Nurse Returns to Pitcairn Island

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 8, 1916

Nurse Returns to Pitcairn Island

A DISPATCH from Bridgeport, Conn., published in the Los Angeles Tribune, states that Miss Emily McCoy, who for a number of years has been engaged in nursing in Bridgeport, will leave in a few weeks for Pitcairn Island, her birthplace. Years ago her mother died on the island without medical attention, and Miss McCoy resolved to prepare herself to minister to the physical needs of her people. Accordingly over fifteen years ago she left Pitcairn Island and since that time has been studying nursing, dentistry, and other lines of work, with a view to fitting herself to return. She has been endeavoring to go back to Pitcairn for a number of years, but has been unable to secure passage on any boat which would stop there. The opening of the Panama Canal places Pitcairn Island more in direct route of some of the ocean liners, and on one of these Miss McCoy hopes to obtain passage. She is endeavoring to take back with her a piano to supplement the work of the organ presented to the inhabitants in 1870 by Queen Victoria, which is still the only musical instrument of note to be found on Pitcairn. The dispatch states that there are one hundred and ninety-five inhabitants on the island at the present time. All are Seventh-day Adventists.