MC ChM
(B. 1894 – D. 1940)
Attended St Margaret’s 1911 - 1914
Sal (Sarah) McConnel enrolled as a boarder at St Margaret’s in 1911. Her sister, Bertie, had started a year earlier. Sal was very active in school life – she played in the First IV tennis team, was a member of the rowing club and also played basketball. In 1914, she was a Prefect and Head Girl, as well as President of the Students Christian Union – an illustrious school record.
She was obviously very academically gifted as she went on to study Medicine at the University of Sydney – an unusual career path for a girl in 1915. Perhaps she was inspired by her grandmother Mary McConnel, who established the first children’s hospital in Queensland. The 1916 Link published a letter Sal wrote back to the school describing her life as a university student.
She graduated in 1920 and, in 1922, she sailed to England to do hospital work for some months, before settling in Western Australia where we think she was appointed as the first pathologist at Perth Public Hospital.
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