A MEMORIAL plaque has been unveiled to a woman from the region who helped found Uruguay’s nursing service.

Hannah “Ana” Packer is credited with being a driving force behind the medical development of the South American country.

A virtual unknown in her home town of Thirsk, North Yorkshire, she is revered in Uruguay for her work in the 19th Century.

To mark her efforts, Thirsk and Sowerby Blue Plaque committee has placed a marker on Ms Packer’s old home.

Councillor Janet Watson, of Thirsk Town Council, said: “It is a big honour to unveil a plaque to her and it was a lovely ceremony.

“She made quite a big impact in South America and I think it was absolutely fantastic of her to go out to Uruguay when she did.”

Ms Packer, a Quaker, was born in 1841 and lived in Kirkgate before training as a nurse. She married Scottish doctor Francis Davison and the duo moved to Uruguay’s lawless gold mining town of Minas de Corrales, where she worked as a nurse and midwife.

She died in 1930, aged 89, but her work lived on to help with the creation of the nursing profession in Uruguay. People in Uruguay are so grateful for her efforts that in 2006 they changed the name of the Hospital of Minas de Corrales to the Hospital Ana Packer.

Catriona Holson, of Bradford, whose father, Bill Hayes farms near Minas de Corrales, was at the ceremony.

Mr Hayes contacted Thirsk Town council about Ms Packer’s Uruguayan influence. Her plaque is one of 20 memorial plaques placed in Thirsk and neighbouring Sowerby to mark famous sons and daughters of the towns.