The Otamatea County cottage hospital, opened on the outskirts of Paparoa in 1917, was named in honour of Nurse Edith Cavell, a British nurse who had been executed by the Germans in Belgium in 1915. There is no record of a foundation stone nor even an opening ceremony; however, a memorial stone was unveiled in June 1924 in honour of Miss E. Hattaway, who had served as matron 1919-1920.
The hospital was closed in 1974 and the building is now privately owned.
See: ‘Tribute to a well-beloved nurse at Paparoa, North Auckland’ [photograph], Auckland Weekly News, 19/6/1924, p. 48; ‘Nurse Cavell Memorial Hospital 100 Yrs Old’, Paparoa Press, June 2017, p. 1.
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