The sterling qualities of Staff Nurse Margaret Leonard

 

Nurse Leonard on her graduation. Table Talk 21 Oct 1909 p 21

Graduating at the end of 1909 from the Homoeopathic Hospital, St Kilda Road, Margaret nursed for six years before enlisting in the AANS in 1916.  After a 4 month training in military nursing, Margaret was appointed Staff Nurse and embarked for overseas.  She nursed in France and Italy in British military hospitals before returning home.  Her devotion to the members of the AIF saw her continuing on at the Caulfield Military Hospital for the rest of her working life.  Newspaper paragraphs about Margaret inevitably commented on her kindness and other sterling qualities.  You can read more about Margaret's training at the Homoeopathic Hospital and her nursing experiences in Europe on the Time Travellers website.

Sister Fleming at Dartford, 1917

A lovely new portrait of Sister Elizabeth Gertrude Fleming has appeared at the Australian War Memorial - it certainly wasn't there the last time I looked for pics of Gertrude.   Just goes to show that it is worth rechecking repositories from time to time.  There was also a portrait of Lt General Chauvel on horseback said to have been taken by Gertrude.  You can further details on Gertrude's Empire Called webpage.

Australian Nurses in World War 1

Sister Elizabeth Gertrude Fleming,  The Penleigh Magazine 1919, p.24. Circa 1896. 

Courtesy of Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School Archives.

Another tip from Vicki's blog Exploring Military History is contained in a post on Locating a World War 1 Nurse.    This article contained a reference to the website Australian Nurses in World War 1, which provides an annotated, and sometimes illustrated list, not only of Australian Army Nursing Service women, but also Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service.

Another piece of good news is that the website has a search engine and you can search by place as well as name. 

Sister Emily Clare of Kensington died on Active Service

Sister Emily Clare, AANS, AIF

Trained nurse Emily Clare joined the Australian Army Nursing Service in November 1917, and was appointed a Staff Nurse.  Her training had consisted of 3 years at the Stawell Hospital.  There is insufficient evidence available at present to say whether she had begun her training before the war in 1914, or whether the war had been the impetus for her training. 

Staff Nurse Clare embarked on the SS Canberra from Sydney on 16 November 1918 - nine days after joining the AIF.  She was posted to the Victoria War Hospital in Bombay, India, where she nursed Turkish and German prisoners of war.   She was later transferred to the 34th (Welsh) Hospital in Deolali where she succumbed to pneumonia after catching influenza.  Her death occurred on 17 October 1918, less than a month before the end of the war.
 
Further details of Emily Clare's service can be seen here.

Melbourne Cup Day

Nursing sisters at 3 Australian General Hospital, Abbassia, lining up for a donkey race at a sports meeting,. 

 Good luck with your pick for today's Cup. Let's hope it isn't a donkey!

Anzac girl

Sister Olive Haynes, featured in last night's ABC drama Anzac Girls, is commemorated on the Roll of Honour at Christ Church, Essendon.   Although from South Australia before the war, Olive married Norval (Pat) Dooley in England in  1917.  Norval and Olive Dooley lived at 1 Thomson St, Essendon after the war, and their names were recorded on the Christ Church Roll of Honour.   The Dooley family had lived in Moonee Ponds prior to the war, but had moved to Ivanhoe just before the war. 

Staff Nurse Lilian Rutherford

Staff Nurse Lilian Rutherford

Lilian Rutherford joined her sister Linda in Salonika in 1917.  Authorities would not approve leave to the UK for nursing staff at Salonika until mere days before the Armistice, and once the war ended the Rutherford sisters were granted leave in the UK, Linda leaving a few days before Lilian.  On 1 January 1919, Lilian was awarded a Royal Red Cross "in recognition of her valuable services with the British Forces in Salonika".

Royal Red Cross

Sister Linda Rutherford of Essendon

The sisters' quarters at No 66 British General Hospital on Hortiach Plateau, Salonika.

The British and Australian soldiers who served at Salonika endured harsh winters and hot summers  under canvas, subject to illness, particularly malaria.   Sister Linda Rutherford also endured these conditions.  Click on the link to read her story.

Sister Rachael Pratt, MM

While looking for an image of Sister Louisa Cumming Pratt in the AWM collection, I noticed there was another Sister Pratt - Rachael - probably no relation.  While checking both of the Pratt service records to see if one or both had served in the 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital (and therefore which one was the "Sister Pratt" pictured there), I was astonished to find that Rachael Pratt had received a gunshot wound, and later a Military Medal.

The AWM says of Sister Pratt, " she was awarded her Military Medal for "bravery in the field" on 19 October 1917, one of seven nurses to receive this award during the First World War."

In returning to the NAA website to discover more about her, by just putting her name in the search engine it brought up a citation for her Military Medal, and several Repatriation Department files which had been digitised.  These revealed that returned nurses suffered very similar problems as the soldiers.  

I have been unaware of Repatriation Files being included in the NAA catalogue - probably Rachael Pratt's records were digitised on request - there certainly aren't huge numbers digitised that I can see, but I can see it is worth revisiting the NAA catalogue to see if further files will come up in search results for your particular soldier or nurse.  http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/search/index.aspx

Sister Louisa Pratt of Ascot Vale was awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross (2nd class) and later the Royal Red Cross (1st class.).