18 NURSES BORN or KNOWN to have a PRE WAR LINK in ......18 NURSES BORN or KNOWN to have a PRE WAR LINK in the LOCAL AREA Ethel Alice Allchin Catherine Black Annie Fred Frances Cave

18 NURSES BORN or KNOWN to have a PRE WAR LINK in the LOCAL AREA

Ethel Alice Allchin Catherine Black

Annie Fred Frances Cave Annie Frew Muirhead Dowie

Marianne Dowling Mary Ellen Fisher

Minnie Hobler Rose Jane Langford

Stella Zita Lyons Flora McDonald

Joan McLaren McGavin Marhjar Milligan

Gertrude Frances Moberly Nonie Monckton

Gertrude Ada Nye Jane Eliza O’Brien Mary Ann O’Brien

Tessa Evelyn Thomas (Nee Youngman)

Version 1, 2014 Updated October 2016

Ethel Alice ALLCHIN Ethel’s Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad shows she was born in Rockhampton in 1888. She completed her General Nurse training at The Austin Hospital Melbourne in 1913. Service Details: Sister Allchin was 27 years old when she joined AANS as a Sister on 5th November 1915. She embarked in Melbourne aboard HMAT A67 “Orsova” on 12th November 1915. While overseas she served in India, Egypt, England, and France.

The highs and lows of overseas war service can often be found in letters written home to relatives and friends. One such example was written by Sister Allchin from Southall, England, to her Aunt: “I am only on temporary duty so expect a move shortly at any time again. This is only for convalescent limbless men. It is most pathetic to see the men who have both legs off. They crawl along the floor like little children when they are not in their own wheelchairs. That is the ones with their legs off below the knees. There are an awful lot here with one leg off. I have seen very few with their arms missing. Last Tuesday I had the day off and several others visited Windsor Castle. It was a beautiful trip. After touring round the different apartments we were invited to morning tea in which Princess Mary waited on us. The objections to that were the cups were too big & coarse to drink out off. We were each given by Princess Mary a postcard of the castle. In attendance were Ladies Fortescue-Farquahar-Carey & the French governess.

Sister Allchin returned to Australia on 15th July 1919 aboard SS “Somali." Her appointment was terminated on 26th September 1919. Post War: Ethel married Wallace Ernest Morley. She died on 27th January 1953 at home in Melbourne and is buried at the Burwood Cemetery.

In his book “Warrior – The Legend of Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen, New York”: St. Martin’s Press. ISBN: 978-0312182717, author Peter A. Capstick writes: “German defense there had become so strong that Allenby decided to plant contrived documents that would suggest that the real attack was coming further into the desert at a later date than the intended date, and that the operation through Gaza was a feint, or diversionary attack” The letter, thought to be written by a nurse at El Arish, was said to have been in the contrived documents which later changed this phase of the war.

On the Australian Light Horse Association Forum website, Steve Becker in his information of Nurses in Egypt, posted on 18th December 2013, the possibility that Sister Allchin was the nurse who wrote the letter for Meinertzhagen.

An interior view of one of the wards at the No. 2 Australian Auxiliary Hospital.

By her family. AWM D00545


Catherine Reid BLACK Catherine was born in1881in Rockhampton.

The Queensland State Nursing Examination Results 1915-1925 stored by Queensland State Archives show Catherine successfully passed the final nurse examination on 25th August 1916, completing her General Nurse training at the Diamantina Hospital in Brisbane.

Service Details: Catherine joined AANS as a Staff Nurse on 30th May 1917 at Enoggera Military Hospital Brisbane. On 2nd June 1917, aged 35 years, she signed an Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad.

Staff Nurse Black embarked on R.M.S. “Mooltan” on 9th June 1917 sailing from Sydney to Egypt where she joined the staff at the 14th AGH in Abbassia.

The Emu Park RSL “NURSES OF WORLD WAR I – THE GREAT WAR FROM THE SHIRE OF LIVINGSTONE” Record on their website: “Staff Nurse Black was promoted to Sister in June 1919 and sailed aboard HT “Nile” for England. It was here she completed a course in face/scalp massage and manicure chiropody in London.” http://www.emuparkrsl.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Catherine-Black.pdf

Sister Black returned to Australia in January 1920 aboard HMAT A9 “Shropshire” and her appointment was terminated on 12th May 1919.

Kirsty Harris in her book, "More Bombs and Bandages: Australian Army Nurses at Work in World War 1" published in 2011, writes of the experiences of many AANS nurses and writes of Sister Black’s time spent in interactions with soldiers with facial wounds: “In all my nursing experiences, those months at Aldershot were I think the saddest. Sadder even than the Casualty Clearing Stations to which I went afterwards, for there death was swifter and more merciful, and it is not so hard to see a man die as to break the news to him that he will be blind and dumb for the rest of his life.”

Post War: Catherine married Robert Nicol Just in 1921 and resided in Yeronga, a southern suburb of Brisbane. Her funeral was announced in The Courier Mail on Saturday 25th July 1936 page 1: “The Relatives and Friends of Mr. Just, of School Road, Yeronga, are invited to attend the Funeral of his deceased Wife. Mrs. Catherine Reid Just, late Sister. A.I F., to leave the Funeral Parlor, 45 Adelaide Street, City, This Saturday Afternoon, at 2 o'clock, for the Toowong Cemetery.” Mrs. Just’s name appears on the Bundaberg War Memorial.


Annie Freda Francis Scully CAVE

The Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad signed by Annie shows she was born in Barcaldine in 1889.

Her Next of Kin at the time of signing the paper was her Mother who was living at Galloway Plains Station via Calliope, Queensland, approx. 112 kilometres south of Rockhampton and 21 kilometres west of Gladstone. The Queensland State Nursing Examination Records 1915-1925 stored by the Queensland State Archives show Annie passed her Final State Examination at the Brisbane General Hospital on 7th August 1915.

Service Details: Annie was 29 years old when she enlisted for service abroad on 16th March 1917 having first joined AANS as a Staff Nurse on 21st July 1916 while working at the Enoggera Military Hospital in Brisbane.

Staff Nurse Cave boarded SS HMAT A61 No. 2 Australian Hospital Ship “Kanowna” and sailed to Egypt.

The Australian Light Horse Association Forum website records Staff Nurse Cave, known as “Queenie” served in Abbassia and Salonika. http://www.lighthorse.org.au/forum/index.php?topic=664.0

She was promoted to Sister on 1st September 1917 and returned to Australia aboard SS HMAT A61 No. 2 Australian Hospital Ship “Kanowna” in July 1918. Following her return she was Medically Discharged on 20th December 1918.

Post war: The Australian Light Horse Association Forum website records Annie as the Treasurer of the Qld Returned Sisters sub-branch of RSSILA in 1937.

Annie did not marry and died in 1970.

A photograph taken at the Enoggera General Hospital Brisbane appearing in Rupert Goodman’s book “Queensland Nurses Boar War to Vietnam” and published in ACHHA Newsletter in April 2012 shows a group of nursing colleagues prior to embarking for overseas service. Shows Sister Cave standing in the back row 4th from left. Catherine Black is 3rd from left beside Sister Cave.


Annie Frew Muirhead DOWIE

Annie was born in Rockhampton on 25th March 1891.

The Queensland State Nursing Examination Records 1915-1925 stored by the Queensland State Archives show Annie passed her Final State Examination at the Cairns Hospital on 2nd August 1915.

Service Details:

Annie joined AANS as a Staff Nurse on 25th May 1917. She was 16 years of age and her home was in Mareeba, North Queensland.

On 1st September 1917 Staff Nurse Dowie enlisted for service abroad and embarked on 15th September 1917 in Sydney on HMAT A33 “Ayrshire.”

She served in Egypt before resigning her appointment on 21st March 1919 with the intention to live in Scotland.


Marianne DOWLING Marianne was born in 1885 in Yaamba, Queensland, approx. 36 kilometres north of Rockhampton. The family later moved to Rockhampton and Marianne attended Allenstown State School for part of her primary school education.

Marianne completed her General Nurse training at the Brisbane General Hospital and her sister Ada completed her General Nurse training at the Rockhampton Hospital in1917.

Service Details: Marianne was working at Rosemount Hospital, Brisbane, when she enlisted for service abroad on 14th September 1916. She was 30 years old and had joined AANS as a Staff Nurse on 1st April 1916. Staff Nurse Dowling embarked on 16th September 1916 and sailed from Sydney on RMS “Kashgar.” She served in Victoria War Hospital India and the British General Hospital in Salonika before being posted in 1919 to AGH Sutton Veny, England. She returned to Australia on 6th September 1919 and was discharged as medically unfit on 24th December 1919.

Post War: The Rockhampton Morning Bulletin on Tuesday 24th June 1924 Page 6 reported on the the monthly meeting of the Yeppoon District Hospital Committee : “Six months leave of absence was granted Matron Dowling, without pay, to enable her to qualify in midwifery.” The Queensland Nursing Examination Results 1915-1927 records Marianne successfully passed final Midwifery examination on 18th February 1915 at the Lady Chelmsford Lying –in Hospital Bundaberg. Marianne was Matron of the Gladstone District Hospital and for 16 years Matron of the Yeppoon Hospital.

The Rockhampton Morning Bulletin on Wednesday 5th September 1934. Page 4 Reported on an Evening at the Yeppoon Hospital: “Matron M. Dowling was hostess at an evening held in the nurses' quarters at the Yeppoon Hospital during the week. The function, which proved an enjoyable and financial success, was in aid of the hospital juvenile ball fund.” The Central Queensland Herald Thursday 19 November 1936 recorded her attendance at a Rotary Luncheon in Rockhampton to commemorate Armistice Day. Matron Dowling was succeeded at Yeppoon Hospital by Matron Catherine Annie Toft (ex AANS 1939- 1951).

The Rockhampton Morning Bulletin October 17th 1939 reported: “Death of Miss Marianne Dowling. Many friends in Central Queensland will be grieved to hear of the death of Miss Marianne Dowling, matron of the Yeppoon Hospital, which occurred at a private hospital in Sydney last Saturday.”

The following items were lent by the Rockhampton Country Hospital Museum to the State Library of Queensland for inclusion in Spirit of Anzac Centenary Experience held in Mackay, Queensland July 2016. Badges: Australian Commonwealth Military Forces, AIF Issued by Dept. of Defence Returned from Active Service, Large Returned Sailors & Soldiers Imperial League Australia, Small Returned Sailors & Soldiers Imperial League Australia, Women’s Auxiliary R.S.S.I.L.A. Certificates: General Nurse Certificate Brisbane Hospital 20th October 1911, Australian Nursing Federation Certificate of Registration as a General Nurse18th July 1911, Australian Trained Nurses’ Association Certificate 18th January 1912, Obstetric Nurse Certificate Lady Chelmsford Lying -in Hospital 20th March 1925, Australian Nursing Federation Certificate of Registration as an Obstetric Nurse 12th May 1925.


Mary Ellen FISHER Mary Ellen was born in 1889 in Gladstone, Queensland. The Queensland State Nursing Examination Records 1915-1925 stored by the Queensland State Archives show Mary Ellen passed her Final State Examination at the Brisbane General Hospital.

Service Details: Mary Ellen enlisted in AANS as a Sister at the age of 25 years on 12th June 1915.

She embarked on 14th July 1915 from Melbourne sailing on HMAT A67 “Orsova” serving in France and at the Convalescent Depot, Harefield Park, London, and Special Reinforcements.

“The Lost Hospitals of England” website records the history of the Convalescent Depot, Harefield Park “In November 1914 Mr and Mrs Charles Billyard-Leake, Australians resident in the UK, offered their home, Harefield Park House and its grounds, to the Minister of Defence in Melbourne for use as a convalescent home for wounded soldiers of the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF). The offer was accepted by the Commonwealth Defence Department and the property became the No. 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital in December 1914. It was the only purely Australian hospital in England.”

Award: Royal Red Cross 2nd Class Date of Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: 23 May 1919 Location in Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: Page 889, position 22 Date of London Gazette: 1 January 1919 Location in London Gazette: Page 33, position 5

In July 1919 Sister Fisher served as Sister in Charge on SS “Ypiranga” for her return to Australia. Her appointment was terminated on 5th September 1919. Post War: In July 1919 the Mayor of Gladstone presented Helen with a Certificate thanking her on behalf of the Citizens of Gladstone for her services rendered to her King and Country in the greatest war in history.

Miss Fisher died in Caloundra, Queensland on 5th October 1981 aged 92 years. Her brother Pte Alexander Reginald Fisher 49th Bn, was killed in action, 11th August 1918.

AWM Group portrait of Members of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) most of

whom embarked from Australia on the Orsova during July 1915, outside the Ivanhoe Hotel in London. Sister Fisher is in the 2nd row, 8th from left.


Minnie HOBLER The East Melbourne Historical Society records Minnie was born in 1875, one of eleven children born to her parents who owned a property, 'Bucknalla' at Westwood, approx. 50 kilometers south west of Rockhampton. Minnie trained as a General Nurse at the Brisbane General Hospital from 1904 to 1907 and continued to work for some years at that hospital before moving to Victoria.

Service Details: Just 3 months after war was declared at the age of 40 years and 7 months she joined AANS as a Staff Nurse in November 14th 1914.

Promoted to Sister on 1st December 1915 she embarked on 5th December 1914 aboard HMAT A55 “Kyarra” and sailed to Egypt. Arriving in Cairo she was posted to the Australian General Hospital set up within the Heliopolis Palace Hotel. It was during this time she accompanied wounded soldiers on the "Kyarra" from Egypt to Australia. From Egypt Sister Hobler served in several hospitals in France before becoming ill and was transported to a hospital in London. She returned to Australia aboard SS HMAT A61 No. 2 Australian Hospital Ship “Kanowna” and her appointment was terminated on 24th April 1917.

Award: Mentioned in Despatches 1916, 1914-15, noted in The British Journal of Nursing 1st July 1916 on Page 4

The East Melbourne Historical Society records Sister Hobler’s award was: “For her bravery under fire, when she went into the field to treat the wounded as there were no stretcher bearers. She also recounted carrying a large officer from the field of battle.”

Post War: Following her discharge from AANS Minnie was Matron of Guildford Hospital, Victoria and later as Matron of Gracemere her own private hospital in Melbourne and moved to live in England in 1935. The Central Queensland Herald on Thursday 2nd May 1935 on Page 20 stored on reported: “Tangible appreciation of the effort of the Citizens' Anzac Day Dinner Committee was evidenced yesterday, when six hundred returned nurses, sailors, and soldiers sat down to a complimentary luncheon at the Palais Royal The gathering was a record among gatherings of the kind in Rockhampton. Sister Scully, matron of the Westwood Sanatorium, also responded and wished the Diggers good luck. Other war nurses present were: Sisters M. Maloney (Mrs. J. Houlihan), G. McLaughlin (Mrs. J. Conaghan), M. Hobler, R. Allen, and H. Lawson.”

She died in Kent England in 1962 aged 87 years.

Minnie Hobler (head of the table) Egypt 1915. http://emhs.org.au/person/hobler/minnie


Rose Jane LANGFORD Rose was born in Devon, England and immigrated to Queensland at the age of 4 years. She completed her General Nurse training at the Ipswich General Hospital, Queensland.

Rose was linked to this local area when she was Matron at Mount Morgan, Mount Perry and Mackay Hospitals. She was also Head Sister at Bundaberg Hospital.

In May 1908 while Matron of Mount Morgan Hospital, Dr. J. B. McLean, Secretary, Australian Trained Nurses Association (ATNA) in Brisbane questioned if she was eligible for that position. The saga was well documented in The Capricornian, on Saturday 12th September 1908 on Page 41 when at the monthly meeting of the Mount Morgan Hospital Committee it was agreed to publish all correspondence which had taken place on the subject between the Committee and the Secretary of the Australian Trained Nurses Association.

After fully reviewing Miss Langford's certificates it was decided by ATNA that she had obtained sufficient knowledge needed by a Matron to take charge of a training school, but that it was necessary for her to successfully pass a further examination in Brisbane set down for December to continue with her registration and the Mount Morgan Hospital’s registration as a training school for nurses. This she successfully completed.

Service Details: On 11th November 1914 Rose enlisted as a Staff Nurse in AANS. She was aged 37 years and 3 months and on 21st November 1914 she embarked on HMAT A55 “Kyarra,” one of the first ships to leave Australia for the war zone. Arriving in Cairo she was posted to the Australian General Hospital set up within the Heliopolis Palace Hotel. She served in Egypt and on the Flanders Fields in France and was promoted to Sister on 1st August 1915. Award: Mentioned in Despatches of Brigadier General F.H. G.Cunliffe CMG, 16 March 1916 for her devotion to duty. Located in London Gazette 21 June 1916.

Sister Langford returned to Australia embarking on 14th April 1917 aboard HMAT A37 “Baranbah.” Her appointment was terminated on 13th August 1917. Post War: Sister Langford was on the staff at Kangaroo Point Hospital, Brisbane before being appointed Matron at the Stanthorpe Sanatorium in 1919 and Matron at the Rosemount Repatriation Hospital Brisbane. She married James Walker in 1927 and died in Brisbane in 1935 Aged 56.

AWM Group portrait of the staff of No. 1 Auxiliary Hospital, 1st Australian General Hospital Heliopolis Palace Hotel Cairo 1915. Sister Langford sitting 4th from left in 2nd row from front.


Stella Zita LYONS Searching war records for information can often be confusing. Such is the case in searching the records for AANS Lyons. While most records list her name as Zita Stella, Rupert Goodman in his book “Queensland Nurses Boar War to Vietnam” Boolarong Publications, lists her as Zita Stella Lyons.

Stella stated on her Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad she was born in Rockhampton however no date is recorded.

The Queensland State Nursing Examination Results 1915-1925, stored by Queensland State Archives, show Stella successfully passed the final General Nurse examination however no date is recorded. The record also shows she successfully passed the Midwifery examination in Brisbane on 21st February 1920.

Service Record: Stella joined AANS as a Sister on 11th November 1914, she was 24 years of age. This was the same day Rose Jane Langford enlisted and both embarked on HMAT A55 “Kyarra” on 21st November 1914.

Rupert Goodman records Sister Lyons served in Persia, Palestine, Egypt and in hospital ships off Gallipoli. She nursed wounded during the Gallipoli campaign aboard Hospital ship HMHS “Guildford Castle” and transported soldiers from Suez to Australia and returned aboard HMAT A14 “Euripides.” Returning to Australia her appointment was terminated on 8th March 1917.

Post War: Friends of the Toowong Cemetery Association Inc. “In their caring hands, A heritage trail to commemorate the role of nurses, doctors and health professionals” Version 2b, 25th August 2004, reports Stella was in charge of Queensland’s first radium clinic.

The Brisbane Courier on Thursday 20th June 1918 on Page 11 reported her attendance at a tea party held at the Military Hospital Kangaroo Point in honour of the nurses who returned from the war: “Mention was also made by Mrs. Stodart of the medal to be given by the returned boys to the nurses at the close of the war as their own direct tribute. Miss Chatfield said that if any military nurse, were in need of temporary assistance the matter would be considered on application to the secretary of the A T.N.A. She emphasised that only those directly dealing with the applications knew the names of the applicants. The bulk of the money was for the future provision of the nurses after the war.”

Stella did not marry and died on 26th June 1970. She is buried at the Toowong Cemetery, Brisbane.

Queensland Nurses who embarked on the 'Kyarra' 21 December 1914 from Brisbane

WAR NURSES QARANC Version 1, 2014 Updated October 2016

Nonie (Honorah) MONCKTON

Nonie was born in Rockhampton to parents living in Mount Morgan. Her sister Catherine (Kit) was also an AANS Nurse having completed her General Nurse training at the Rockhampton Hospital. Nonie completed General Nursing training at St. Vincent Hospital Sydney.

Service Details:

Nonie’s Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad, signed when joining AANS on 16th September 1916, shows she was 25 years old and her rank was as a Sister.

Sister Nonie Monckton embarked on 2nd September 1916 in Melbourne on HMAT A14 “Euripides” sailing to India. Following her arrival she served at The Gerard Freeman Thomas Hospital, Bombay and the Deccan War Hospital Poona.

AWM photograph showing The Gerard Freeman Thomas Hospital Bombay, India. c. 1916

which was staffed by Australian Army Nursing Sisters.

Following service in India Sister Monckton boarded HMAT A18 “Wiltshire” for England Serving in hospitals at Dartford and Weymouth.

The Dartford Hospital Histories records: “At the Dartford Hospital the Australian Red Cross took control of the Red Cross Store in April 1917. Every patient able to walk visited the store and was issued with various items to add comfort to his stay. For patients unable to walk the shop visited them once a week to give them cigarettes and chocolate. Every patient was issued with 30 cigarettes a week”.

Sister Monckton’s appointment was terminated due to her marriage in India, on 15 April 1919 to Captain R. Woodside R.A.M.C. She died on 19th November 1949 in Nottinghamshire, England.


Flora Eliza MacDONALD Flora was born in Gladstone in 1875, one of six daughters born to parents at Raglan, Central Queensland. All six were nurses and her sister Sadie Charlotte also served in AANS WW1. Flora completed her General Nurse training at the Bundaberg Hospital.

Service Details: Flora was aged 36 years when she joined AANS as a Staff Nurse on 26th April 1915 and three weeks later, on 15th May, she embarked from Sydney aboard RMS “Mooltan.” Sister MacDonald served in England, France and Egypt.

Her promotion to Sister was announced in The British Journal of Nursing on 3 July 1915, on Page 14. Sister MacDonald returned to Australia on 15th December 1919 on SS “Wahehe.” Her appointment was terminated 15th February 1920.

In a letter to Mrs. Wheeler from Lemnos and printed in the Rockhampton Morning Bulletin Saturday 13th November 1915 and stored on Sister MacDonald writes: “When the nurses arrived they had to sleep on the ground until their beds came. The flies are awful and would drive a saint mad”

Mrs Wheeler, writing from England, and printed in the Capricornian on Saturday 15th April 1916, writes: “I heard from Sister Flora MacDonald this week. She wrote from Cairo and said that they were resting until their new hospital was furnished. They rather missed their tent life at Lemnos and could never forget their experiences there. England has been under snow for several days, and I expect our boys have had some fun snowballing. It was a pretty sight down here, just like the English Christmas cards we get at home — snow scenes, robins, and all but it is very nice to see the sun once more."

Post War: Flora opened a Baby clinic and Health centre in Brisbane and in 1943 was Matron of the Government Clinic in Wynnum, Brisbane. Flora did not marry and died in the 1970s.

. 15th May 1915, SS Mooltan departing Sydney

Australian Nursing Sisters on board Mooltan in 1915


Jean McLaren McGavin

Jean was born on 13th January 1885, in Rockhampton, Queensland.

The Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad shows Jean signed her name as Jean McLaren McGavin however information found on the Australian Nurses in WW1 site previously accessible showed her name as “Jeanie.” http://nurses.ww1anzac.com/mca-mcn.html

Service Details:

Jean was 32 when she enlisted for service abroad on 29th December 1917, having joined AANS as a Staff Nurse on 6th August 1917.

Staff Nurse McGavin embarked on 5th January 1918 sailing from Adelaide aboard HMAT A30 “Borda.”

She served in England and returned to Australia on 29th February 1919 aboard HMAT A67 “Orsova.” Her appointment was terminated on 20th March 1919.

In 1919 Jean married Thomas Barclay Heath and later lived in New Guinea and New Zealand. She died in New Zealand in 1970.


Marjha MILLIGAN

Searching war records for information can often be confusing. Such is the case in searching the records for AANS Milligan. While most records list her name as, Marjha, others show her name as Marjha Electra or Ethel May.

On the Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad she signed her name as “Marjha Milligan.” In her record of service previously found on The Australian Nurses in WW1 site, her name is recorded as “Marjha Electra Milligan aka Ethel May.” shttp://nurses.ww1anzac.com/mi.html

Marjha was born on 24th December 1880 in Rockhampton, Queensland.

Service Details:

When Marjha completed the details on the Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad on 1st December her age was 32 years and 11 months. She also stated she had joined AANS as a Staff Nurse 3 months previously.

Staff Nurse Milligan embarked from Sydney on 9th December 1916 aboard SS “Kaiser-i-Hind.” She served in Egypt and England and was promoted to Sister on 29th December 1918.

Sister Milligan embarked aboard SS “Nile” at Port Said for non-military employment from 26th June 1919 until leave was granted with pay for her to attend the Motor Training Institute in London from 18th July 1919 to 15th September 1919.

She returned to Australia on 23rd January 1920 aboard SS “Lucie Woermann” and her appointment was terminated on 8th March 1920. She died in July 1946.

Marjha Elletra Milligan (Ethel May)

A photograph previously shown on The Australian Nurses in WW1 site shows Sister Milligan in an operating theatre at 14th AGH Cairo


Gertrude Frances MOBERLY Gertrude was born in Gladstone. Service Details: The Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad signed by Gertrude in July 1915 shows she was 35years when she enlisted in AANS as a Sister.

Sister Moberly embarked on 14th July 1915 from Sydney aboard HMRT A67 “Orsova” She served in Bombay, on hospital ships in the Suez, and was temporarily appointed Matron of the Hislop War Hospital, Deccan.

She was then in charge of nursing staff on HMAT A14 “Euripides” returning wounded soldiers to Australia before re-embarking on 5th September 1916 aboard RMS “Kashgar” transporting nursing staff to India.

Her Temporary Matron appointment reverted to Sister when on April 13th 1919 she boarded SS “Castalia” returning to Australia. She was in charge of the nursing staff and disembarked in Sydney on 1st June 1919. Her appointment was terminated on 1st August 1919.

The Australian War Memorial “First World War Conditions” records Matron “Babs” Moberly speaking of her work in the dysentery and malaria wards in Cumballa hospital in Bombay (quoted in Oppenheimer, Australian women and war, p. 30): “Here I am on duty, and Sister-in-Charge of two wards. Oh, these poor men from Mesopotamia! They are only skin and bone, most of the poor men are not long for this world. Why are men allowed to suffer like this? I suppose stone monuments will be erected to their memory “of our glorious dead.” What about the living? The blind, crippled, disfigured and those poor mad men and women.”

Kerry Neale, Australian War Memorial and University of NSW, Canberra publication “Poor devils without noses and jaws: facial wounds of the Great War” writes: “Many nurses at the Queen’s Hospital, however, were painfully affected by the condition of the men treated there. Sister Gertrude Moberly, for example, wrote that, of the 600 men she had seen, there was “not one with a whole face.” After being shown photographs of the men before and after their operations, she was completely overwhelmed: “my stomach turned sick and I left hurriedly. As soon as I was out of sight of the building I sat by the roadside and cried and cried.”

Award: Awarded Royal Red Cross 1st Class Date of Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: 11 December 1919 Location in Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: Page 2379, position 11 Date of London Gazette: 12 September 1919 Location in London Gazette: Page 11463, position 1

Gertrude married James Thomas Hogan. She died on 20th August 1962 in Balmain Sydney.

Where it all began: The Plastic Theatre, Queen Mary's Hospital, 1917.

Photograph from the Gillies Archives from Queen Mary's Hospital.


Gertrude Ada NYE, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR)

Gertrude was born in 1888 in Rockhampton and was one of six children. In 1900 her family moved to Buderim, located on Buderim Mountain in the Queensland Sunshine Coast Hinterland.

Gertrude’s Father, William Nye was an engineer, and as a young man moved from England to be Manager of the Rockhampton Gas Company in Quay Street. He also established the gas works at Mt Morgan.

After working at the Brisbane General Hospital Gertrude travelled to England arriving in London on 25th May 1915.

Service Details:

She enlisted in England on 14th March 1915 as a Staff Nurse in Queen Alexandra`s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve and served in France. Several Australian nurses paid their own fare and sailed to England to join QAIMNSR.

Gertrude embarked on the RNS “Osterley” on 21st May 1919 and returned home to Australia.

An item in the Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday 19th June 1920, Page 16, records her successfully passing the Australian Trained Nurses' Association Obstetric examination.

Gertrude later returned to England to marry Alexander Edmund Knox. Left a widow with two children she returned to Queensland in 1929.

Several of the Nye family enlisted in WW1. Gertrude’s brother William was a marine engineer serving in the British Navy, her brother Leslie enlisted and served in the British Medical Corps, her sister Hilda Esther who also trained as a nurse enlisted in AANS as a Staff Nurse when she was old enough on the 3rd February 1918.

Hilda did not see active service having been posted to 6th Australian General Hospital, Kangaroo Point Brisbane where she was nursing repatriated wounded soldiers at the completion of World War One.

The Nyes Crescent in Buderim is named after the family. Adopt a Digger Project http://www.adoptadigger.org

Hilda Esther Nye on left, Annie Freda Francis Scully Cave in centre. Adopt a Digger Project http://www.adoptadigger.org


Mary Ann O’BRIEN

Mary was born on 25th April 1880 in Rockhampton, Queensland

She completed her General Nurse training at the Longreach Hospital and remained on staff from 1913 to 1916, during which time Matron Henry was in charge. She then moved to Muttaburra and was matron at the hospital until 1917.

Service Details: Aged 37 years Mary enlisted for service abroad on 1st September 1917 having joined AANS as a Staff Nurse on 7th July 1917. Staff Nurse O’Brien embarked aboard HMAT A33 “Ayrshire” on 13th November 1917 and travelled to Ciaro on the same troopship with Matron Henry.

She served at the Citadel Hospital, Ciaro and returned to Australia 28th July 1919 on SS “Essex.” Her appointment was terminated 29th August 1919’ Post War: Mary worked at Enoggera Hospital, Brisbane between 1919 and 1920 at the Boulia Hospital from 1920 to 1925. She died in 1956.

CITADEL HOSPITAL CAIRO: Inspected by Miss Ethel Becher, Principal Matron 7 February 1910

[The National Archives WO24/28] ***

Condition of Wards and Annexes This Hospital, once the Palace of Mahomet Ali, has, I am aware, been condemned by many

Authorities, but the following points may serve to show under what trying circumstances and in what totally unsuitable surroundings the Nursing is being carried out.

“The wards consist of large open pavilions or halls at the head of wide marble staircases,

which it is impossible to keep either comfortably warm, or comfortably cool. At the time of my inspection the thermometer stood at 56°, while in summer it rises to 104° to 108° remaining

up as high as 96° at night. There are large openings high up in the walls covered with mosquito netting through which the desert sand pours into the wards when a high wind is

blowing, in a short time everything, including the patients themselves, is covered with sand, and even with constant sweeping and dusting, what is usually known as cleanliness in a hospital, is an absolute impossibility. These enormous pavilions, which are of very lofty

dimensions, with highly decorated walls and cornices absorbing a considerable amount of light, are at night almost in darkness, the oil lamps provided are of a very inferior pattern and give a very poor light and even when burning at their best, it is impossible for the patients to

read after the daylight has gone.

On windy nights which are not uncommon in Cairo, these lamps are continually being blown out and then the Sisters are reduced to groping about in the dark, or carrying candles to the bedsides; some lamps bought locally are satisfactory, but the future purchase of these was, I understand, stopped by the War Office. I consider that the provision of adequate lighting in

this hospital is from a Nursing point of view an urgent necessity.”


Jane Eliza O’BRIEN

Jane was born on 3rd February 1889 in Rockhampton Queensland.

The Attestation Paper of Persons Enlisted for Service Abroad shows she worked in Port Fairy for 3 years prior to joining AANS.

Service Details:

Jane enlisted when 28 years old for service abroad on 6th July 1917 and embarked from Sydney aboard HMAT A18 “Wiltshire” on 31st August 1917.

Staff Nurse O’Brien served in several hospitals in Salonika, Northern Greece. She was granted leave from 5th May 1919 to 29th July 1919 with pay to attend the National School of Cookery at Buckingham Palace.

She boarded HMAT A11 Ascanius in November 1919 and returned to Australia. Her appointment was terminated on 26th February 1920.

Post War:

In a document written to record the life of Mrs. Rebecca O’Brien, Jane’s Mother, the family wrote that after the war Jane conducted a small private hospital in Albury and later married a hotel owner.

An article in The Catholic Press on Thursday 18th June 1928, Page 37, reported on Jane’s marriage on 18th June 1928 at St. Patrick’s Church, Albury to Henry Carter and that the honeymoon would be spent in Colombo. She had no children and died in 1973 in Albury.

60th General Hospital, “Hortiach”, Salonika 1918, Courtesy of State Library of Western Australia. BA1286/365, 009465D

A popular beach located North of Sarina and south of Mackay in the Whitsunday area of Central Queensland is named, Salonika Beach.


Tessa Evelyn THOMAS (Nee Youngman) Tessa was born in Cheswick, Victoria and completed her General Nurse training at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne. Tessa married Doctor F. M. Thomas in 1902.

Pre War Link: An article in The Brisbane Courier Mail on Friday 12th January 1906, Page 5, reporting on the recent Rockhampton Hospital Committee meeting wrote: “At a meeting of the hospital committee today Dr. F. M. Thomas, formally of the Brisbane Hospital, was appointed Medical Superintendent.”

The Queenslander Newspaper on Saturday 20th March 1909 announced the death of Dr. Thomas in 1909 in Cannes, France reporting: “Dr. Thomas had resigned his position at the Rockhampton General Hospital in November 1908 to visit Europe for the benefit of his health. His death was unexpected.”

On Wednesday 9th August 1916, Page 7, the Sydney Morning Herald reported: “Sister Thomas is well known in Rockhampton. She is the widow of Doctor Thomas who was at one time the Resident Medical Officer at Rockhampton Hospital.”

This allowed Tessa to join AANS as a widow under the “EXTRACT FROM STANDING ORDERS. Syllabus of Qualifications necessary to become Members of the Australian Army Nursing Service, Qualifications of candidates.198.” A candidate for enrolment as a Sister must be between twenty-one and forty years of age, single, or a widow, and have not less than three years' training and service in Medical and Surgical nursing in a duly recognized civil General Hospital. She must be of British parentage or a naturalized British subject.”

Service Details: Tessa was 32 years old when she joined AANS as a Sister on 28th November 1914. The British Journal of Nursing, on 23rd January, 1915, Page 67 noted: “Mrs. Thomas attended a function to farewell 300 army nurses and members of the medical profession at the Grand Hotel Melbourne prior to departing for “the Seat of War in Europe”

Sister Thomas served in Egypt, England and France before returning to Australia in March 1918. Her appointment was terminated on 25th November 1918. Award: Awarded Royal Red Cross (Second Class) Date of Commonwealth of Australia Gazette 21 September 1916 Location in Commonwealth of Australia Gazette2622 Position 65 Date of London Gazette 3 June 1916 Located in London Gazette Page 5602 Position 7

Post War: Tessa opened Hollyrood Private Hospital, Brisbane with her ex AIF friend Eunice Paten. When she married Cyril Fryar Bennett in 1927 her share in the hospital was bought by Miss Paten. Cyril Bennett was Director of the Mount Thompson Memorial Gardens in Brisbane from 1946 to 1962. When Mrs. Bennett died in 1948 and was cremated at the Mount Thompson Memorial Gardens.

Sydney Morning Herald Wednesday 9 August 1916 Page 7


Documents

18 NURSES BORN or KNOWN to have a PRE WAR LINK in ......18 NURSES BORN or KNOWN to have a PRE WAR LINK in the LOCAL AREA Ethel Alice Allchin Catherine Black Annie Fred Frances Cave