Eileen Rosaline O'Connor (19 February 1892 – 10 January 1921) was an Australian Roman Catholic and the co-founder of the Society of Our Lady’s Nurses for the Poor (1913) – also known as the Brown Nurses – to provide free nursing services to the poor. Eileen suffered from a severe curvature of the spine and was - at best - 115cm (3'9") tall, although for much of her life she could not stand or walk. It is now known that Eileen suffered from spinal tuberculosis (TB) and transverse myelitis (an inflammation of the spinal cord). It was through her own hardship that the idea of founding a nursing order for the poor came to mind. Both she and her fellow co-founder Fr. Edward (Ted) McGrath faced initial difficulties in recruiting others to their order but in the end managed to grow an order of nu