The first Bahamian to be appointed as a Nursing Sister at the Bahamas General Hospital (now Princess Margaret Hospital), the first Bahamian trained as a nurse in the United Kingdom, Hilda Bowen was born in New Providence on October 12, 1923, to Mr. and Mrs. Irwin Bowen of Cunningham Lane. Attending several schools under the tutelage of Donald Davis and Bosfield Johnson, she attended St. Francis Xavier primary school in New Providence, the Western Junior and Senior Schools, and graduated from the Government High School in a class of fifty students with only around 8 girls. When she completed her schooling in 1942, she worked as a teacher for grade one elementary students for three years. She later sorted out and received a degree in nursing and midwifery, specializing in Ophthalmology.
Hilda Bowen was appointed Chief Nursing Officer; the top nursing post in the Ministry of Health, and assumed responsibility for the coordination of all nursing services in The Bahamas, including the Family Islands, for the promotion of optimum health to the nation. She assisted with the development of the Nursing Council, the Statutory Body governing nursing practice in the Bahamas. Bowen became the Vice President of the Red Cross Society and an Advisor to the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization in 1980.
In honor of Hilda Bowen the Governor Close Campus Library of the College of The Bahamas was named to honor her. She was later awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. She was also given the Bahamas Silver Jubilee Medal in 1998 and the Bahamas Order of Merit Award for her outstanding contributions to the Public Service in 1999.
Great Women in Bahamian History by 