Mona Grey


Mona Elizabeth Clara Grey was a British nurse who was named Northern Ireland's first Chief Nursing Officer in 1960.

Biography

Grey was born and raised in Rawalpindi, British India, the daughter of missionaries. Her mother died when she was six and so Grey and her elder sister, Trixie, attended Oakgrove boarding school near the Himalayas. The pair then went to the Church of England Missionary School in Bombay. There, her sister would die of turberculosis.
She prepared to be a teacher at St. Bede's College, Shimla, where she graduated with honours and remained in India to work at Lawerence College in Murray Hills. In the 1930s she moved to London, looking for a teaching post, and in 1933 she took a job at Royal London, then known as London Hospital. It was there that she decided to become a nurse
Grey subsequently played a significant role in restructuring its health services in Northern Ireland. In 1960, she was appointed chief nursing officer in Northern Ireland, the first person to be appointed to the role, a post she held until 1975, when she retired. She helped establish a research chair in nursing at the University of Ulster, and received an honorary doctorate from the university in 1999. She died in Holywood, County Down on 27 May 2009 aged 98.

Royal College of Nursing

Grey was the first salaried secretary of the Royal College of Nursing in Northern Ireland and served as leader of the college prior to her appointment as CNO. She was appointed an OBE in the 1952 New Year Honours. She was appointed Honorary Vice-President of the RCN in 1996 and Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing in 2004.

Awards/Honours

Legacies