page_title: Agnes Bennett
section_title: Later years and death
hierarchical_section_title: Agnes Bennett / Later years and death
caption_attribution_description: English: Passport application of Agnes Bennett (1931) Archives New Zealand Reference: ACGO 8333 IA1 1349 / 15/11/19999
context_page_description: Agnes Elizabeth Lloyd Bennett OBE was a New Zealand doctor, a Chief Medical Officer of a World War I medical unit and later was awarded an O.B.E. for her services in improving the health of women and children.
context_section_description: Bennett became the first president of the Wellington branch of the International Federation of University Women in 1923, and represented New Zealand at its world conference at Cracow, Poland, in 1936. She had visited Australia often since 1905, and in 1938–39 was medical officer at the hospital at Burketown, North Queensland. She returned to Wellington and in 1939 helped to form the Women's War Service Auxiliary.
  Between 1940 and 1942 she worked in English hospitals and, on returning to New Zealand, lectured to the women's services on venereal disease and birth control. In the 1948 King's Birthday Honours, Bennett was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services as a medical practitioner in Wellington. She died in Wellington on 27 November 1960 and was cremated with Presbyterian rites. She contributed largely to the improvement of maternal and infant medical care in New Zealand, and through example, argument and organization, did much to advance women's status.
caption: Agnes Bennett passport application (1931)
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