(AWM P04397.001) Education Kit - Primary/media/Documents/Learning+resources/… · Zulu War nurse...

‘Nurses: From Zululand to Afghanistan’ - Education kit (Primary) 2014 – Museum of Tropical Queensland

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Sister Pocock in front of the sphinx, Mena, Egypt, c. 1915. (AWM P04397.001)

Education Kit - Primary This Education Kit has been developed by the Museum of Tropical Queensland to provide teachers with resources to plan a successful visit to Nurses: from Zululand to Afghanistan at the Museum of Tropical Queensland from 4th September to 26 October 2014.

Educational materials are included in this kit for a series of pre and post visit lessons linked to the students’ visit. Although the kit is aimed at year 6 History, it has material that could be used for other year levels. It also contains activities linked to the Visual Arts and English curricula. Teachers may copy material in this kit for educational purposes.

Acknowledgements

This Education kit was collated by Claire Speedie, Learning Activities Officer, Museum of Tropical Queensland, using material developed by the Australian War Memorial.

Nurses: from Zululand to Afghanistan is a travelling exhibition produced by the Australian War Memorial.

© Museum of Tropical Queensland 2014


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Contents Page Teachers Notes The exhibition………………………………………………………………………………... 3 Curriculum links……………………………………………………………………………. 5 Activities and background information

In the beginning: Florence Nightingale……………………………………………. 7

Boer War Introduction to the Boer War (1899-1902)…………………. …………… 9 What was it like in the Boer War?.......................................................... 11 Matron “Bessie” Pocock……………………………………...................... 13

First World War Introduction to the First World War (1914-1918)………….. …………… 17 What was it like in the First World War?............................................... 20 Sister Rachael Pratt……………………………………………………….. 23

Second World War Introduction to the Second World War (1939-1945)……………………. 27 What was it like in the Second World War?.......................................... 29 Sister “Betty” Jeffrey………………………………………….……………. 32

Nurses’ activities

Online activities…………………………………………………................. 38 Examine the source online activity…………………………. …………… 40 Nurses’ uniforms and activities……………………………… …………… 41 We served too………………………………………………………………. 45 Nurses in art………………………………………………………………… 48 Nurses in poetry……………………………………………………………. 51 We will remember them…………………………………………………… 53

Glossary…………………………………………………………………………………….. 56 Educational resources……………………………………………………………………. 58 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………… 60


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Teacher Notes

Australian nurses have been going to war for well over 100 years, but their important contribution to Australia’s overseas military operations often goes unreported.

Nurses: from Zululand to Afghanistan explores the involvement of nurses from the first known Australian in the Zulu War of 1879, right up to the experiences of the male and female nurses serving in recent conflicts and peace keeping operations.

The exhibition highlights the personal stories of Army, Air Force and Navy nurses who have served overseas; their difficulties and challenges, along with their determination to care for the sick and wounded come what may.

Nurses: from Zululand to Afghanistan is on display at the Museum of Tropical Queensland, 70-102 Flinders Street, Townsville from 4th September to 26th October 2014.

Visits to Nurses: from Zululand to Afghanistan may be either Museum staff or teacher led.

Costs

Self-led visits to the exhibition are free to schools in the Townsville, Burdekin, Hinchinbrook and Charters Towers council areas.

Led programs are $5.50 per student for schools in the Townsville, Burdekin, Hinchinbrook and Charters Towers council areas and $7.50 per student for all other schools.

Teachers, carers and accompanying adults at a ratio of 1:5 for school groups will be admitted free of charge. Groups may opt to pay prior to their visit, pay on the day of the visit, or be invoiced on the day of the visit for the number of students attending.

The Exhibition

Nurses: from Zululand to Afghanistan uses personal stories and first person accounts, photographs and artefacts, including medals and uniforms to tell the story of nurses in war. The exhibition is divided into the following themes:

Zulu War nurse (and Royal Red Cross (medal))

Boer War nurses - including the first Australian military nurse to die during overseas service Great War nurses - in Belgium, Egypt, Britain, France, Gallipoli, the Western Front, India and Greece Second World War nurses - in the middle East, Greece, Crete, New Guinea and the islands - in Australia, including a nurse who survived the sinking of the Centaur off Moreton Island,

Queensland - Air Force and Naval nursing services - Flying angels – Medical Air Evacuation Transport Unit - Nurses in captivity – in prison camps in Rabaul, Sumatra and Japan


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Cold War nurses - Posted to occupied Japan after World War Two - Vietnam War Military nursing today - Rwanda and Afghanistan conflicts - humanitarian aid in the Pacific - peacekeeping operations

Sister Sybil Fletcher shortly after arrival in the Middle East in 1940 (AWM, 000924)


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Curriculum links The Nurses: from Zululand to Afghanistan exhibition and activities in this Education kit have direct links to the year 6 Australian History curriculum and links to the Visual Arts and English curricula.

The year 6 history curriculum theme of ‘Australia as a nation’ moves from colonial Australia to the development of Australia as a nation, particularly after 1900. The content provides opportunities to develop historical understanding through key concepts – including sources, continuity and change, cause and effect, perspectives, empathy and significance. Year 6 Historical Knowledge and Understanding Australia as a nation Elaborations Experiences of Australian democracy and citizenship, including the status and rights of Aboriginal people and/or Torres Strait Islanders, migrants, women, and children. (ACHHK114)

• investigating the stories of individuals or groups who advocated or fought for fights in twentieth-century Australia

The contribution of individuals and groups, including Aboriginal people and/or Torres Strait Islanders, to the development of Australian society, for example in areas such as the economy, education, science, the arts, sport. (ACHHK116)

• considering notable individuals in Australian public life across a range of fields at one or more points of time in the past and today, using digital technologies to process and record this data

Historical Skills

Chronology, terms and concepts

Elaborations

Sequence historical people and events. (ACHHS117)

• placing key events, ideas, movements and people of the twentieth century in chronological sequence

• use timelines to describe past events and changes

• identifying and developing a timeline of world unrest that contributed to migration in the 1900s (for example the World Wars, the Vietnam War, the war in the former Yugoslavia, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the war in Sudan)

Use historical terms and concepts. (ACHHS118)

• using historical terms and concepts related to the content such as ‘democracy’, ‘federation’, ‘empire’, ‘immigration’, ‘heritage’, ‘diversity’, ‘enfranchisement, ‘suffrage’

Historical questions and research

Elaborations

Identify and locate a range of relevant sources. (ACHHS120)

• using internet search engines, museums, library catalogues and indexes to find material relevant to an enquiry

• identifying community or family members who migrated to Australia and conducting an interview to learn about their experiences


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Analysis and use of resources

Elaborations

Locate information related to enquiry questions in a range of sources. (ACHHS121)

• finding relevant historical information in primary and secondary sources

Compare information from a range of sources. (ACHHS122)

• examining a range of sources of evidence to identify similarities and/or differences, and describe what they reveal about the past

Perspectives and interpretation

Elaborations

Identify points of view in the past and present. (ACHHS123)

• analysing the language used in sources to identify values and attitudes

• analysing sources to identify persuasive techniques such as modality, and the use of the passive voice to cover a lack of sources

Explanation and communication

Elaborations

Develop texts, particularly narratives and descriptions, which incorporate source materials. (ACHHS124)

• developing narratives based on information identified from a range of sources

• combining literary and informational language, evocative language and complex narrative structures and factual vocabulary, and simple and compound sentence structures

• composing historical texts (for example information reports, expository texts, persuasive texts, recounts, biographies)

Use a range of communication forms (oral, graphic, written) and digital technologies. (ACHHS125)

• developing charts, graphs, tables, digital presentations, written and oral presentations to explain the past using ICTs

• creating a digital story, using text, images and audio/visual material


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In the beginning: Florence Nightingale

When Florence Nightingale was a young woman, she

longed to be a nurse, but her parents refused to give

their permission. In early nineteenth-century Britain,

hospitals were seen as filthy, dangerous places, and

nurses as people you wouldn’t want to know as

unsavoury characters. Florence was determined to

change this perception.

In 1853, as British military medicine was proving

inadequate in the fighting at the Crimean War, Florence

volunteered her services. Over the four-year course of

the war, Florence led hospital staff in caring for

thousands of wounded and sick soldiers.

When Florence and 38 British nurses arrived in the

Crimea, conditions were much worse than they had

expected. Infection was rife and stores had either not

arrived or had been lost at sea. Florence immediately

recognised that the hospitals needed to be properly

managed, and she often worked 20-hour days to

achieve this. At night Florence would walk the hospital

corridors, caring for her patients. She was given the

affectionate nickname, “The Lady with the Lamp”.

After returning to Britain, Florence demanded an

investigation into the military hospitals and the health of

the army. Money donated by the general public was

used to establish the first organised training school for nurses, the Nightingale Training

School at St Thomas’ Hospital, London.

Activity

More than 40 nurses

have been awarded the

Florence Nightingale

Medal (see next page).

Go to the Australian War

Memorial website:

www.awm.gov.au.

Research one of the

following nurses:

Olive Paschke, Evelyn

Conyers or Vivian

Bullwinkel.

What did they do to earn

the Florence Nightingale

medal?

If you would like to know

more about Florence

Nightingale, go to:

http://www.florence-

nightingale.co.uk/cms/


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In her later life Florence researched and campaigned about health problems. She wrote

over 200 reports, pamphlets, and books on nursing and hospital organisation, which

had a profound effect in Britain and across the world.

Florence’s ideas on nursing were ahead of her time and changed society’s approach to

nursing for ever. Perhaps her greatest achievement was to take the first step in making

nursing a respectable profession for women.

In 1907 the Hungarian Red Cross Society proposed that a world-wide tribute be paid to

Florence Nightingale in the form of a special medal for women who had distinguished

themselves in the noble mission of caring for the sick and wounded.

In 1992, the International Committee of the Red Cross changed the criteria for awarding

the Florence Nightingale Medal so that both male and female nurses could receive it.

Florence Nightingale Medal posthumously1 awarded to Matron Olive Paschke, 2/10th

Australian General Hospital. Matron Paschke drowned, along with 32 other Australian

nurses, when the SS Vyner Brooke was sunk by Japanese bombers in the Banka Strait

on 14 February 1942. (AWM REL25108.006) 1 See glossary for meaning


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Introduction to the Boer War (1899–1902)

The Boer War begins...

When the Boer War broke out, the

NSWANSR was still the only nursing

service in Australia. Many were sceptical

about the use of military nurses, who were

criticised for being “in the way” during

warfare because they had little or no

experience in treating battle wounds. This

criticism was soon silenced with early

defeats for the British Army and the

recognition of the need for good health

care. The War Office soon decided to

recruit nurses and send them to South

Africa.

Sixty nurses, drawn from across Australia,

went to the Boer War. Military regulations

required these nurses to be between the

ages of 25 and 40, unmarried and from

middle-class families. They were not all

paid for by the government. Many were

sponsored by privately raised funds, while

others paid their own way.

Once the nurses reached South Africa,

they worked in general hospitals, smaller

“stationary hospitals” near the front line,

hospital trains or hospital ships, which

transported recovering troops to Britain.

They nursed the wounded and treated

The Boer War

The Boer War, which began in October

1899, was fought between Britain and

her Empire (including Australia) and

the Boers (white farmers). The war

arose out of opposition to British

administration of the Cape Colony, and

was technically the Second Boer War,

the first having been fought in 1880–

81.

[Information taken from Craig Wilcox,

“Origins of the Boer War” in Wartime,

Issue 8.

http://www.awm.gov.au/wartime/8/articl

es/origins_boer.pdf]

Who were the Boers?

The Boers were descendants of Dutch,

French Huguenot, and English

colonists who settled in South Africa.

Today South Africans of Dutch descent

are usually called Afrikaners.

Surrendered Boers, c. 1902. (AWM

P00093.009)


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diseases such as typhoid, often becoming ill themselves. One nurse, Sister Frances

“Fanny” Hines, did not return home; she died of disease in South Africa.

By the end of the war, the contribution of nurses was beginning to be acknowledged.

Even General Sir George White, who had earlier rejected offers of assistance from

civilian nurses, eventually praised them.

Nursing in the Boer War

Despite the need for good health care in the Crimean War and the success of Florence

Nightingale and others, the contribution of nurses in war

was still seriously undervalued at the end of the

nineteenth century.

Nevertheless, Queen Victoria, a good friend of Florence

Nightingale, supported the development of a Nursing

Service by 1861. In 1883, she established the Royal Red

Cross, the first honour medal exclusively for women. By

1897 a British Army Nursing Service Reserve was

established, with the War Office in charge, which gave

nurses immediate recognition.

In Australia

In 1899, inspired by the formation of the British Army

Nursing Service Reserve, Major General George French

supported the development of the New South Wales

Army Nursing Service Reserve (NSWANSR). Twenty-

four nurses, each with over seven years’ nursing

experience, were selected by Matron Nellie Gould. They

undertook military training and were given uniforms and

an annual allowance. The NSWANSR was the first army

nursing service in Australia.

Activity

Three Australian nurses were

awarded the Royal Red

Cross for their service in the

Boer War. Who were these

nurses and why were they

awarded the Royal Red

Cross?

Royal Red Cross medal. This

one belonged to Matron Alice

Cooper who served on board

the Hospital Ship Karoola.

(AWM REL29121)


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What was it like in the Boer War?

Medical staff at a refugee nursing camp in the

Orange River Colony, South Africa, 1901–02

(AWM P03558.001)

Medical staff and patients in a hospital ward, possibly in Bulawayo, Rhodesia (now

Zimbabwe), c. 1900. The ward, with its bare earth floor, is decorated with flowers and

framed portraits in an attempt to brighten up the primitive conditions. (AWM

P04544.011)

Imagine being left alone on

the veldt in a Boer farm with

your patients, far from

assistance, hearing no news,

and knowing nothing of what

was happening. My hut was

built of clay with a roof of

reeds. There were no drugs

other than those I had with

me and no medical aid

available. All treatment was

left entirely in my hands.

Altogether I had thirty

patients ... and thirteen at

one time. Seven in one small

tent on the ground with a

macintosh sheet underneath.

Julia Anderson in Jan

Bassett, Guns and brooches,

Oxford University Press,

Melbourne, 1992, pp. 20–21


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Medical staff in Rhodesia, c. 1900. Sister Fanny

Hines is seated far left. She died in 1900 and was

buried with full military honours in Bulawayo

cemetery. (AWM P04544.003)

Activities

Three Australian nurses were awarded the Royal

Red Cross for their service in the Boer War. Who

were they? What did they do to earn this award? Present your findings to the class.

Our nursing sisters were the

only sisters who ventured into

these districts, and they have

indeed done more than their

share of work. At times one,

sometimes two, would be

trekked off on a week’s

coaching journey to some fever

bed where the troops are falling

ill, with possibly no

accommodation but a deserted

public house. I have seen two

sisters on their knees scrubbing

and cleaning such a place to

receive their patients, and in the

middle of their work 10 or 12

sick and dying men dumped

down from an ox wagon. The

nurses would be obliged to take

off some of their own clothing to

make pillows for sick men, and

then go outside to cook food

under a blazing sun.

R. L. Wallace, The Australians

at the Boer War, Australian War

Memorial, Canberra, 1976, pp.

249–50.

The health of some was affected. One

of the Victorians, Fanny Hines, “died

of an attack of pneumonia contracted

in devotion to duty. She was quite

alone with as many as twenty-six

patients at one time, no possibility of

assistance or relief, and without

sufficient nourishment”.

Julia Anderson in Bassett, Guns and

brooches, p. 24.


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Look at the above photographs and quotes. What was it like for nurses in the Boer

War? How did they cope with these conditions?


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Matron Bessie Pocock

I am so anxious to go to the front. I want to be in the thick of the excitement.

AWM PR 05050

Nurses and service personnel outside

a hospital building in South Africa in

1900. Bessie is seated second from

the left. (AWM P01840.003)

Anne Mary “Bessie” Pocock

Anne Mary Pocock was born into a farming

family on 20 July 1863 in Dalby, Queensland.

Known as Bessie, she worked for many years as

a domestic servant before beginning her nursing

training at Sydney Hospital at the age of 27.

Once her training was complete, Pocock joined

the hospital staff as a Sister. Years later, when

the Boer War began, she quickly joined the

NSWANSR and proudly followed the British flag

into service in South Africa. The NSWANSR arrived in 1900 and Bessie was posted to No.

2 British Stationary Hospital in East London, South Africa. It was housed in an old

agricultural show building, where conditions were primitive. In her diary, Pocock wrote:

Fast facts:

New South Wales Army Nursing

Service Reserve (NSWANSR)

In 1900, led by Matron Nellie

Gould, 14 nurses from the

NSWANSR, including Bessie

Pocock, served in South Africa with

the New South Wales Army

Medical Corps. To be eligible for

the NSWANSR, women were to be

well-educated, middle class,

unmarried and aged between 25

and 40.

Just 3 huge rooms, 2 with boards on the floor. We had about 500 patients in

a very little time. It was very hot here, the building all covered with

corrugated iron, flies very bad, everyone required mosquito nets.

AWM PR 05050


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Pocock went on to serve closer to the front, first in Johannesburg, then at Middelburg in

the Transvaal, where she was Sister-in-Charge. Here she treated wounded and ill

soldiers until she herself contracted typhoid in May 1902. She was invalided to Britain.

For her service in the Boer War, Pocock was Mentioned in Despatches and was

awarded the Queen’s and the King’s South Africa medals, which she highly cherished.

She was also the envy of her nursing colleagues when she attended the coronation

procession in London on 9 August 1902.

The King’s and Queen’s

South Africa medals; the

former belonged to Corporal

P. Nicholson and the latter

to Private C. Cooke. (AWM

REL17286.002; AWM

REL/11942)

When Pocock returned home in 1903, Australia was an independent nation, formed as

a federation. A decision had been made to have one unified nursing service, and

Bessie was one of the Boer War nurses who joined the Australian Army Nursing

Service Reserve (AANSR) in the period before the First World War.


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Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS)

The AANS began as a reserve in 1903 and its members served with distinction in the

First World War. To be eligible to join, a woman had to be a registered nurse, preferably

with some years’ experience, aged between 25 and 35, and not married.

Sister Pocock in front of the sphinx, Mena, Egypt, c. 1915. (AWM P01840.010)

Second time around

With the outbreak of the First World War, Pocock again enlisted, first with 1 Field

Artillery Brigade (FAB), then as a nursing sister with 2 Australian General Hospital,

Australian Army Nursing Service. She served in hospitals with the Australian Imperial

Force (AIF) in Cairo and Ismailia in Egypt, then became matron on board the Hospital

Ship Assaye. She went on to serve in France, Belgium and England. On 2 May Pocock

was awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross for her nursing service; she was later

twice mentioned in despatches.

Associate Royal Red Cross medal. This one

was awarded to Head Sister Emma Cuthbert

in 1919. (RELAWM15022.001)


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After the war

When she reached home, Pocock returned to her role as matron at Gladesville Hospital

in Sydney. Later she opened her own private hospital, Ismailia, in Chatswood. In her

retirement she remained an active member of both the Australasian Trained Nurses’

Association, of which she became a life member, and the AANS. Pocock never married

and lived with her nieces until her death on 16 July 1946. Her niece Margaret lovingly

copied her diaries by hand for future generations to read.

Matron Pocock (second from left)

outside Buckingham Palace after

receiving her Associate Royal Red

Cross medal, London, 1919. (AWM

P01840.016)

Activities

Imagine you could interview Bessie Pocock. What would you want to know about her

experiences as a nurse? As a woman?

How do you think she would answer your questions? Consider the era, the role of

women, and her personality. How might these answers help to build up a picture of her

life?

Create a timeline of Pocock’s life, highlighting important dates.

Would you like to know more?

http://www.bwm.org.au/site/Nurses.asp

http://www.bwm.org.au/site/Boer_War_Medals.asp

For your information

The Royal Red Cross is

awarded in two levels – First

Class (RRC) and Second

Class or Associate (ARRC)


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Introduction to the First World War (1914–18)

The First World War began in late July and early

August 1914. For Australia, it began with the

British declaration of war on Germany and its

allies on 4 August. Australian Prime Minister

Andrew Fisher pledged full support for Britain, and

the nation appeared to welcome this decision with

enthusiasm.

Nursing in the First World War

More than 3,000 Australian civilian nurses

volunteered for active service during the First

World War. Nursing allowed them to take part in

the war effort, and also provided opportunities for

independence and travel, sometimes with the

hope of being closer to loved ones serving

overseas.

The Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) had

been formed in July 1903 as part of the Australian

Army Medical Corps. During the war more than

2,000 of its members served overseas alongside

Australian nurses working with other

organisations, such as Queen Alexandra’s

Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS), the

Red Cross, or privately sponsored facilities.

The women worked in hospitals, on hospital ships

and trains, or in casualty clearing stations closer

to the front line. They served in places from Britain

to India, including France and Belgium, the

The Gallipoli landing

On 25 April 1915, Australian

troops, along with troops from

New Zealand, Britain and France,

landed on the Gallipoli peninsula

in Turkey. An attempt by the navy

to force their way through the

Straits of the Dardanelles had

earlier failed. The Gallipoli landing

was the beginning of an eight-

month campaign to the secure the

Straits; it ended in failure with the

evacuation of troops in December

1915.

An Australian digger uses a

periscope in a trench captured

during the attack on Lone Pine,

Gallipoli, 1915. (AWM A03771)


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Mediterranean, and the Middle East. Many of them were decorated, with eight receiving

the Military Medal for bravery. Twenty-five died during their service.

During the four years of this war, nurses took on

increasingly complex roles, and often had to

make split-second decisions. As indispensable

team members in busy operating theatres, they

kept entire operations running smoothly. They

had a unique role in the war. On the one hand,

they cleaned and dressed wounds, performed

minor surgery and administered treatment – often

in squalid conditions, in difficult climates and

environments. They were usually understaffed

and short of supplies, sometimes under threat of

attack, and constantly fighting off exhaustion and

sickness themselves. On the other hand, they

were also expected to be feminine and cheerful,

a “sweetheart and mother” to every patient.

Patients and nurses often became friends, and

nurses frequently wrote to the families of the men

who died while under their care.

By war’s end, having faced the dangers and

demands of wartime nursing and taken on new

responsibilities and practices, nurses had proved

to be essential to military medical service.

The Western Front

After Gallipoli, the Australians went

on to fight in campaigns on the

Western Front and in the Middle

East. The Western Front was two

opposing lines of trenches where

the Australians, New Zealanders,

British and French dug in to block

the advance of the German army

into France. During 1916 and 1917

there were heavy losses on the

Western Front and little success.

In July 1918, however, the

Australians reached the peak of

their fighting performance in the

battle of Hamel and the series of

decisive advances that resulted in

Germany’s surrender on 11

November.


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The first Australian hospital ship

Just days after war was declared in August 1914,

the Royal Australian Navy requisitioned the

passenger ship Grantala. Following its conversion

into a hospital ship, seven nurses from Sydney’s

Royal Prince Alfred Hospital joined its medical

team. For four months the Grantala accompanied

the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary

Force, and its nurses treated a small number of

patients from action with the Germans at Rabaul

and Suva.

Sick bay staff of HMAS Grantala, 1914. (AWM

302802)

Activity

Use the Memorial’s website to research ONE of the nurses who were awarded the

Military Medal. You may wish to research Alicia Kelly, Alice Ross King, Mary Jane

Derrer, Pearl Corkhill or another of the eight Military Medal recipients. Use PowerPoint

to tell your nurse’s story to the class.

Middle East

Beginning in 1916, the Middle East

campaign centred on the defence of

the Suez Canal and the reconquest

of the Sinai peninsula. In 1917

Australian and other allied troops

advanced into Palestine and

captured Gaza and Jerusalem. By

1918 they had occupied Lebanon

and Syria. On 30 October 1918

Turkey offered to make peace.

The First World War remains the

most costly conflict for Australia.

From a population of fewer than 5

million, 416,809 enlisted, of whom

more than 60,000 were killed and

156,000 wounded, gassed, or taken

prisoner.

For more information

http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww1.

asp


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What was it like in the First World War?

Washing day at the nurses’ quarters at the 60th

Australian General Hospital, near Salonica,

Greece, 1917. (AWM C04337)

A nurse with the 1st Australian Auxiliary

Hospital in the carriage of a hospital train,

Denham, Buckinghamshire, 1916. (AWM P02402.004)

Salonica

[Sister Gertrude Munro] was

put straight into hospital for sick

sisters. She had a bad

combination, pneumonia and

M.T. [malignant tertiary] Malaria

which is very hard to fight.

Being a strong healthy woman,

we hoped against hope she

might win through, but alas it

was not to be.

Jessie McHardie White, 2

December 1918, Red Cross

Wounded and Missing Enquiry

files, AWM 2 DRL 0509

Hospital train, France

Patients lying everywhere in the

grounds of the clearing station, the

walking wounded were in hundreds

and were fighting to get on the train,

they had to be kept back by a

Guard to enable the [stretcher]

bearers to get the more serious

cases on the train.

Sister Leila Smith speaks of her

experience on No. 15 Ambulance

Train, 1916. AWM 41 6/49


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Matron Margaret Grace Wilson “does a round” in

Lemnos, Greece, 1915. (AWM A05332)

Sister Mary Jane Derrer of the 2nd

Australian Casualty Clearing Station,

France, 1917. She was one of eight

Australian nurses awarded the Military

Medal during the war. (AWM

P00156.071)

Lemnos

Had a desperately hard time at

Lemnos with food, tents, mud and

sickness, as well as great troubles

with Colonel Fiaschi, who treated

Nurses shamefully – No

consideration whatever ... I believe

the Hospital would have collapsed

but for the Nurses. They all worked

like demons.

Lieutenant General R.H.J.

Fetherston, AWM 3DRL 251

France I arrived at the C.C.S. [casualty clearing

station] about 10 am.The next few days

was a continuous stream of wounded

each one seemingly as bad as could be.

Eight theatre teams working day and

night yet it seemed impossible to cope

with things; and the men were such

bricks, lying on their stretchers waiting

for their turn on the operating table. One

realised this was war indeed. If one had

time to think we would have just been

weeping hysterical women but we’d only

time to do.

Sister Belstead in A.G. Butler (ed.) The

Australian Army Nursing Service, Vol. 3:

Official History of the Australian Army

Medical Services, 1914–1918,

Australian War Memorial, Canberra,

1940, p. 557.


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Patients and nurses at Colaba War Hospital make

Christmas decorations on the verandah of the ward.

Members of the AANS served at the hospital mainly

treating patients from the British garrisons in

Bombay [Mumbai], India, 1917. (AWM P07133.006)

Activity

Examine the above photographs and quotes, which illustrate the conditions nurses

faced during the First World War. Imagine you are a nurse in one of these

environments. Write a journal entry or letter describing your experiences.

India

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.

Matron “Babs” Moberly

speaking of her work in the

dysentery and malaria wards

in Cumballa hospital in

Bombay, today known as

Mumbai (quoted in

Oppenheimer, Australian

women and war, p. 30).


24

Sister Rachael Pratt MM

A most charming lady, well-spoken and highly regarded by all those who came under

her care.

Merrilyn Lincoln, “Pratt, Rachel (1874–1954)”, Australian dictionary of biography

Sister Rachael Pratt MM, 1918. (AWM

P05664.001)

Rachael Pratt

Born near Heywood, Victoria, on 18 July 1874, Rachael Pratt was the ninth child of

farmers William and Phoebe, both originally from England. She attended Mumbannar

State School, then after the death of both her parents, she moved in with one of her

brothers, living with him for many years.

Always an independent spirit, in 1909 Pratt decided to begin nursing training at Ballarat

Hospital. To be accepted into the course, she said she was 31, not 35. She received

her certificate in August 1912 and just two months later was employed at the Royal

Women’s Hospital in Melbourne.


25

Nurse Pratt

With the onset of the First World War, Rachael decided to serve her country. Aged 41

at the time, she enlisted as a staff nurse in the AANS in May 1915 and was posted to

the 3rd Australian General Hospital; she embarked for Britain aboard RMS Moolton.

Three months later, Rachael was transferred to the Greek island of Lemnos, where

equipment was in short supply. As the wounded soldiers from Gallipoli poured into the

hospital, she described a complete “state of chaos” there. Dysentery, gangrene and

frostbite were common ailments. Pratt recalled an early experience in which she was

forced to dress the wounds of Turkish prisoners while they were all under armed guard.

The nurses nevertheless organised the hospital so that it was operating effectively.

Only two per cent of their patients died.

Pratt went on to work for a short time in Egypt, before being posted to the 1st Australian

Casualty Clearing Station (1ACCS) in France. In the early hours of 4 July 1915, 1ACCS

was attacked from the air. Pratt was busy nursing a patient when the shrapnel from a

bomb burst through the tent, puncturing her lung and tearing through her back and

shoulder. Despite her injuries, she remained calm, and when the attack ended she went

on treating her patients. Soon, however, the pain of her injuries and the loss of blood

caught up with her, and she collapsed. She was evacuated to Britain for treatment and

convalescence.

Pratt’s experience was detailed in a number of Australian newspapers at the time,

including The West Australian, which reported on Tuesday 14 August 1917:

To Rachael Pratt belongs the distinction of having been the first and only

Australian nurse to be wounded in the present war. It was while ministering

to wounded soldiers in an advanced casualty clearing station in France that

Sister Pratt was herself struck by a German bullet ... she is progressing

favourably.


26

Sister Pratt’s medal group (left to

right): Military Medal, 1914–15

Star, British War medal, and

Victory Medal. (AWM

REL/05769.001)

Sister Pratt MM

For “conspicuous gallantry displayed in the performance of her duties” Pratt was

promoted to the rank of sister and was awarded the Military Medal. This award had only

just been extended to include women, in June 1916, and Pratt was one of only eight

Australian nurses to receive it during the First World War.

After spending time in a hospital in England, Rachael returned to duty and nursed until

the end of the war. In October 1918, she returned home to Melbourne and was

discharged from the AIF in April 1919. With shrapnel still in her lung, Rachael suffered

from chronic bronchitis until her death on 23 March 1954, aged 79. She never married.

For more information:

Australian War Memorial: www.awm.gov.au.

Merrilyn, Lincoln, “Pratt, Rachel (1874–1954)”, Australian dictionary of biography,

National Centre of Biography, Australian National University:

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/pratt-rachel-8099/text14137 (accessed 8

November, 2011)

National Library of Australia: http://trove.nla.gov.au/.


27

Activities

What do Sister Pratt’s experiences tell you about the nature of nursing during

the First World War? Would this have changed over time? How/why?

What does Pratt’s response to the bombing attack tell you about the qualities

of many nurses who served during the First World War? How does this

compare to the soldiers who served? Are the same qualities required?

How/why?

Use the websites below to find out more about Rachael Pratt’s life. Write a

letter, poem or script describing her early life, her experiences during the air

raid, or her life once she returned home to Australia after the war.


28

Introduction to the Second World War (1939–45)

Australia’s involvement in the Second World War

began on 3 September 1939. Almost one million

Australians, both men and women, served in the

Second World War in the three services: army,

navy and air force. They fought against Germany

and Italy in Europe, the Mediterranean and North

Africa, as well as against Japan in south-east

Asia and other parts of the Pacific.

During the war Australia came under attack for

the first time, as Japanese aircraft bombed towns

in north-west Australia and midget submarines

attacked Sydney Harbour.

Germany surrendered in early May 1945, and on

2 September Japan formally surrendered. Over

30,000 Australian servicemen had been taken

prisoner during the war and 39,000 Australians

had given their lives. While those who had been

prisoners of the Germans had a strong chance of

returning home at the end of the war, around one

in three prisoners of the Japanese died in

captivity.

For more information: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww2.asp

Members of the 2/18th Battalion,

AIF, who had been prisoners of

war of the Japanese, shown here

in Changi prison, Singapore, just

after the end of the war.

(AWM 117022)


29

Nursing during the Second World War

After the First World War, some nurses married and left the workforce; others took over

the care of family members incapacitated by the war. Some retrained in jobs away from

nursing, but many continued to work in hospitals, often in senior positions.

When the Second World War broke out, nurses again volunteered, motivated by a

sense of duty and a desire to “do their bit”. Eventually, some 5,000 Australian nurses

served in a variety of locations, including the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Britain,

Asia, the Pacific, and Australia. Seventy-eight died, some through accident or illness,

but most as a result of enemy action or while prisoners of war.

At first, the AANS was the only women’s service. The Royal Australian Air Force

Nursing Service (RAAFNS) was formed in 1940, and the Royal Australian Navy Nursing

Service (RANNS) in 1942. But the AANS remained by far the largest, and also made up

the bulk of those who served overseas.

By the end of the war, nursing sisters had been commissioned as officers, although

many were reluctant to give up their traditional titles of “sister” and “matron”. They were

yet to be given the same status and pay as male officers.

The changing role of women

The Second World War saw considerable change for women in Australia and overseas.

During the early years of the war, Australian women were generally not given the

opportunity to make a significant contribution to the war. However, labour shortages

soon forced the government to allow women a more active role. Women’s divisions

within the three services – army, navy and air force – were soon established, and the

male-dominated spheres of farming and factory work were soon available to women on

the home front. This opened up new opportunities for women.


30

What was it like in the Second World War?

Four nursing sisters of the 2/11th AGH (Australian

General Hospital), standing knee-deep in water

outside a tent, New Guinea, 1945. The Aitape

River had flooded during the night while the women

slept, and they awoke to discover deep water

running through their tents. (AWM P02749.001)

Amber Bushell, VAD (Voluntary Aid

Detachment) in the wet weather at Kilo

89 camp, Gaza, Palestine, 1942.

(AWM P02480.008)

Papua New Guinea

The sisters’ lines were tents pitched

in a paddock opposite the hospital

and we had to dig ditches on all four

sides to prevent us from being

washed out as the rain was so

continuous. Our treks from quarters

to ward were made wearing ground

sheets and gum boots.

Sister Frances Aldom; quoted in

Bassett, Guns and brooches, p.

160.

Gaza Ridge, Palestine

When equipment was first opened, I am

told many hearts sank. It was obvious

that many instruments were out of date

and certainly not serviceable. For a time

there was NO water connected to the

tents (wards). So we, sisters, orderlies,

and up patients [who could walk] carried

buckets of water from a central tap –

Primus stoves were used to heat water,

or some “quaint” sterilizers called fish

kettles were placed on two primus

stoves to boil or sterilize instruments.

Sister Joan Paige, Nurse 2/1st AGH;

quoted in Bassett, Guns and brooches,

pp. 115–16.


31

Australian nurses and their patients at a

military hospital in Singapore after a bombing,

1942. (AWM 012451)

Three nurses avoid air raids in a

cemetery in Greece, 1941.

(AWM 087663)

Singapore

Last night just after midnight the

hospital was bombed. I was

standing beside the bed of one of

my patients giving him a dose of

pain-killing mixture. All the glass

doors and windows were blown

inwards showering the patients in

broken glass. My first job was to do

a quick round of all the patients to

make sure that no one was cut, then

cleared the beds of broken glass

and got the men back in bed.

Sister Sara Baldwin- Wiseman;

quoted in Bassett, Guns and

brooches, p. 137.

Athens, Greece

All was a total shambles! The corridors were

lined each side with patients on mobile

stretchers, and the wards were crammed. Many

of the patients were still clad in their soggy battle

dress, from action in snow country in the North.

Supplies of all sorts desperately short—no

linen—very little medication of any sort, and

even food in short supply. One ward with at least

twenty amputation patients, and not a torniquet

anywhere. At least every second night a convoy

of 300 would come in, and often the same

number of fatalities would go out.

Sister Margaret Barnard of the 26th British

General Hospital; quoted in Bassett, Guns and

brooches, p. 122.


32

Sister Elizabeth Bray and a nursing orderly,

members of the RAAF Nursing Service,

attached to No. 1 Medical Air Evacuation

Transport Unit (MAETU), RAAF, attend to

patients during a flight from New Guinea to

Australia, c. 1944. (AWM OG3345)

Nurse attending a patient in ward 1 at 2/2

Casualty Clearing Station, Borneo, 1945.

(AWM 112432)

Activity

Imagine you are one of the nurses in these

images. Write a journal entry or a letter

describing your experiences. If you are

writing a letter, what would you want your

family to know? What couldn’t you tell

them? Why?

Lae, New Guinea

The workload on only 15 sisters was

heavy, with each Sister flying

approximately 75 hours per month.

Sister Nancy Read; quoted in Gay

Halstead, Story of the RAAF

Nursing Service 1940– 1990,

Nungurner Press, Metung, Vic.,

1994, p. 211.

Port Moresby

Nursing in the tropics was a whole new ball

game. We had been taught very little during

our training about how to cope with tropical

diseases. The bedside nursing was a real

challenge—malaria with its frequent rigors

and the comatose conditions of the patients

with scrub typhus, for which there was no

specific treatment beyond constant

attention, the sparing of exertion, and intake

of copious fluids.

Sister Mollie Nalder of 2/9th AGH; quoted in

Innes Brodziak, Proudly we served,

Australian Military History Publications,

Loftus NSW, 1988, p. 173


33

Sister Betty Jeffrey

We are praying for our freedom. If this doesn’t happen soon we shall be a mess for the

rest of our lives.

Betty Jeffrey, White coolies: a graphic record of survival in World War Two, Angus and

Robertson, North Ryde, NSW, 1997, p. 148.

Captain Vivian Bullwinkel (left) and

Lieutenant Betty Jeffrey at a dedication

ceremony to the fallen of the Second World

War, 1950. (AWM P04585.001)

Agnes Betty Jeffrey

Agnes Betty Jeffrey was born in Hobart on 14 May 1908, the second youngest child of six.

As a child, Betty and her family moved often because of her father’s job. An accountant at

the General Post Office, he was often transferred interstate. Agnes came to dislike her first

name, preferring to be called Betty. After many years of travelling, the family finally settled

in East Malvern, Victoria, the town Jeffrey would call home for the rest of her life. As part of

a large family, she was surrounded by the singing and laughter of her siblings. She quickly

learnt how to make clothing and food spread a little further, and knew what it meant to “do

your bit”. She didn’t realise that the basic life skills she had learned as a child would one

day help to save her life.


34

Sister Jeffrey

At the age of 29, Jeffrey began nursing training at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital. She had

not been happy with other hospitals, so had put off her training for many years.

Nevertheless, in 1939, she graduated with her General Nursing Certificate, and in 1940,

while at the Royal Women’s Hospital, she received her midwifery certificate. That same

year, at the age of 32, Jeffrey volunteered for the AANS, excited by the opportunity to

travel and aid the war effort.

Following a posting to Darley Military Camp in Victoria, Jeffrey embarked for Malaya on

board the Zealandia in May 1941, to join the 2/10th AGH. At this stage, the Pacific war

had not yet broken out, but that all changed on 8 December: the nurses were now, in

Jeffrey’s words, “in the thick of it”.

The nurses were soon evacuated to Singapore, where they converted an old school into a

hospital. Here they worked tirelessly for weeks, nursing the sick and the wounded. But

danger soon found them. Air raids became a daily occurrence, and on 13 February the

nurses were instructed to evacuate. Initially the women refused, not wanting to abandon

their patients, but orders were orders:

Taking only what they could carry, and donning their red capes as a symbol of their

peaceful purpose, Jeffrey and 64 of her nursing colleagues boarded a small privately

owned ship, the Vyner Brooke, along with 300 civilians and soldiers. A fierce air raid

was raging, and the nurses each silently prayed that this would be the end of the

danger.

Our refusal was useless. We were ordered to leave and had to walk out on those

superb fellows. All needed attention. I have never felt worse about anything. This was

the work we had gone overseas to do.

Jeffrey, White coolies, p. 2.


35

But it was just the beginning.

Two days out of Singapore, the Vyner Brooke was attacked by Japanese aircraft. After a

couple of near misses, a bomb hit the ship’s bridge. The nurses ensured that everyone

was safely off the vessel and into life boats before they themselves abandoned ship. Some

of them accompanied the civilians in boats and on rafts, while others, including Jeffrey,

jumped overboard and prepared to swim for it. She turned to take one last look at the

burning vessel, and watched as it quickly disappeared below the surface of the water. She

heard their matron, Olive Paschke, call out, “We’ll all meet on the shore, girls.”

She never saw her again.

Staff Nurse Vivian Bullwinkel, AANS, in service dress uniform, Melbourne, May 1941. (AWM P03960.001)

A prisoner of war

After three days in the water, Betty and her companion, Matron Iole Harper, were finally

pulled from the water, exhausted and delirious, by Malay fishermen. They were taken to

Japanese-held Banka Island, off Sumatra, where they were soon taken prisoner.

As the two women were taken to the camp where they were to be held, they were

relieved to see some of their comrades from the Vyner Brooke. But their smiles soon


36

faded as they realised that 34 others were still missing. Where were Matron Paschke

and the girls who had been with her?

Unbeknown to them, 12 of these women, including Matron Paschke, had been lost at

sea. The fate of the remaining 22 was revealed when a tired and bedraggled Vivian

Bullwinkel joined the camp just days later. She had been one of the nurses who had

made it to shore on Banka Island with a number of civilians and soldiers. There they

encountered Japanese troops, and only Bullwinkel survived.

Jeffrey and her colleagues were held prisoner in and around Sumatra for three and a

half years. They lived in appalling conditions on a diet of bug-ridden rice and rotten

vegetables. Many of the nurses had only the clothes on their backs – and no shoes,

having removed them before diving off the Vyner Brooke. Their treatment by prison

guards was often cruel. Some nurses had to walk for hours to collect clean water for the

guards’ crops of sweet potatoes, while they themselves were forced to drink water that

was often putrid and contaminated. Red Cross parcels carrying food and medical

supplies were also kept from the prisoners.

Soldiering on

To cope with these circumstances, Jeffrey and her friends attempted to establish a

routine. Each woman was designated as a cook, a cleaner, or a gardener. To keep their

spirits up, a choir was established and music was written. They also performed skits

and played cards.

A soft doll the nurses made to represent a Japanese guard

nicknamed “Bully”. It was made from a khaki shirt-tail (stolen

from a Japanese soldier) with other fabric and leather scraps. It

was given to Sister Jeffrey on her birthday in 1944. (AWM

REL/11877)

The nurses made the most of what little they had, fashioning

toys and clothes out of old rags. They drew with, and on, whatever they could find.


37

Throughout her imprisonment Jeffrey kept a diary. She used an old exercise book she

had found and a small stub of pencil. She kept this record of her experiences hidden; if

it had been found, she would have been harshly punished.

By the time Jeffrey and her friends were set free, there were only 23 left of the original

32 nurses who had been taken prisoner. Jeffrey returned to Australia an emaciated

shadow of her former self. Weighing just 32 kilograms and suffering from tuberculosis in

her lungs, she spent two years in hospital, and for a long time afterwards had to have

injections of cortisone.

Jeffrey (centre) and Sister Jenny

Greer talking to an Australian

soldier in a hospital in Malaya in

1945. The sisters were

recovering from malnutrition.

(AWM 305369)

Nurses Memorial Centre

When Jeffrey returned home, she and Bullwinkel travelled around Australia raising

funds for a memorial to honour nurses who had died in Sumatra. The Nurses Memorial

Centre, a “living memorial” to Australian nurses who had died in all wars, opened in

Melbourne in 1950. Betty was its first administrator, and then its patron from 1986 until

her death in 2000.

For more information:

www.nursesmemorialcentre.org.au/

For Betty’s enlistment forms: http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/Imagine.asp?B=6120132


38

Activities

Read Jeffrey’s story, above. Use this information to write your own story or short

play highlighting the Australian nurses’ experiences as prisoners of war.

Imagine you are a prisoner-of-war nurse in Sumatra. Write a diary entry or letter

telling of your experiences. What would you say? What would you leave out?

Remember to consider that Japanese guards read mail and prisoners were not

allowed to keep a journal (they could be punished if it was found). What wouldn’t

you want to tell your family? Would you really want them to know what you were

going through? Why/why not?

The Geneva Convention of 1929 was a set of rules established to ensure the

safety of medical staff and other non-combatants. Article nine of the Geneva

Convention reads in part:

The personnel charged exclusively with the removal, transportation, and

treatment of the wounded and sick, as well as with the administration of sanitary

formations and establishments, and the chaplains attached to armies, shall be

respected and protected under all circumstances. If they fall into the hands of

the enemy they shall not be treated as prisoners of war. (Quoted in Jan Bassett,

Guns and brooches, p. 141)

In Betty Jeffrey’s story, how were nurses who were prisoners of war treated?

Does this obey the terms of the Geneva Convention?


39

Online activities

Use the Memorial’s online databases to investigate the

war service of the nurses listed on the right. Some of

these nurses died and some did not, so you may need

to use a number of different databases to gather your

information. For guidance on researching, see the

Memorial’s information sheets.

You can use one or more of the following databases to

find your information:

The Roll of Honour

This will have the names of the nurses who died in war

and some basic information about where and how they

died.

http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/roll_of_honour/

Nominal Rolls

The nominal rolls list all Australians who enlisted in

particular conflicts, as well as some basic service

details.

http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/nominal_rolls/

Honours and awards

Here you can find out whether any of the nurses

received awards for their service.

http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/honours_and_

awards/

Boer War

Sister Fanny Hines

Sister Julia Anderson

First World War

Sister Evelyn Trestrail

Sister Nellie Morrice

Sister Grace Wilson

Sister Dorothy Duffy

Sister Jean Miles- Walker

Second World War

Matron Kathleen Dorothy Best

Matron Annie Sage

Sister Margaret de Mestre

Captain Constance Box

Sister Wilma Oram

Staff Nurse Margaret

Anderson

Sister Jenny Greer

Matron Olive Paschke

Sister Marie Craig

Sister Cherry Wilson


40

Collection search

This database provides online access to the Memorial’s

collection. Here you may find an image of, or objects

belonging to, one or more of these nurses.

http://www.awm.gov.au/search/collections/

Activity

When you have finished, present your findings to the

class. You may wish to prepare an oral presentation

using PowerPoint.

Post-Second World War

Captain Barbara Probyn-

Smith

Lieutenant Nell Espie

Sister Betty Crocker

Sister Natalie Oldham

Sister Jan McCarthy

Flight Officer Patricia Furbank

Sister Dorothy Angell


41

Examine the Source

Select one of the Australian nurses below and use

the National Archives of Australia website

www.naa.gov.au to find their service records.

Answer the following questions for your chosen nurse:

1. Find and examine the individual’s enlistment form.

Is this a primary or secondary source?

When was it completed?

What was the purpose of this document?

What information can you gather about this individual

from their enlistment form?

Would the same information be necessary in

enlistment papers today? Why/why not?

2. What other forms or documents are included in

their service record?

What information can you gather about your nurse

from these other documents? For example, what do

they tell you about their health, death, and service

awards?

3. Use the information from these sources to write, in

half a page, the individual’s biography. Include details

of when they were born, where they came from, their

family, which service they joined, where they served, what happened to them during

their service, and whether they were injured or killed. You may also wish to search the

Memorial’s website for more information: www.awm.gov.au

Tell the story of your nurse to the class. You may wish to show some of the documents

or images from the Australian War Memorial and National Archive websites.

Boer War

Matron Ellen Julia “Nellie”

Gould

First World War

Staff Nurse Pearl Corkhill

Staff Nurse Carrie de Groot

Sister Ella Jane Tucker

Sister Mabel (May) Tilton

Sister Jessie Millicent Tomlins

Sister Evelyn Augusta

Conyers

Second World War

Sister Myrle Moston

Sister Ellen Savage

Sister Janet Patteson Gunther

Captain Kathleen Parker

Lieutenant Daisy Cardin Keast

Post–Second World War

Sister Ethel Jessie Bowe

Sister Barbara Frances Black


42

Nurses’ uniforms and activities

Over the last 100 years, military nursing uniforms have changed significantly. From the

white veils and red capes of the early 20th century to the camouflage uniforms of today,

nursing uniforms have altered with the changing needs, expectations and status of

military nursing.

1) Compare and contrast the following uniforms.

First World War AIF nurse’s uniform, 1916.

(AWM P07989.003)

Camouflage uniform of the Australian

Medical Support Force, 1994. (AWM

MSU/94/0042/31)


43

2) Discuss how the image of military nursing has changed. What did the nurses think

about the change?

Second World War malaria

uniform, 1944. (AWM

083325)

Nurses in day (left) and night nursing

uniforms, Vung Tau. (AWM

P04690.001)

Second World War

Most unsuitable uniform for New Guinea, large veils, starched collars and cuffs etc, had to be put aside. The climate was very hot and humid, no protection from mosquitoes to start with. Issued with army boiler suits and boots later, until Safari Suits could be manufactured and issued.

Matron Nell Williamson, 2/9th AGH. AWM S01819


44

1) What do these opinions illustrate about women and their changing roles and

attitudes?

Uniforms in another light

When 30 Australian nurses were shipwrecked and imprisoned by the Japanese at

Banka Island and in Sumatra during the Second World War, they had only the uniforms

on their backs. During their three and a half years in a prisoner of war camp, the nurses

attributed special significance to these uniforms meant a lot to the nurses.

Though the nurses’ uniform could not convince the Japanese that the nurses were

servicewomen with rank, it helped to keep them united. They agreed that when they

were set free they would wear their uniforms, so they looked after them, patching holes

and shining buttons. As it turned out, the nurses wore their uniforms many times before

this day came – to the funerals of their comrades.

By the time the nurses were rescued, their uniforms were almost in tatters, but the day

they left the camp, they wore them proudly.

Those who had uniforms put them on ... this is the day they had been kept for ... we

tried not to remember we’d worn them to our cobbers’ funerals. Sister Veronica Clancy.

AWM PR MSS1086

Vietnam War

[The uniform] is totally inappropriate ... too hot and difficult to maintain, due to lack of

starch and the wet. Still wearing veils!!??

Lieutenant Ann Hall RAANC


45

Nurses from 2/10th, 2/11th AGH and one nurse from the 4th Casualty Clearing Station

arrive at the airfield in Singapore for the journey home, September 1945. They wear

their original oil-stained uniforms. (AWM 044480)

1. Examine the above photograph, which was taken by a Sydney Morning Herald

photographer. What can you determine about these women by looking at it?

2. What significance do these uniforms have for these women? How can you tell?


46

We served too...

During the First World War, not all Australian nurses served with the formally

established AANS; many worked with other organisations, such as Queen Alexandra’s

Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS), the Red Cross, or privately sponsored

facilities in France.

QAIMNS qualification badge that belonged to

Annie Maria Locke, a First World War nurse; it

would have been worn pinned to the shoulder

cape of her uniform. (AWM REL35881)

Florence Narelle Hobbes

Florence Narelle Hobbes grew up as part of a large family in a busy, noisy household.

As each of her sisters married and left home, Hobbes became determined to maintain

her independence, so she took up nursing as a career. After her training, she became

matron at the remote Brewarrina District Hospital in north-western New South Wales.

When the First World War broke out, Hobbes decided that rather than wait to enlist with

the AANS she would travel to London, where she was quickly accepted in QAIMNS.

With them, she headed to Malta, where she saw first-hand the devastation of the

Gallipoli campaign. As she treated the long line of casualties, she would often think of

their families at home: “Every boy is somebody’s boy.” (Melanie Oppenheimer, “Narelle:

nursing for empire”, ABC Radio National, 28 March 2004).

The following nine months were spent nursing on-stop in Sicily, India, and

Mesopotamia, but by mid-1917, Hobbes had become ill. Her concerned family back


47

home sent her youngest sister, Elsie, to India to

bring her home. As they made their way to

Australia on board the hospital ship Kanowna in

1918, Hobbes died with her sister by her side. She

was buried at sea.

Tell us a story

Helen Madge Gill was born in Townsville,

Queensland, on 10 January 1919, just two months

after the end of the First World War. Before the

Second World War broke out, she met a young

man by the name of Bruce Strange. Given his

quirky sense of humour, she may have thought,

“strange by name, strange by nature”, but there

was something about him she liked. When the war

started, she became a VAD; she received medical

training and worked in local hospitals. For his part,

Strange joined the 2/25th Battalion, AIF, and was

soon posted to North Africa.

A group of VAD nurses marching along George

Street after attending a Christmas service, 1944.

(AWM P02526.007)

Did you know?

Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD)

The Voluntary Aid Detachment

(VAD) was run by the Red Cross

during the First World War as an

auxiliary to the Medical Corps. It

was revived during the Second

World War, and many VADs went

on to join the Australian Army

Medical Women’s Service

(AAMWS).

VADs were employed without pay

and were trained in nursing and first

aid. They worked alongside the

nursing sisters in hospitals, both in

Australia and overseas. In Red

Cross wartime publicity, the VAD

became the face of Australian

womanhood, patriotically caring for

the sick and needy.

William Dargie, Group of VADs,

1942, oil on canvas, 92 x 76.2 cm.

(AWM ART22349)


48

For two years the couple wrote to each other, telling of their experiences and their

hopes for the future. On 5 December 1941 Helen was one of 30 Queensland VADs

chosen for overseas service. It didn’t matter where they were, whether Bruce was lying

in a slit trench or cramped in a ship at sea, whether Helen was at home or away—they

would still write to each other in an increasingly playful, teasing tone. By 1943, Bruce’s

letters would refer to Helen as the “delight of his heart” and often mentioned the

“promise” he had made her when they had last met. Towards the end of that year

however, Bruce began to sense some doubt in Helen’s letters. Having not seen each

other in four years, Helen had begun to spend time with another man. With the distance

between them, Helen wondered whether she should wait for Bruce. In a letter he sent

her towards the end of 1943, Bruce wondered whom she would choose. It was the last

letter he ever sent her.

Major Bruce Strange of the 2/5th Battalion (left) and

his driver. Strange was awarded the Distinguished

Service Order on 28 October 1942 for “utmost

vigour, aggressive spirit and initiative”. (AWM P04602)

So what happened?

What do you think happened to Bruce? To Helen? Can you find out whether Bruce

returned home? Whom do you think Helen is most likely to have married: Bruce or her

other beau?

Activities

Write your own ending to this

story. What factors would

influence the result? What

conclusion would you like to

see? Which is more likely?

To discover the real ending to

the story go to:

http://www.awm.gov.au/res

earch/people/roll_of_honour

/person.asp?p=539610


49

Nurses in art

Since the beginning of the 20th century, military nurses have been represented, at work

and at rest, by many different artists: from quick sketches completed by recovering

soldiers, to detailed works by official war artists.

Examine the following works of art.

Frank Crozier, Nurse and patient,

3rd Australian CCS France (c.

1918, oil on wood panel, 23.8 x

27.4 cm) (AWM ART13338)

George Coates, First Australian wounded at

Gallipoli arriving at Wandsworth Hospital, London

(1921, oil on canvas, 154.5 x 128 cm) (AWM ART

ART00200)


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George Lambert, Balcony of troopers’ ward, 14th

Australian General Hospital, Abbassia (1919, oil

and pencil on wood panel, 32 x 45.6 cm) (AWM

ART02815)

Bruce Fletcher, Medical evacuation, 2nd

Field Ambulance, Vung Tau, Vietnam 1967

(1967, oil on canvas on hardboard, 39.2 x

49.4 cm) (AWM ART40580)

Ivor Francis, Energy of war 1940 (1940, oil on canvas

on cardboard canvas, 44.2 x 34.2 cm) (AWM

ART28831)

Laurence Howie, Interior of ward,

3rd Australian General Hospital,

Abbeville France (1

919, watercolour with pencil on

paper, 25.8 x 47.2 cm) (AWM

ART93081)


51

Activities

1) How are nurses represented in each of the above images? What are they doing?

2) Where have these works been produced? How can the location and period be seen in

the work? (Look at caption information, environment, and uniforms, for example. )

Research

Research ONE of the artists whose work is shown above: Frank Crozier, George

Coates, George Lambert, Bruce Fletcher, Ivor Francis or Laurence Howie.

What is their story/background? Which war did they depict?

Create

Examine the quotes by nurses in the section “What was it like in the First World War?”

Paint or draw a scene showing one nurse’s experiences. Be sure to dress your figures

in the correct uniforms (see the section “Nurses’ uniforms and activities”).


52

Nurses in poetry

The following poems were written by soldiers about their nurses:

A prayer of thanks

The night is dark and dank and drear,

I toss upon my fevered bed

And softly comes on soundless feet

An earthly angel to my head;

And over my burning brow her hand

So soft and cool in sweet caress,

A healing touch that soothes my pain

With loving care and tenderness.

God bless “The Rose of No Man’s Land”,

Who guides me through my night of pain,

And keep her safe throughout the storm.

Anonymous. (AWM PR 00526)

Sister Christine Erica Ström AANS, 1917.

(AWM H18820)


53

Smilin’ thru’

Though fate has been unkind to us with sickness and in pain,

It takes the kindness of the nurse to bring us health again;

Her smiling face so cheerful, with radiance aglow,

I’ll praise her work unending wherever I may go.

No words that I can utter with justice half express

The gratitude I’ll always feel, the depths you cannot guess.

The kindness and devotion bestowed in Mercy’s cause,

Deserves the highest praise of all – a round of loud applause!

No doubt they have their troubles (who hasn’t some these days?)

But they never show they have them, dispensing kindness many ways.

There’s one just here as I’m writing, who is always bright and jolly,

And the first prize I would surely give to one whose name is Polly.

So Australia is indebted, and the soldier thankful too,

To the sisters and the nurses, with their motto Smilin’ thru’.

Farewell I’ll soon be leaving, you’ve done so much for me,

For others in their illness and Australia generally.

A.M. McDermott, (AWM PR 88019)

Activities

1) How do the soldiers describe their nurses? What qualities do the soldiers believe they

have?

2) Why would the nurses have meant so much to the soldiers?

Could you imagine a soldier writing a poem like this today? Would they use the same

language, rhyme and subject? Why or why not?


54

We will remember them

There are various ways in which Australian nurses are honoured and remembered,

including centres, books and websites, as well as local and national memorials. Some

are detailed below.

Designed by Napier Waller, each one of the Hall of Memory’s stained-glass windows

represents a defining quality of Australian servicemen and women. One of the windows

represents the quality of devotion with a nurse. The window includes the symbols of the

Red Cross, the Australian coat of arms and the sign of charity – the pelican feeding her

young from her bleeding breast.

Napier Waller, Hall of Memory: south window (1950, stained glass) (AWM

ART90410.001)


55

Anne Ferguson created a platform of earth-coloured tiles. It is divided by a curved

trench to suggest a river, carving its way through a sparse, flat landscape. It invites the

viewer into the work and to experience a sense of empathy with the women it

commemorates. The insignia of the different women’s services are displayed subtly on

the black tiles around the mosaic.

Anne Ferguson, Australian servicewomen’s memorial (1999, sculpture, 40.3 x 540 x 720

cm) (AWM ART90968)


56

Robin Moorhouse, who lived in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, between 1958 and 1963,

is believed to have based her design for this memorial on some words in a letter written

home by a First World War nurse: “dying soldiers just wished to be held”. The memorial

is made of glass walls etched with photographs and extracts from diaries and letters in

their original handwriting. Some panels are blank. Why do you think this is so?

Robin Moorhouse (in conjunction with MonuMental Design), The Australian service

nurses national memorial (1999, cast glass)

Image from (http://www.pngaa.net/Library/NurseMemorial.html)

Activities

1) Research local memorials in your area. Are nurses included in these memorials?

How?

2) If you were to design your own memorial to Australian nurses, what form would it

take? What symbols would you use? Draw your design, giving reasons for your design

choices.


57

Glossary

BCOF British Commonwealth Occupation Force

Cobber 20th-century Australian slang for friend

Collage Combining a number of different materials, for example,

photos, words and images to create a work of art

Convalescence The gradual recovery of health and strength after illness

Empathy Understanding someone else’s feelings or point of view by

putting yourself in their position

Federation Several states uniting to create a nation

Gallantry Bravery

Macintosh A waterproof raincoat

Mention in Despatches Being named in a commander’s official report of a battle

or campaign for exceptional heroism, service, or

achievement

Midwifery The practice of assisting women in childbirth

Non-combatants Someone who is connected to a military force, but who is

not involved in the fighting, for example, a surgeon,

chaplain or nurse

Posthumous An award or medal granted to someone after their death

RAAF Royal Australian Air Force


58

Requisitioned Taken by the government for military purposes

Stationary Hospital These were smaller hospitals generally based in forward

areas

Surrender To stop fighting an enemy and be taken prisoner Typhoid An infection that affects the intestines, and is caused by

contaminated food or water


59

Educational resources

Loan kits Loan kits are available for a free two-week loan period from the Museum of Tropical Queensland. Relevant kits about Australia’s (and Queensland’s) involvement in war include:

• Queensland Remembers: Medical Corps – QM kit – includes nurses cape and photograph of Matron Ethel Gray, Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS)

• Australia in WWI (1914-1918) – AWM kit • Australia Under Attack (1940) – AWM kit • Our War in the Pacific (1942) – AWM kit

Web resources

1. Australian War Memorial For background information on Australia’s involvement in the wars featured in the exhibition and kit: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ The Australian War Memorial has a large collection of private records, including letters, diaries, cards, and other recollections. To access individual nurses, see: http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/roll_of_honour/

http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/nominal_rolls/ http://www.awm.gov.au/research/people/honours_and_awards/

Also search for AWM images in collections http://www.awm.gov.au/search/all/?op=Search&format=list

2. National Boer War Memorial Association http://www.bwm.org.au/site/Nurses.asp

http://www.bwm.org.au/site/Boer_War_Medals.asp 3. Nurses Memorial Centre

NMC is a ‘living memorial’ to the heroism and sacrifice of Australian nurses who gave their life or spent years in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps during World War awww.nursesmemorialcentre.org.au/

4. National Library of Australia

Great resource images http://trove.nla.gov.au/.

Press Newspapers and magazines from the era provide interesting articles about many facets of life during the war years. State libraries generally maintain a good collection of newspapers; see particularly Trove on the National Library of Australia website. Wartime issues of the Australian Women’s Weekly carried interesting articles about Australian women, men and children. Through its recipes, patterns and advertisements, the Weekly also gives a good indication of how everyday life was affected by wartime rationing and other things that were not available.


60

Oral history This project has made use of the oral histories collected in the Keith Murdoch Sound Archives at the Australian War Memorial. Oral history is a fascinating type of history. Its value is debated, as it records memories of historic events recalled years later. This memory is filtered by time and other events. Collecting oral histories from women who remember the war would be an interesting project for local schools and communities to undertake.

Private records Many women in the local community have items, such as letters, diaries, cards, and other recollections which can provide a valuable snapshot of history.

Army Museum North Queensland The Army Museum at Jezzine Barracks, Townsville collects and exhibits objects and stories relating to the history of the Australian Army in North Queensland. Available for school visits, and includes curriculum linked education resources for a visit and pre and post visit. http://armymuseumnorthqueensland.webs.com/

North Queensland Historical Re-enactment Society – the Kennedy Regiment This local living history group portrays civilians and the military from Colonial times to World War 2. They have a new home, hut 28 at Jezzine Barracks, Townsville. They welcome school groups and can visit schools. http://www.thekennedyregiment.com/ Contact: Barry Turnbull [email protected]


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Bibliography Angell, B. (2003). A woman’s war: the exceptional life of Wilma Oram Young, AM, New Holland,

Chatswood, NSW. Bassett, J. (1992). Guns and brooches: Australian army nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf

War, Oxford University Press, Melbourne. Biedermann, N., Usher, K., Williams, A., & Hayes, B. (2001). ‘The wartime experience of

Australian Army nurses in Vietnam, 1967-1971’. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 35(4): 543-549.

Critch, M. (1981). Our kind of war: the history of the VAD/AAAMWS, Artlook Books Trust, Perth.

Goodman, R. (1988). Our war nurses: the history of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps

1902–1988, Boolarong Publications, Brisbane. Halstead, G. (1994). Story of the RAAF Nursing Service 1940–1990, Nungurner Press, Metung,

Vic. Herring, E. D. (1982). They wanted to be Nightingales: a story of the VAD/AAMWS in World

War II, Investigator Press, Hawthorndene, SA. Heuschele, M. (2000). In the shadow of Castle Hill, Townsville Library Service, Townsville. Jeffrey, B. (1997). White coolies: a graphic record of survival in World War Two, Angus and

Robertson, North Ryde, NSW. Kenny, C. (1986). Captives: Australian army nurses in Japanese prison camps, University of

Queensland Press, St Lucia. Orchard, B. (1999). ‘Florence Nightingale: starting with a lighted lamp’, Wartime 7.

Reid, R., et al., (1999). Just wanted to be there: Australian service nurses, 1899–1999, Department of Foreign Affairs, Canberra.

Simons, J. E. (1954). While history passed: the story of Australian nurses who were prisoners of

the Japanese for three and a half years, William Heinemann, London.

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