Margaret Alexandra (Rendell) Shea (1863-1949)
2. Proceed up the left side of Military Road and stop at Cochrane Street. #82 Cochrane Street was the home of Margaret Shea, Newfoundland and Labrador's first professionally trained nurse.
Margaret Alexandra Rendell became Newfoundland's first professionally trained nurse when she graduated from Johns Hopkins Hospital Training School in Baltimore, Maryland in 1897 at the age of 34. She studied for two years to obtain her nursing degree.
Nursing was considered a new, and quite respectable, professional career for single women in Newfoundland. She was appointed Matron of the General Hospital in May 1898, but resigned two years later to be married to George Shea, the first mayor of St. John's.
Margaret Shea was also the first woman to own a car in Newfoundland. She is remembered for driving throughout the city at "reckless speeds".
