René Mary Shadbolt

Who was René Mary Shadbolt?

René Mary Shadbolt MBE was a notable New Zealand civilian and military nurse, and hospital matron. She was born in Duvauchelle, Banks Peninsula, New Zealand in 1903, and died in Henderson in 1977.

She was one of three nurses from New Zealand in the Spanish Civil War, and married Willi Remmel a German anti-fascist volunteer in Spain in 1938.

She was a nurse at a military convalescent hospital in World War II, and then from 1949 to 1967 was matron of the Hokianga Hospital in Rawene, Northland. She was awarded the MBE for her services in 1969.

She remarried to George MacLennan in 1944. A nursing scholarship for trainee nurses from the Hokianga area, the Rene Mary MacLennan Scholarship, was established in her memory.