Trailblazing Napier nurse Sylvia Frame farewelled after life of service
Sylvia Frame as matron at Hawke's Bay Memorial Fallen Soldiers' Memorial Hospital, left, and later in life, right.
OBITUARY
Sylvia Frame - February 21, 1934 to April 2, 2026.
A trailblazing Napier nurse who helped hundreds abroad and at home has been remembered as a pioneering female leader who did everything she could for others.
Sylvia Frame, a Major with the Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps (RNZNC) and former matron of Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, died last month at the age of 92.
Born in 1934, Sylvia joined the Taradale division of St John as a cadet when she turned 10.
At 17, she commenced nursing training at Napier Hospital, graduating in 1955, then headed to Australia.
While there, Sylvia experienced her first helicopter rescue while working at Mount Lyell Hospital on the west coast of Tasmania.
This showed her how important aerial health services were.
Sylvia then travelled to Britain, where she worked on the polio immunisation programme in England and Wales.
She then returned to New Zealand and was commissioned as an officer in the RNZNC in 1961.
As a flight sister, Sylvia was based at Whenuapai with No 40 Squadron during times of conflict in Malaya, Indonesia, Singapore, South Vietnam and Borneo.
During this time, she flew on many dangerous missions as the sole medical personnel.
She would visit American military hospitals during this time, talking with wounded soldiers from the battlefields of Vietnam.
For this, she was awarded the Command Captain Pilot Air Force Wing Badge.
Sylvia was then posted to No 5 Maritime Squadron at Laucala Bay, Fiji, flying in emergency mercy missions throughout the Pacific Islands, picking up sick people who had never been on a plane or left their island and taking them to a hospital in Suva.
Needless to say, this was no easy task.
Sylvia returned to New Zealand in 1965 and was selected by the Army to complete a Post Graduate Nursing Diploma, then the highest qualification in nursing in the country.
She was then appointed Charge Tutor at the Medical Depot in Burnham.
While there, she was approached by prison managers asking her to participate in an experiment to have women visit repeat offenders of violence towards women.
She visited prisoners in Paparoa, Addington and Rolleston Prisons, assisting in rehabilitation and job placements, the first woman to do this work.
Sylvia was then appointed as Sister in Charge at the Royal New Zealand Hospital, Devonport, before being recalled to the RNZAF for a top-secret mission.
On her return, she was posted to the Medical Directorate, Ministry of Defence, Wellington, in the rank of Squadron Leader, Matron RNZAF.
This was the highest rank and one of the only two top positions a woman could attain in the RNZAF at that time.
She played a key role in the Wahine disaster, setting up a military-style triage centre and casualty clearing station for survivors at the Wellington railway station.
In 1969, she returned to Hawke’s Bay to care for her elderly parents.
She remained on the Active Reserves List of Officers, only retiring at the age of 50 in her Army rank of Major.
Sylvia then started a job at Wattie’s, introducing management systems for about 400 female staff at the cannery, then setting up an occupational health clinic for Rothman’s in Napier.
She was appointed to Wairoa Hospital in a supervisory position before being appointed matron at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital in May 1973, a job she held for almost 20 years.
On her first day at the hospital, Sylvia noticed there was no flag on the hospital’s flagpole, so she went to the RSA and got one herself.
A flag has remained flying on the pole every day since.
Rochelle Robertson worked alongside Sylvia at the hospital and remembered her as a “lady of service”.
“She really had to fight as a woman back then,” she said.
“She said you just worked around men, but you got them in the end, with lots of persuasion and manipulation.
“She had a cheeky sense of humour too. Sometimes, you got a stern facade, but underneath is a very soft, caring, gentle soul.”
Robertson recalls Sylvia fighting to keep the hospital’s chapel and bringing her to the chapel’s 110th anniversary service in 2025.
A plaque bearing Sylvia’s name now sits in the chapel.
Upon retiring, Sylvia became the first woman president of the Taradale RSA in 2014.
She was awarded a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2012 by Sir Jerry Mateparae, who referred to her as matron, which she thought was “really quite good”, according to family friend John Burrell.
Eventually, she was diagnosed with dementia and spent the remainder of her days at Princess Alexandra Retirement Village in Ahuriri.
Burrell recalled a quote she gave the paper that summed up who she was.
“You can do as much as you can, wherever you can, as long as you can, and then you’ve finished it.”
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany, and New Zealand.