Sada Tomlinson

Sarah "Sada" Collins Tomlinson (September 18, 1876^[1] – March 6, 1953) was an American nurse. From 1907 to 1936, she was a medical missionary in China, including a stint as the superintendent of a nursing school in Anqing.

Tomlinson was born in Sewanee, Tennessee,^[1] the daughter of William H. Tomlinson and Cordelia E. Jones Tomlinson. She lived in Nashville as a young woman.^[2][3] She graduated from the Boston City Hospital Training School for Nurses in 1902.^[4][5] She took more coursework at Teachers College, Columbia University, during a furlough in 1919 and 1920.^[6]

After nursing school, Tomlinson was attached to the Henry Street Settlement and St. George's parish in New York City.^[7] She became a missionary nurse in 1907, when she joined the staff at St. James's Hospital in Anqing, China.^[8] She returned to the United States in late 1909 when her mother was ill.^[9] While home she spoke to women's groups^[10][11] and to a national convention of nurses^[12] about her work. After her return to China in 1913, Tomlinson became head of the Nurse Training School at the St. James Hospital. She taught in Chinese.^[13]

Tomlinson was a member of the League of Women Voters.^[14] She was a founding member of the Nurses' Association of China in 1915,^[6] and was elected a committee chair at the association's annual conference in 1924.^[15] She retired from her mission work in Anqing in 1936.^[16]

• "Opportunities for Nursing in China" (1910)^[17]
• "Training Nurses in a Chinese Hospital" (1926)^[6]

Tomlinson spent her later years in New England, as companion to Emma Josephine Brazier.^[14][18] She died in March 1953, at the age of 76, in Saratoga Springs, New York.^[14]