McGill, Isabella

DESCRIPTION

NameMcGill, IsabellaBiographyIsabella McGill was the daughter of Ebenezer and Jane Russell, who came to Albion Park from Linlithgow, Scotland in 1840 with their six children. Isabella and her twin sister Janet were six years old.

Isabella married James McGill in 1869, and they had five children;

Jane b.1870 (married Moses King, died 1930, Lismore)
Stuart Meek b.1872 (died 1927, Albion Park)
Ebenezer John b.1875 (married Sarah Ann King, died 1948, Jamberoo)
Marion Isabella b.1876 (married William Wright, died 1935, Bangalow)
James Neil b.1878 (died 1878, Albion Park)

Isabella became a renowned nurse and midwife.

In the early 1880s a diphtheria epidemic swept through the Shellharbour community. Diphtheria was a terrible affliction that claimed a third of its victims. The infection began in the throat and resulted in the formation of a film that slowly suffocated the victim.

During the Shellharbour epidemic, Isabella McGill was nurse to desperate children in the area. She used her ingenuity and bush methods to assist her patients, saving many children, by developing a clever method of using the quill section of a feather to break the film over the patients’ throat, and create a tube through which the patient was able to breathe.

Isabella saved many lives including that of her niece, Margaret (Edith Margaret), the 18-month old daughter of Archibald and Margaret McGill, who lost their four eldest children to the disease over just nine days in March 1883.

In 1895, Isabella planted one of the Norfolk Pines that adorn the waterfront of Shellharbour, at the historic Arbor Day ceremony when 350 residents of the municipality assembled on the foreshore, and 45 trees were planted. Isabella was at the time the oldest female resident of Shellharbour, aged just 62 years.

She died in 1902 and was buried at what is now, the Pioneer Cemetery, Albion Park.

External LinkObituary Mrs McGillMrs McGillEstate of Late John RussellMr EJ McGill 74 YearsWedding Wright-McGill

Document

Family

Photograph

Place

James and Isabella McGill, Albion Park, c.1870.

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CollectionPeopleEventDiphtheria EpidemicFamilyMcGillRussellGray (John and Janetta)LocalityAlbion Park

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McGill, Isabella