Page 38 - QARANC Vol 16 No 1 2018

36 QARANC THE GAZETTE
Obituaries
Martye Hubbard, nee Adair Born 25 May 1914. Died 22 April 2017
One of nine children born in Northern Ireland, Martye followed a career that would combine her two passions: adventure and caring for others. Pat, her older sister, was a nurse and she chose to follow her. Martye trained at Belfast’s Royal Victoria Hospital, studied midwifery in Glasgow, Scotland, and completed speciality training as a Queen’s District Nurse in England. Her first job was as a country nurse in Northern Ireland.
As rumblings of war spurred many into action, Martye and her sister joined the army auxiliary. Once war broke out, they were automatically seconded to the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service. When her sister was assigned to Singapore during the Second World War, she didn’t want to leave England so Martye agreed to take her place.
However, the adventure proved more than the young Lieutenant bargained for. The convoy bound for the Pacific was diverted to Burma, to a jungle where Martye was placed in charge of two casualty clearing stations. Her job would entail riding the Brahmaputra River on a barge, picking up wounded allied and enemy soldiers for transport
to military hospitals. Following Burma, Martye was posted to Calcutta and New Delhi.
After the war, Martye was married for a short time and had a daughter, Sandra. Mother and daughter returned to her hometown in Ireland where she secured a district nursing position. After four years the spirit of adventure hit her again. Martye applied for nursing jobs in Canada and in March 1954 she began working as hospital director in the village of Shelburne, south of Owen Sound, Canada.
Two years later she was ready for a change again, moving to Kitchener, in Canada, as night supervisor for Grand River Hospital. In 1958 she joined what was then Kitchener Public Health Department.
Martye next decided to upgrade her education, completing a public health nursing degree at the University of Toronto and with qualifications as a public health supervisor from Dalhousie University, graduating in her late 50s.
Martye was made associate director of Waterloo Region Public Health Department, which by then had absorbed the smaller health units in the region. She stayed in this position until
retiring in 1980.
In her retirement Martye explored
many interests. She joined a garden club and volunteered for several organisations. She read prolifically and always did a daily walk of at least two miles. She was a dynamic and interesting woman all her life. Her influence extended to her daughter, her grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Beverley Davies
Last Post
Elizabeth Chick – date not known
Patricia Mary Kennedy – date not known
Clementine Molyneux – date not known
Lt Col (Retd) June Hoskins, RRC, TD – 9 July 2017, aged 84 years
Major (Retd) Pauline Cynthia Blakeborough (nee Davis) 1 August 2017, aged 86 years
Mrs Mary Irish (nee Howard) – date not known; born 4 August 1915 Janet Ayres – 25 August 2017, aged 95 years
Jannet Jennings – 26 August 2017
Barbara Lott (nee Jessop) – 23 October 2017
Mrs Audrey Jackson-Smyth – 2 November 2017, aged 97 years Major (Retd) Sally Mears TD – 29 November 2017, aged 75 years Miss Vera Vaughan – 21 January 2018, aged 105