Leilah Gordon

Eliza "Leilah" Gordon (née Urquhart; 29 January 1877 – 15 June 1938) was a New Zealand nurse, midwife and welfare worker.

Gordon was born in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland on 29 January 1877, emigrating with her family to Dunedin in 1880.^[1] In 1902 she married William Gordon who she met while they were both working at the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum, he as a painter and she as an attendant.^[1]

Gordon's first daughter Ngarita Inez Gordon was born in 1902 or 1903.^[1] Her second daughter, Esther Loreena Gordon was born in January 1904.^[1][2] By this time William was unwell; he was forced to give up work and returned to Dunedin leaving Gordon in difficult circumstances.^[1] She was pressured by Truby King, the medical superintendent of Seacliff, and his wife Bella, who were childless, to give up Esther for adoption.^[1][2] The baby was adopted by the Kings around July 1904,^[1] though Lloyd Chapman in his biography of Truby King notes there were conflicting accounts of the adoption.^[2] Esther became known as Mary King and was not permitted as she grew up to have any contact with Gordon.^[1][2]

Gordon trained in midwifery at St Helens Hospital in Dunedin passing exams in 1906.^[3] She later became a visiting nurse working for the Child Welfare Branch of the Department of Education with disadvantaged children, particularly with those who were illegitimate.^[1] She retired from that position in 1932 after which she probably worked as a maternity nurse.^[1]

She died in Dunedin on 15 June 1938.^[1]

Publications

• 'After events'. Kai Tiaki: the journal of the nurses of New Zealand, Volume IV, Issue 1, 1 January 1911, p. 32
• Gordon, Leilah. (1935). Poems. Dunedin: S.N. Brown & Co.