmer in Harapepe in the mid 1890s, Pohlen appears to have decided to settle in the Auckland region, taking up residence for while with his bride and two sons (George Lawrence Watkins Pohlen, born 1905, and Frederick William Pohlen born 1907) in Manurewa as a market gardener. But around 1911 the family shifted to Papatoetoe, where Pohlen worked as a carrier and contractor, with his own dairy farm. Mary Elizabeth Pohlen was born there in 1913.

John Hubert Pohlen died after a short illness at Auckland Hospital in September 1918, possibly leaving Annie pregnant with their youngest son. Perhaps, to make ends meet for herself and her young family, Annie took up midwifery, and passed her exams at St Helens Hospital, Wellington, with at least 75% rate in June 1922. The following month, she had set up “Renfrews” on Rangitoto Road, Papatoetoe, a private maternity home that would be run by Nurse Annie Pohlen through to 1935. She advertised “skilled attention, moderate fees,” and attracted customers not only from Papatoetoe and nearby districts, but from as far afield as Kaipara Flats in the north, and the King Country.

Nurse (Rose Constance?) Wyatt, Garruth Road?, Coronation Road (1929-1937)

Mrs Ruby Haleen Smart, Kipling Obstetric/Private Hospital, Great South Road (1935-1939). Came from Kipling Ave, in Epsom. Worked with Miss Smith, an unregistered nurse, in 1936. A Miss Lilburn was on the staff briefly, but left to go to China. Mrs Smart said she was moving to Mangere Road, Otahuhu in 1939, but still shows up at Great South Road Papatoetoe in 1946.