Thanks to Geraldine Occupational Therapy (TTGOT) was established in early 2020 in honour of Dr Geraldine Archer.
When Geraldine was a young women she expressed her desire to be a medical professional. Geraldine’s father considered that medicine was “not a suitable profession for a woman” so she put herself through the long course and internship that followed. Her medical studies were completed at the University of Adelaide where she graduated in 1948 at the age of 36. After some experience on the mainland she cut short her specialist training to return home and care for her dying father. There followed decades of much needed health care provision to the residents of Launceston.
“No patient was ever denied help whatever the hour, no call for treatment was ever refused. Patients commended her for her thoroughness and care, which went beyond the professional call of duty.”
It has been said of her that she never forgot a patient and that she had three mental lists of them: those she knew could afford medical attention but would not pay their accounts, those who could and did and those who could not, and to this last class no account was ever sent.
For Geraldine, her life and work were nearly synonymous and she rarely stopped. She worked until the day she died. A patient who saw her on her last morning of surgery found her undimmed.
Geraldine Archer
(artist Audrey Wilson)
Dame of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem
Medical practitioner
Philanthropist
b 27 October 1912 at St Margaret’s hospital, Launceston TAS
d 29 May 1992 at the age of 79
The connection: Mimi Churchill (Archer) occupational therapist and business director is the great-niece of Geraldine.
Geraldine grew up at Landfall, the same farm where Mimi grew up and was the only Aunty to Mimi’s father Gerald. Better known as Aunty Geraldine to Mimi and her siblings, she cared for them as she did her clients. Mimi has fond memories of visiting Geraldine and her friend Ada in the Adelaide Street home and vaguely remembers spending time with her in the paddocks of Landfall around the open fire BBQ.
Aunty Geraldine delivered Mimi and advised her parents that ’Mimi’ was a ‘no-name’ and that she needed a ‘real’ name to choose from when she turned sixteen. As a result Mimi’s birth certificate states Mary rather than Mimi. Geraldine felt strongly that girls should not be left land as a form of inheritance but instead, if lucky enough, should be given the opportunity to access tertiary education. As a result Geraldine left enough money for Mimi and her sister Ellie to attend university.
In 2010 Mimi graduated with a Bachelor of Occupational Therapy from LaTrobe University in Victoria. Mimi is unsure if she would have attended university without the financial assistance and knowing of what Geraldine had encourage of her. Thanks to Geraldine is an honourable reflection of the generosity of Geraldine to not only Mimi, but many young women entering the health field of yesterday and today. Although Mimi was only four years old when Geraldine passed, their connection remains strong and their love for their jobs very similar.
Mimi and Geraldine
Pictured at Landfall in 1989