Elinor Catherine Hamlin nee Nicholson, 1924-2020

"When I die, this place will go on for many, many years until we have eradicated fistula altogether -

until every woman in Ethiopia is assured of a safe delivery and a live baby." Dr Catherine Hamlin

Catherine was the second child of David Theodore Field Nicholson (1894-1955) and Winifred Elinor Broughton Nicholson (nee Young), 1896-1982. They bought The Hermitage c.1922 and she was born there in 1924. 

In 1998 her brother Peter was interviewed as part of a large oral history project conducted with residents and former residents of the Municipality of Ryde. He described his mother as a "very remarkable person. A very active person. She set a good example and managed her household very well". He also noted that she "believed in a good spanking at time". His father, although a hard-working businessman, was never a remote figure to his six children. Peter recalled that his father was "very close to us and he used to take us out". 

In addition to the audio recording and the transcript, Pauline Curby, the co-ordinator of the oral history project, produced a booklet titled The Hermitage: memories of the 1930s. This publication summarised Peter's memories of his childhood, his family and the house including information about the grounds "surrounded by paddocks", the staff, meals, and the religious beliefs of his parents who were committed Christians. Elinor (Winifred Elinor) was so pleased with the appearance of her garden that she commissioned photographer Harold Cazneaux, to take a series of photographs of the gardens and grounds. It described the family and social life he and his siblings experienced at The Hermitage.

Catherine completed her schooling at Frensham School, Mittagong and enrolled in medicine, graduating from the University of Sydney's Medical School in 1946. After completing internships at two Sydney hospitals: St Joseph's Hospital Auburn and St George Hospital, Kogarah she accepted a residency in obstetrics at Sydney's Crown Street Women's Hospital, Surry Hills where she met Dr Reginald (Reg) Hamlin whom she married in 1950. A son Richard was born in 1952.

In 1958 the Hamlins answered an advertisement in The Lancet medical journal for gynaecologists to set up a school of midwifery in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. What had been intended as a three-year stay turned into a lifetime of service treating women with obstetric fistula; firstly with the establishment of the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital in 1975 and in 2007 the Hamlin College of Midwives. 

Reg died in 1993. Catherine died 18 March 2020 and was buried beside him in the British War Graves Cemetery in Addis Ababa.

[Biographical details extracted from the official obituary from Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation]