Bathsheba GhostPrint Page

The memorial stone at the gravesite commemorates Bathsheba Ghost, Matron of Sydney General Hospital from 1852 to 1866.

Bathsheba Ghost was an ex-convict who was granted a conditional pardon in 1847 on condition she did not return to the United Kingdom. Just five years after her conditional pardon, Bathsheba Ghost was appointed Matron of the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary. She was commemorated in 1864 as having worked at the Infirmary for 20 years. 

Matron Bathsheba Ghost died at her workplace, the Sydney Infirmary and Dispensary on the 12 August 1866. When her will was read, it was found that she had donated one hundred pounds - a very large sum in those days - to the hospital where she had worked.

A memorial to Mrs. Bathsheba Ghost, who was matron of Sydney Hospital from 1852 to 1866, will be unveiled in the Camperdown Cemetery on Saturday, August 15. When Mrs. Ghost was matron the hospital was known as the Sydney Infirmary. She died at the hospital on August 12, 1866, and was buried in Camperdown Cemetery. The memorial will be a stone from the present hospital. It will be unveiled by the present matron, Miss E. C. Pidgeon, A.R.R.C., who is a trainee of Sydney Hospital, and has given a lifetime of service to the institution. She was assistant to the late Matron A. M. Kellett for 20 years, and in 1944 succceeded her as matron. Miss Pidgeon will also plant a tree in the cemetery to the memory of nurses buried there.  The ceremonies will take place during the annual commemoration service for the victims of the ship Dunbar, which was wrecked at Sydney Heads in 1857. Other memorial trees will also be planted, and addresses on historical aspects of the cemetery will be delivered by Mr. Spencer Lowe and Mr. G. A. King. 
Sydney Morning Herald, 3 August 1953.

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