The new St. George’s residential care facility for the elderly has been named after one of the Island’s most famous nurses.

Sylvia Geraldine Richardson had a long history in the nursing field and most children in East End schools would remember her as someone who dealt not only with their sniffles, but someone who also would have administered their vaccinations.

The then Minister of Health Nelson Bascome said that facility had been named in honour of Sylvia Richardson.

“It is fitting that we recognise individuals in the community who have made an impact on our society,” he said during the opening on January 28.

“Miss Richardson made a significant contribution to the St. George’s community and to the people of this Island. We especially acknowledge that contribution, her dedication to her profession, and her selfless service to the people of Bermuda.”

Aside from the above, Miss Richardson was also a midwife and helped birth countless babies.

But Miss Richardson’s first love, interestingly enough, was in fact not midwifery, it was instead becoming a concert pianist.

She had spent years studying piano under Iona Reid Morgan and Alberta Burgess, but without the funds for further training abroad, her dreams were dashed.

With that in mind, Miss Richardson took on the old family tradition — midwifery. Thus following in the footsteps of her grandmother, great-grandmother and great-great grandmother, wrote Minister of Social Rehabilitation Dale Butler.

With this in mind and a changing world, she decided to become qualified and she enrolled as a probationer at the Nursing Home, in Middle Town. After graduating from the Cottage Hospital, she worked in the hospital’s public health clinic.

Several years later she would attend the Lincoln Hospital, in the Bronx, New York.

When World War II began, she returned to Bermuda where she taught student nurses for three years. After this Miss Richardson decided to open a private practice where she offered her services as both a nurse and a midwife.

She then made history by becoming the first black woman to work for the Bermuda Government in what became a 30-year long career with the Department of Health.

Nurse Richardson later became a school nurse at Central School (now Victor Scott School), St. David’s and East End Primary Schools.

With this she also held the responsibility of Harrington Sound and Francis Patton Primary Schools.

She also worked in the baby clinic, the venereal disease clinic and she did home visits.

“Everyone who went to school in the East End knew Nurse Richardson,” said Rosheena Masters, the administrator of Lefroy House, who has served as the project manager for the Department of Health on the facility.

“You used to see her in her little light blue Mini Minor. She gave you all of your vaccinations, so you knew her from a baby all the way through.

“The Facility was named after her by Government’s naming committee.

“I don’t think there is anyone in St. George’s that is disappointed with that.”

Miss Richardson helped to amalgamate the segregated nurses associations into the Bermuda Nurses Association. And in 1955 was awarded the British Empire Medal for Meritorious Service in Nursing.

In 1993, a year before she passed, she and nine other remarkable senior citizens were presented awards at City Hall for their contribution to the Bermuda Community.

Miss Richardson continued to visit the sick in hospital until she was 80 years old, before passing at 85 on May 3, 1994.