Nurses' Memorial Chapel

Nurses' Memorial Chapel
The Nurses Memorial Chapel following the February 2011 earthquake
Coordinates: 43°32′03″S 172°37′27″E / 43.53419°S 172.62429°E / -43.53419; 172.62429
Location	Christchurch Hospital, Christchurch Central City, Christchurch
Country	New Zealand
Denomination	interdenominational
Website	Official website
Architecture
Status	closed due to damage sustained in the 2010 Canterbury earthquake
Heritage New Zealand – Category I
Designated	20 July 1989
Reference no.	1851

The Nurses' Memorial Chapel at Christchurch Hospital, New Zealand, is registered as a Category I heritage building.

Sibylla Maude and Mabel Thurston, both former matrons of Christchurch Hospital, first thought of a chapel at the hospital.Rose Muir, the matron from 1919 to 1936, wrote to the hospital board in July 1924 reiterating the need for a chapel. This request was approved in principle in January 1925. The hospital board provided the land and paid for the foundation and the basement, and was in turn granted the use of the basement. The Ministry of Health did not permit the hospital board to fund any other part of the building, and the government did not provide any of the funds either, but suggested that the public should fund the chapel. A fundraising campaign commenced in November 1925.

The foundation stone was laid on 15 March 1927 by the Duke of York. The foundation stone shows the name of the Duchess of York, but she was ill on the day and her husband stood in for her. The chapel was built during 1927 to a design by John Goddard Collins (1886–1965) of Collins and Harman, who offered his time free of charge.

The first service was held on Christmas Day of 1927. The chapel is dedicated to nurses who died during World War I, and to nurses who died during the 1918 flu pandemic. Three Christchurch nurses—Nona Hildyard, Margaret Rogers and Lorna Rattray—died when the troopship SS Marquette was sunk in 1915 by a German submarine. Two Christchurch nurses—Grace Beswick and Hilda Hooker—died during the flu pandemic.

In the mid-1970s, the hospital board proposed to demolish the chapel to make way for additional operating theatres. This was met with strong opposition, and the hospital board found a solution that left the chapel in place. The next threat of demolition occurred in the 1980s and was again met with strong opposition, with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust issuing a protection notice in August 1989. Subsequently, the hospital board leased the building to Christchurch City Council, and it is administered by a trust and cared for by a group that calls itself 'Friends of the Chapel'.