Elsie Stephenson

Stephenson supervised nursing students including Annie Altschul (co-supervised with Henry Walton), whose MSc thesis was completed in 1967, and her influence was acknowledged by Audrey John.

Stephenson died of lung cancer on 16 July 1967, in City Hospital, Edinburgh. Her body was donated to medical research and her remains were buried at Walthamstow.

Within days of Stephenson's death in 1967, the University of Edinburgh set up the Special (Elsie Stephenson) Nursing Studies Fund, with the aim of developing the work of the Department of Nursing Studies at the University. The University of Edinburgh hosts an annual Elsie Stephenson Memorial Lecture, which celebrates the work of Stephenson.

On 14 November 1964, Stephenson married William Henry Gardner, son of the printer, William John Gardner. Stephenson and Gardner had met at the Stockholm Red Cross conference in August 1948.

Her appointment as founding Director of the Nursing Studies Unit at the University of Edinburgh in June 1956 shocked members of the Scottish nursing community due to her lack of university education and teaching experience. In her post as Director, Stephenson oversaw a new training scheme that expected students to graduate in an arts or humanities discipline before taking their nursing qualification. In 1964 a degree programme in Nursing was established, as well as a school for overseas students, which was supported by the World Health Organization.

After leaving the Red Cross, she assumed the position of County Nursing Officer for East Suffolk in 1948; this was at the very beginnings of the NHS. This was followed by a position in community nursing in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1950. Here, Stephenson participated in a research project which was published in 1956 as the Jameson Report, "An Enquiry into Health Visiting" - the report led to reform within health visiting. The Jameson Report had a particular focus on maternal mental health.

From 1947 to 1948, Stephenson held a Florence Nightingale Scholarship for the study of public health administration at the University of Toronto.

From 1926 to 1933, Stephenson attended Newmarket Grammar School. Stephenson failed her final school examinations and did not graduate from university.

Stephenson was the daughter of a farmer, Henry Walker Stephenson, and Ethel Watson, and was born at Crawleas Farm, Merrington, in Bishop Auckland, County Durham. Her father's death in 1919 in the influenza epidemic has been cited as her motivation for becoming a nurse.

Elsie Stephenson (22 January 1916 – 16 July 1967) was the first Director of the Nursing Studies Unit at the University of Edinburgh, which was founded in 1956 as the first university department of Nursing in the UK.