Emmarah Freeman trained as a nurse at Birmingham General Hospital before migrating to Aotearoa New Zealand. She married her cousin William Freeman in Wellington before the couple moved to the Makuri Valley near Pahīatua, where they started a farm. When a bush fire reduced William to invalid status Emmarah found herself returning to her nurse's vocation. Russell Poole will talk about this “nurse of enterprise”, the founder of Mrs Freeman’s Private Hospital (also known as Northcote Hospital), and the ancestor of today’s Crest Hospital.
