Australian Women of WW1 is a planning page for an article
HEADING: Australian Military
editOrganisations:
edit- Not done: Ada Rundell – Australian physiotherapist done
- Role: physiotherapist
- Award:
- Organisation:
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: the First World War promoted the use of physiotherapy by the military, and who subsequently served with the Australian Imperial Force in France and England during the conflict.
- Not done: Hester Maclean – Australian/NZ nurse, editor and writer
- Role: founder and Matron-in-Chief
- Award: the Royal Red Cross, first class. Florence Nightingale Medal.
- Organisation: New Zealand Army Nursing Service
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: She served in the First World War as the founding Matron-in-Chief of the New Zealand Army Nursing Service, and was one of the first nurses to be awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal.
- Not done:(4839) Matron Sarah Melanie De Mestre
- Not done:(4840) Sister Florence Elizabeth McMillan
- Not done:(4841) Sister Stella Lillian Colless
- Not done:(4842) Sister Rachel Clouston
- Not done:(4843) Sister Constance Margaret Neale
- Not done:(4844) Sister Bertha Ellen Burtinshaw
- Not done:(4845) Sister Rosa Angela Kirkcaldie
- Not done: Ethel Gillingham - POW
Done Australian Voluntary Hospital
editPeople:
edit- Done Rachel, Lady Dudley – British civic leader and philanthropist
- Role: Founder of the Australian Voluntary Hospital
- Award: In 1918 in recognition of her service she was awarded the Royal Red Cross and she was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
- Organisation: Australian Voluntary Hospital
- Units:
- Locations: France
- Key events: During World War One she was in France where she established a club for Australian officers and the Australian Voluntary Hospital. There were relatively large numbers of Australian doctors and nurses because advanced qualifications required a trip overseas. She discussed her proposal with King George V, and then with the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, and the British Army's Director General Army Medical Services, Sir Arthur Sloggett, who authorised the hospital. The hospital was formally offered to the British government by the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Sir George Reid on 15 August 1914.Volunteers responded to advertisements that Lady Dudley placed in English newspapers on 17 August 1914. Women doctors were not accepted, but women nurses like Matron Ida Greaves were welcomed.
- Done Ida Greaves – Australian nurse (1875 – 1954)
- Role: Matron
- Award: By April 1916 Greaves had already received a Royal Red Cross in recognition of her work.
- Organisation:
- Units: Australian Voluntary Hospital
- Locations: France
- Key events: The new hospital's staff left for France before the end of August. They were the only Australians on the Western Front until April 1916. Greaves and Nora Kathleen Fletcher were the first Australians, during the war, to receive this award.
- 'Not done:'Red link: Nora Kathleen Fletcher
- Role: Principal Matron
- Organisation:
- Key events: received Royal Red Cross (1st Class) July 1915, Honorary Serving Sister of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem in August 1916 for her services in Belgium and France, Matron Nora Fletcher was awarded Commander of the British Empire, receiving her honours in March 1920, as announced in The Times, (London), Civilian War Honours, March 31, 1920.
- Links to other pages:
- References: https://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/curio/exhibit/1324/snippets053a.html?from_collection=2&page=10#detail
- Red link:
- Role:
- Organisation:
- Key events:
- Links to other pages:
- References:
HEADING: Red Cross
editAustralian Red Cross
editVictoria
- first president Lady Margaret Stanley married to Arthur Stanley, 5th Baron Stanley of Alderley
NSW
- First President Lady Edeline Strickland nee Sackville
- Eleanor MacKinnon
South Australia
- Lady Marie Galway
- Janet Doris Hübbe married to the mayor Alfred Allen Simpson
QLD
[1]
- Founding president of the Red Cross QLD State division Elsie Goold-Adams, Married to Hamilton Goold-Adams
- Alice Augusta Morgan married to Lieutenant Governor Arthur Morgan (Australian politician, born 1856)
- Georgina Agnes Ferguson, married to Mayor Charles Moffatt Jenkinson
Western Australia
- Founding president: Lady Clara Barron married to Harry Barron
- Volunteer: Mary Emma Goldsmith Meares
Tasmania
- President Ettie Ellison-Macartney married to William Ellison-Macartney Sister of Robert Falcon Scott
Northern Territory [2]
Prisoners of War branch of the Australian Red Cross
edit- Not done: Mary Chomley – Australian charity worker, arts patron and feminist (1871-1960)
- Role: secretary of Prisoners of War branch of the Australian Red Cross, London
- Award: OBE
- Organisation: Australian Red Cross
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: She coordinated a team of volunteers who facilitated communication with Australian prisoners of war, and their families back home. The prisoners referred to her as an 'angel' and considered her a lifeline providing them with the essential material aid, and communication required to survive.
- Not done: Red link: Kathleen Olive O'Connor
- Role: Established with Chomley the Prisoners of War branch of the Australian Red Cross, London
- Organisation: Australian Red Cross
- Key events:
- Links to other pages: Father: Richard Edward O'Connor, Husband: Roy Agnew
- References: https://fromelles.info/the-search-for-the-missing/the-red-cross-and-the-prisoners-of-war/
- http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article263621607
Australian Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau
edit- Not done: Vera Deakin White – Australian humanitarian and Red Cross worker
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation: Red cross
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: On 21 October 1915, aged 23, Deakin opened the Australian Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau in Cairo, with herself as secretary and Johnson as assistant secretary.[4] The bureau sought to gather information about Australian Imperial Force (AIF) soldiers in the Gallipoli campaign to communicate to those back in Australia, serving as "the conduit between official sources and the families of soldiers".[5] In May 1916, the bureau moved its headquarters to Victoria Street, London, after the AIF was transferred to the Western Front. By late 1917, Deakin was managing 60 staff – including agents in Britain, France, and Belgium – and the bureau had to relocate to a larger building in Grosvenor Place.[4] In three years of operation the organisation created 32,000 files for individual soldiers, and issued 400,000 responses.[6] Deakin later recalled "we were often met with suspicion and eventually jealousy, as we had made ourselves felt as a court of appeal for relatives who were unsuccessful in obtaining satisfaction from the military authorities".[3] For her work she was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1918 New Year Honours, aged 26.[7]
- Not done: Lilian Scantlebury – Australian Red Cross worker (1894–1964)
- Role: she led the letter section
- Award:
- Organisation: Australian Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Red Cross
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: During the first world war she went to London. In May 1916, the Australian Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau moved its headquarters from Cairo to London, after the Australian Imperial Force's attention was transferred to Europe. Vera Deakin White had started the Bureau in Cairo in 1915.[2] and it had initially gathered information about the fates of soldiers in the Gallipoli campaign for the families of Australian soldiers.[3] Scantlebury joined the bureau in London in 1916 and in time she led the letter section.[1] In the following year there was 60 people working for the bureau and it moved to a larger headquarters. In three years of operation the organisation created 32,000 files for individual soldiers, and issued 400,000 responses.[4] Deakin was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1918 New Year Honours.[5] Deakin was succeeded as head of the bureau by Scantlebury in 1919.
- Not done: Red link: Winifred Johnson
- Role: founding secretary of POW Bureau in egypt
- Organisation: Australian Wounded and Missing Enquiry Bureau Red Cross
- Key events:
- Links to other pages:
- References: https://fromelles.info/the-search-for-the-missing/the-red-cross-and-the-prisoners-of-war/
Unknown Red Cross details
edit- Not done: Lucy Gullett – Australian medical doctor and philanthropist (1876–1949)
- Role: Doctor
- Award:
- Organisation: Red Cross
- Units:
- Locations: military hospital in Lyon.
- Key events: During World War I she travelled to Europe[2] at her own expense to serve the Red Cross at a military hospital in Lyon.
British Red Cross
edit- Not done:Florence MacDowell – Australian nurse (1873-1939)
- Role: Nurse
- Award:
- Organisation: British Red Cross
- Units:
- Locations: Serbia, Russia
- Key events: on the island of Elba in Tuscany, Italy when war broke out in 1914.[1] MacDowell travelled to England and joined the British Red Cross. she "narrowly escaped" being made a prisoner of war by the Germans during the retreat.joined the Millicent Fawcett Union, under the British Red Cross, and later in 1916 returned to Europe as the matron of an 80-bed hospital in Volhynia, Russia. MacDowell moved to a new position as matron of a surgical hospital at Podgorica, but in July 1917 the German forces again broke through and MacDowell's unit was evacuated back to England.
- Not done:Isabel Ormiston – Australian medical doctor (1883–1958)
- Role: doctor
- Award:
- Organisation: Red Cross
- Units:
- Locations: London, Ostend, Belgium
- Key events: he travelled to London in 1914, six months before the outbreak of the First World War.[2] She worked with the Red Cross in London and then went to Ostend, Belgium. She remained at her post at the Queen of the Belgians' Hospital when Ostend was overrun by the Germans in 1914, and later received the Order of Leopold of Belgium, the King's medal for "conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty". Ormiston was a prisoner of the invading army until late October, when all British citizens were expelled from Belgium. She was at La Panne (1914–15), Wounded Allies' Relief (W.A.R.) Hospital, Montenegro (1915–17), British Red Cross Depot, Egypt (1916), and W.A.R. Hospital, Limoges.
- Not done: Laura Forster – Australian nurse, physician and surgeon (1858–1917)
- Role: Surgeon
- Award:
- Organisation: British Red Cross, Russian Red Cross, Caucasian Committee of the All-Russian Union of Towns,
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: In September 1914 during World War I she began working for the British Red Cross at Belgian Field Hospital in Antwerp. In September and October 1914, Forster and her colleagues evacuated Belgian and British soldiers under heavy fire. She went to France, where she assisted Belgians who had been wounded in the German bombardment. She then relocated to Russia and volunteered in the surgical department of Petrograd's largest hospital, where she was the first Australian or British female surgeon to perform surgery. She remained at the hospital for several months before joining the Russian Red Cross to serve in the Caucasus. From there, she went to Erzurum, Turkey, where she supervised a field hospital. Through the Caucasian Committee of the All-Russian Union of Towns, which operated 11 medical-related facilities, Forster managed a 150-bed infectious diseases hospital. The facility treated Typhus, which took by the end of the summer of 1916 an estimated 70 percent of the 40,000 infected refugees, soldiers and residents of the city. In September 1916 she joined a hospital unit financed by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, which funded its operations for the wounded and refugees with donations from Britain's wealthy establishment. She was then placed in charge of a hospital in Zalishchyky, Galicia. In addition to civilians, the staff treated wounded Russian soldiers return from the front just 30 miles away. In December 1916, Forster transferred to the unit's 80-bed Fifty-Second Epidemic Hospital, in Zalishchyky, Galicia. The medical facility was attached to the Russian Ninth Army but later transferred to the Seventh Army under General Aleksei Brusilov. At 58 years old, the 20-hour days, constant bombardment and huge influx of the sick and wounded took a toll on Forster as she often looked exhausted and thin. She died on 11 February 1917 in Zalishchyky, from heart failure following a week-long illness with influenza. She was buried in Zalishchyky with Russian rites, which included burial in an open coffin and Russian Orthodox Church icons. Nurses from the hospital that Forster ran placed a homemade Union Jack flag over her body. Dr. Frederick Mott published Forster’s Claybury Asylum pathology laboratory findings posthumously in 1917.
French Red Cross
editPeople:
edit- Done Helen Sexton – Australian surgeon (1862–1950)
- Role: doctor, major
- Award: gold Médaille de la Reconnaissance française or Medal of French Gratitude.
- Organisation:
- Units: she established a tented field hospital near Paris with financial support from her Australian colleagues. Later in the war, she worked at Val-de-Grâce, a military hospital in Paris where doctors mainly performed reconstructive surgery on injured soldiers
- Locations: France
- Key events: Sexton moved to Europe in 1911. At the outbreak of the First World War, after the British Army declined her offer of medical services, she established a tented field hospital near Paris with financial support from her Australian colleagues.[3] These colleagues were Constance Ferrier Hamilton, who was known by her married name Mrs Robert O Blackwood.,[4] and Susan Ledlie Wilson who was referred to by her married name Mrs William Smith, and her daughters Lorna and Alison.[5][6] The hospital was recognised by the French government as a military hospital, and Sexton was given the rank of Major within the French Army. Later in the war, she worked at Val-de-Grâce, a military hospital in Paris where doctors mainly performed reconstructive surgery on injured soldiers. In 1919, Sexton, Mrs R. O Blackwood, and Mrs William Smith were each awarded a gold Médaille de la Reconnaissance française or Medal of French Gratitude.
REF - PARA ABOUT RECOMMENDATIONS:
As Mary Masson, a friend of Helen’s and wife of Professor Orme Masson at the University of Melbourne, wrote in a letter to English surgeon Sir Frederick Treves, ‘There’s no opening for her with our own army medical, so she is off to see whether she can be taken on in some reasonably responsible way elsewhere’
Aware that impressive connections would be necessary to secure a medical post as a woman, Dr Sexton used her position as a leading Australian surgeon and a wealthy society member to secure recommendations from prominent individuals. Among the most eminent were the Chief Justice, Sir [[ John Madden (judge)|John Madden]] (1915); the wife of the Governor General, Lady Helen Munro Ferguson (1915), who founded the Australian branch of the British Red Cross Society; the Governor of Victoria, Lord Stanley (1915), and his wife Lady Margaret Stanley (1915). Written on official Commonwealth of Australia stationery, these letters appeared to carry the authority of the state behind them. Others who wrote to recommend Helen were leading military men, such as Vice Admiral Sir William Creswell (1915) and Colonel R. H. Fetherston (1915), as well as eminent academics at the University of Melbourne with whom Helen had remained in contact, including Harry Brookes Allen (1915a, b), the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and also Mary Masson (1915a, b), wife of the Professor of Chemistry. WRITING TO: The addressees were of a similarly high standing within Britain, including politicians Sir George Stanley (Madden 1915), and Arthur Stanley (G. L. Stanley 1915), President of the British Red Cross in London; highly acclaimed surgeons, such as Sir Rickman Godlee (Allen 1915b); Sir Frederick Treves (Masson 1915b), and Sir Anthony Bowlby (Allen 1915a); and the Secretary of the British Red Cross Association (1915). All letters praised Helen’s highly distinguished medical career, as Sir John Madden (1915) summarised:
- Not done:Bluebirds (Australian nurses)
People:
editVoluntary Aid Detachment
edit- Not done:Voluntary Aid Detachment (VADS)
People:
edit- Not done: Muriel Knox Doherty – Australian nurse and air force principal matron (1896–1988)
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation: Red Cross Society No. 6 Voluntary Aid Detachment
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: Following the outbreak of the First World War, she volunteered part-time with the Australian Red Cross Society's No. 6 Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) from 1915 and then full-time 1917 to 1921.[1]
- Not done: Iso Rae – Australian artist (1860–1940)
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation: Voluntary Aid Detachment
- Units:
- Locations: Étaples Army Base Camp.
- Key events: worked throughout the war in Étaples Army Base Camp. She and Jessie Traill were the only Australian women to live and paint in France during the war, however they were not included in their country's first group of official war artists. When in 1918 Australia first appointed official war artists, sixteen men were chosen; Rae, despite having lived in France for the duration of the conflict, was not included. She nevertheless documented prolifically the experience of the war in her adopted home town, creating over two hundred drawings. Most of these portrayed the Étaples Army Base Camp, "the largest of its kind ever established overseas by the British", which at its zenith housed 100,000, including hospital services for up to 22,000 patients. Most of the drawings are of nocturnal scenes, possibly because during the war Rae and her sister both worked in the Voluntary Aid Detachment, and would have had little spare time during the days. Few of these works were acquired by public galleries, with art historian Sasha Grishin arguing that they were "generally regarded as too intimate, too personal and too feminine to be included".The Australian War Memorial holds eleven of Rae's works, including Cinema Queue, which Snowden described as a "dramatic elevated night scene, with her use of strong glowing light against the deep black of the night, and gouache over pastel used to highlight the glow of lights in the dark. The long line of men waiting reflects a general mood of waiting prevalent in the camp – and suggests that here even entertainment is dark and regimented." A similarly foreboding work, Night Patrol, is held in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
- Not done: Mollie Skinner – Western Australian writer (1876-1955)
- Role: Volunteer aid worker
- Award:
- Organisation:
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: She wrote a memoir describing her experiences during the First World War, as a volunteer aid worker in Burma.
- Not done: Jessie Traill – Australian printmaker (1881–1967)
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation: Voluntary Aid Detachment
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: When war broke out in 1914 Traill, like fellow artist Iso Rae,[10] joined the Voluntary Aid Detachment.[2] She worked in hospitals, including at a convalescent facility in Roehampton in May 1915,[11] then later in a military hospital in Rouen.[10][12] Traill and Rae became the only Australian women artists to portray the war while in France. When in 1918 Australia first appointed official war artists, sixteen men were chosen; Traill was not included.[10]
HEADING: British Army Medical Services
edit- Done Maud McCarthy – British/Australian nurse Done
- Role: British Army matron-in-chief. head of everything
- Award:
- Organisation: British Expeditionary Force (BEF)
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: McCarthy sailed in the first ship to leave England with members of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), arriving in France on 12 August 1914. In 1915 she was installed at Abbeville as matron-in-chief of the BEF in France and Flanders, taking charge of the whole area from the Channel to the Mediterranean, wherever British and allied nurses worked; she was directly responsible to General Headquarters. In August 1914, the numbers in her charge were 516; by the time of the Armistice they were over 6,000.
- Not done: Isabella Younger Ross – Australian medical practitioner (1887–1956)
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation: Red Cross ambulances, military hospital in Kent
- Units:
- Locations: Waterloo station
- Key events: when she had spare time she would visit Waterloo station and assist the convoys of wounded World War I soldiers arriving at the station in ambulance trains transfer to Red Cross ambulances. In 1916, she worked for a time in a military hospital in Kent
- Not done: Lillias Hamilton – British medical doctor, writer, educator (1858–1925)
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation: Wounded Allies Relief Committee
- Units:
- Locations: Podgoritza, Montenegro
- Key events: After the outbreak of war she volunteered her medical services to the Wounded Allies Relief Committee in 1915, and ran a hospital in .
Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
editPeople:
edit- Done Lydia Abell – Australian civilian and military nurse
- Role: Nurse
- Key events: the Associate Royal Red Cross for bravery during the evacuation of a field hospital that was under enemy bombardment on the Western Front.
- Organisation:Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
- Units: Casualty clearning
- Locations: military hospital at Talence, in the southwest of France near Bordeaux, then was transferred to No. 32 Stationary Hospital in the north of France at Boulogne. She was then appointed for hospital work on one of the canals and was frequently under fire, and as a result she was moved to No. 14 General Stationary Hospital at Boulogne, and was moved again to serve duty at a casualty clearing station in the danger zone.[1]
- Award: Associate Royal Red Cross (ARRC) in 1918 Birthday Honours.
- Done Alice Cashin – Australian WWI military nurse
- Role:
- Award: 1917 - 2 x mention in dispatch & Royal Red Cross & RRC bar. Gifts: fur cape, muff and cap given by Queen Alexandra to all members of the Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve. The nursing staff of Lichfield Hospital presented her with a gold link bracelet, inscribed with her war record.
- Organisation: Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service British Red Cross (In France).
- Units:
- Locations: France, Ras-el-din, Egypt, England Lichfield
- Key events: First - nursing in France with the British Red Cross. In 1915 she joined Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve. In charge of a hospital's surgical ward in Ras-el-din, Egypt. June 1916 transfer to Matron of hospital ship HMHS Gloucester Castle. On 30 March 1917 the ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat. She ensured wounded soldiers and nurses in her charge were transferred from the ship. Only three of the 399 passengers were killed. Then 2 years- matron of the 400-bed Lichfield Military Hospital, UK from 7 May 1917.
- Not done: Estelle Venner Keogh – Australian nurse (1892–1966)
- Role:
- Award: In 1918 at Buckingham Palace, King George V awarded Keogh the Royal Red Cross (1st class), the highest military honour available to an army service nurse. The medal was awarded for the skill and bravery she displayed while evacuating the casualty clearing station between Ypres and Poperigne while under fire. Afterwards, at the request of the King's mother, Queen Alexandra, Wilkins and the other nurses attended the Marlborough House, so Queen Alexandra could personally congratulate them. In 1918 she was nominated for a Military Medal.
- Organisation: Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps
- Units:
- Locations: Abbeville, France working on the barges that travelled down the Somme to the casualty stations. she joined Major Gordon Taylor's surgical team, which was one of a number of small teams that would visit casualty stations to relieve service after big engagements.
- Key events: Keogh was on duty at the Glenroy Base Hospital, and was unable to attend active service because she was too young for service in the Australian Forces. Instead, in December 1915, she travelled to England and enlisted in the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps. Her first appointment was at a military hospital in Abbeville, France.[11] Keogh was then appointed to working on the barges that travelled down the Somme to the casualty stations along the bank collecting wounded soldiers.[12] The barges were set up as hospital ships with surgical equipment for emergency operations, and removable covers to protect them from the weather. They were a simple and comfortable form of transport for 30 patients at a time. Keogh worked on the barges for many weeks, until winter when the river rose too high for the barges to pass under the bridges.[11] After this, she joined Major Gordon Taylor's surgical team, which was one of a number of small teams that would visit casualty stations to relieve service after big engagements. Each team had a doctor, a nurse, an anaesthetist and an orderly, and would often work 16 hour shifts.[11] When the order was given to evacuate, Keogh took part in evacuating patients under fire,
- Not done: Rosa Angela Kirkcaldie – Australian hospital matron, writer and army nurse
- Role: Nurse Matron?
- Award:
- Organisation: Royal Australian Navy, then Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve
- Units: she joined the staff of HMAS Grantala which was Australia's only and short-lived hospital ship of the First World War. On 30 August 1914 she and Grantala left Sydney to support the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force in Rabaul in German New Guinea. The ship was given battle honours but was too small to be effective.
- Locations:
- Key events: May 1915 and she was soon in Malta serving at a hospital in Valetta dealing with dirty and frostbitten casualties from the Gallipoli campaign.
- Done Marion Leane Smith – Australian Canadian nurse (1891–1957)
- Role: nurse
- Award:
- Organisation: Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: She enlisted with Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service in 1917.[4] At the time, it was difficult for Australian Aboriginal women to access the needed training to enlist, and so no nurses of Aboriginal heritage were known to have served in the Australian forces. Smith served with No. 41 Ambulance Train in France. The ambulance trains were designated to transport injured soldiers from the front lines to military hospitals, and were known to be difficult environments in which to work. Nevertheless, Smith distinguished herself; her supervisor noted that "Her work is both quickly and efficiently done. She is most capable in every way".[2] After the conclusion of her ambulance train contract, Smith went first to Italy with the Italian Expeditionary Force and then to the University War Hospital in Southampton, United Kingdom.[2]
- Done Isabella Jobson – Australian nurse
- Role: Nurse
- Award: Jobson was awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross for her service in France.
- Organisation: Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS)
- Units:
- Locations: UK, France
- Key events: She trained as a nurse at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, where she met and became friends with Leah Rosenthal. In December 1915 and travelled to England to serve in the First World War. In February 1916 they were assigned to Baythorpe Military Hospital in Nottingham. In April of that year they embarked for duty in France. Jobson was assigned to stationary hospitals and casualty clearing stations and served until January 1919, when she resigned her appointment.
- Done Leah Rosenthal – Australian nurse
- Role: Nurse
- Award: Rosenthal was awarded the Military Medal and the Associate Royal Red Cross for her service in France.
- Organisation: Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS),
- Units:
- Locations: Baythorpe Military Hospital in Nottingham. for duty in France.[3] Rosenthal was assigned to various stationary hospitals and casualty clearing stations and served until April 1919
- Key events: In England, Rosenthal and Jobson joined Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS), and in February 1916 they were assigned to Baythorpe Military Hospital in Nottingham.[2] In April of that year, they embarked for duty in France.[3] Rosenthal was assigned to various stationary hospitals and casualty clearing stations and served until April 1919, when she resigned her position.[1]
Royal Army Medical Corps
edit- Not done: Royal Army Medical Corps
- Not done: Elaine Marjory Little – Australian pathologist (1884-1974)
- Role: Doctor
- Award: Her commanding officer there wrote a letter to Sir Charles Martin, director of the Lister Institute, commending Little for her hard work and dedication
- Organisation: Royal Army Medical Corps
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: She was assigned to the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine but soon was transferred to France where she served with the 25th Stationary Hospital and then the isolation hospital at Étaples.
- Not done: Katie Ardill – Australian medical doctor (1886–1955)
- Role: Doctor
- Organisation: British Expeditionary Forces British Army - Royal Army Medical Corps,
- Units: County Middlesex War Hospital, St. Albans, England. Anglo-Belgian Base Clearing Military Hospital at Étaples in France,posts at Napbury, the Dover military hospital, and the Citadel hospital, Cairo, all with the British Army.
- Locations: Britain, France and Egypt
- Award:
- Key events: Ardill served as a doctor for four years during World War I. Her application to serve with the Australian Expeditionary Forces was rejected because she was a woman. Ardill therefore travelled to Britain via Egypt to become one of the first women doctors in the British Expeditionary Forces field services. Ardill worked at the County Middlesex War Hospital, St. Albans, England. the unit was run by the Royal Army Medical Corps and the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, and received volunteer staff from Voluntary Aid Detachments, the Red Cross, and St John's Ambulance among others, it is likely that she entered the hospital as a volunteer recruited from one of the latter units. She then worked at the Anglo-Belgian Base Clearing Military Hospital at Étaples in France, where she was the only Australian woman doctor until 1917, and was later promoted to the rank of captain. Other service included posts at Napbury, the Dover military hospital, and the Citadel hospital, Cairo, all with the British Army.
Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (Formerly Women's Army Auxiliary Corps)
edit- Not done: Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps
People:
edit- Not done: Phoebe Chapple – Australian medical doctor (1879-1967)
- Role: Doctor. Surgeon. Honorary Major
- Award: the Military Medal, the first woman doctor to be so decorated, presented at Buckingham Palace in June 1919.[16] The citation for the award reads: For gallantry and devotion to duty during an enemy air raid. The appropriate gallantry decoration for officers was the Military Cross. Women were however not eligible for an officer’s commission, with Chapple having only an honorary rank of captain. Hence she was awarded the Military Medal, the equivalent reward for other ranks.
- Organisation: Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC)
- Units:
- Locations: England Aldershot. France Abberville. Rouen and Le Havre.
- Key events: Sailed to England at her own expense in February 1917, intending to join the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service. Appointed as surgeon with the Cambridge Military Hospital at Aldershot. November 1917 -appointed honorary Captain in the (RAMC), and attached to the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in France. On 29 May 1918, at WAAC camp near Abbeville during an air raid, when a bomb exploded on a covered trench used by the women as a shelter, killing eight and wounding nine, one mortally. Working in the dark for hours, Chapple moved through the destroyed trench tending to wounded. She next served at Rouen and Le Havre, and at the cessation of hostilities embarked on further training in England. She returned to Adelaide on the Orsova in September 1919.
- Not done: Elizabeth Britomarte James – Australian political reformer (1867–1943)
- Role: Administrator & journalist
- Award:
- Organisation: Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps
- Units: put in charge of a unit of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps in France.
- Locations: France
- Key events: Both her sons enlisted in World War I and were injured. James travelled to England to assist their recovery. she volunteered with the Red Cross. She was later. After the war she formed the Ex-Service Woman's Association and was its president for a number of years.
- references: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/james-elizabeth-britomarte-13003
- Not done: Letitia Fairfield – British Australian medical doctor, and lawyer (1885–1978)
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation: Women's Army Auxiliary Corps
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events:
Endell Street Military Hospital
edit- Not done: Endell Street Military Hospital
People:
edit- Not done: Eleanor Elizabeth Bourne – Australian medical doctor (1878–1957)
- Role: Major (RAMC) Medical Controller (QMAAC)
- Award:
- Organisation: Royal Army Medical Corps Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps
- Units: Endell Street Military Hospital
- Locations: Endell & then Medical Controller at Northern Command until the end of the War.
- Key events: She embarked for England in early 1916 at her own expense.
- Not done: Vera Scantlebury Brown – Australian pediatrician (1889–1946)
- Role: Lieutenant. Assistant surgeon to Louisa Garrett Anderson
- Award:
- Organisation: Royal Army Medical Corps,
- Units: Endell Street Military Hospital
- Locations:
- Key events: service: 1917-1919
HEADING: Other international volunteering organisations
edit- Not done: Louise Mack – Australian poet, journalist and novelist (1870–1935)
- Role: war correspondent
- Award:
- Organisation: the Evening News and the London Daily Mail. Red Cross sociaety (raised money)
- Units:
- Locations: Belgium Antwerp Brussels
- Key events: In 1914, when war broke out Louise Mack was in Belgium worked as a war correspondent for the Evening News and the London Daily Mail. Her eye-witness account of the German invasion of Antwerp and her adventures—A Woman's Experiences in the Great War—was published in 1915. She was under shell-fire for thirty-six hours in Antwerp, and at one point went right through German lines to the city of Brussels. Returning to Australia in 1916, Mack gave a series of lectures about her war experiences. While back in Australia, in 1917–1918, she used her lectures on her war experiences to raise money for the Australian Red Cross Society.
St. John Ambulance
edit- Not done: St. John Ambulance
People:
editNew Zealand Volunteer Sisterhood,
editPeople:
edit- Not done: Ettie Rout – New Zealand writer and safer sex pioneer
- Role: nurse?
- Award:she was decorated by the French. In 1917 she and several other New Zealand nurses were Mentioned in Despatches by General Sir Archibald Murray.[1]
- Organisation: New Zealand Volunteer Sisterhood,
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: After founding a volunteer nursing group during World War I, the New Zealand Volunteer Sisterhood, Rout was made aware of the prevalence of STI among servicemen. By 1917, the New Zealand Army had made free distribution of her safe sex kit compulsory. It was for her work inspecting brothels in Paris and in the Somme, that she was decorated by the French. In 1917 she and several other New Zealand nurses were Mentioned in Despatches by General Sir Archibald Murray. In New Zealand, her exploits were considered such that her name, on pain of a £100 fine, could not be published. However, her activities could be published.
- Not done: Gladys Sandford – Australian-NZ driver & aviator
- Role: head lady driver
- Award: M.B.E.
- Organisation: New Zealand Volunteer Sisterhood, New Zealand Ambulance Corps
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: 1914, World War I broke out, and Henning, and two of Sandford's brothers, enlisted in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Sandford tried to enlist as a driver, but was turned down. Instead, she joined the New Zealand Volunteer Sisterhood and travelled to Egypt at her own cost in 1916. She worked as an ambulance driver for a hospital in Giza.[1][2] She later travelled on to England, where she was taken on as an ambulance driver by the N.Z.E.F. in May 1917, and drove for the New Zealand Ambulance Corps in Egypt and France.[1][3] She was promoted to head lady driver, and after the war finished she stayed on in England to lead the motor transport division at the New Zealand military hospital outside London.[3] She developed influenza, however, and was discharged in January 1919. In 1920 she was appointed M.B.E. for her war services as a driver.
Scottish Women's Hospital
edit- Not done: Scottish Women's Hospital
People:
editFRANCE
edit- Done Millicent Armstrong – Australian playwright, farmer and WWI war hero (1888-1973)
- Role: Hospital Orderley
- Organisation:Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service (second 2 years)
- Units:Hospital Auxiliaire d'Armee No. 30
- Locations: England (first 2 years) France (second 2 years)
- Award: Croix de Guerre for bravery in rescuing wounded soldiers while under fire.
- Key events: Orderly in England and France
SERBIA
edit- Done Mary Josephine Bedford – Australian philanthropist and WWI ambulance driver (1861-1955)
- Role: ambulance driver
- Award: 5th class Order of St Sava.
- Organisation: Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service
- Units:
- Locations: Serbia
- Key events: Attended with lifelong companion Dr.Lilian Cooper.
- Agnes Bennett – Australian New Zealand medical doctor (1872-1960)
- Role: Chief Medical Office
- Award: Serbian Order of St Sava (third class) and the Royal Red Cross of Serbia
- Organisation: British Army & Scottish Women's Hospitals.
- Units:America Unit, Ostrovo Unit.
- Locations: Cairo (British Army), Southampton, Salonika, Ostrovo
- Key events: First female commissioned officer in the British Army Cairo 1915. Then with Scottish Women's Hospitals, she commanded the America Unit, Southampton prep of the hospital ship Dunluce Castle for Salonika. CMO of the Ostrovo Unit. Eventually got Malaria and had to leave. She was replaced by Mary De Garis.
- Done Lilian Violet Cooper – British Australian medical doctor (1861–1947)
- Role: Doctor. In charge of Ambulance division.
- Award: Cooper was later awarded the Order of St Sava from the Serbian King for her wartime efforts.
- Organisation: Scottish Women's Hospital Service
- Units: Ambulance division
- Locations: France, Macedonia and Serbia
- Key events: Cooper was turned down by the Australian Army as female doctors were not wanted. joined Scottish Women's Hospital Service. She served on the front line in France, Macedonia and Serbia and was in charge of the ambulance division, with all female drivers (including her friend Mary Josephine Bedford). Operating in tents close to the front line.
- Done Mary De Garis – Australian medical doctor (1881–1963)
- Role: Doctor, Chief Medical Officer
- Award: De Garis was awarded the Serbian Order of St Sava 3rd Class.
- Organisation: Scottish Women's Hospitals
- Units: American Unit/Ostrovo Unit - in Macedonia
- Locations: Macedonia, close to the Balkan Front
- Key events: 1916 she sailed back to London and worked at the Manor Hospital for five months. In August 1916, Scottish Women's Hospitals organisation and was posted to the American Unit / Ostrovo Unit - from February 1917 to October 1918. Mary De Garis was the Chief Medical Officer for 14 months.
- Done Miles Franklin – Australian writer and feminist (1879-1954)
- Role: cook and later matron's orderly
- Award:
- Organisation: Scottish Women's Hospitals
- Units: Ostrovo Unit
- Locations: Serbian campaigns of 1917–18.
- Key events: In March 1917 Franklin volunteered for war work in the Ostrovo Unit of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. "Was made staff cook against my will. ... Then Miss Brown made a row with everyone & insisted on being head. I just let 'em muddle along and take no notice as I've had a year's training in London of English ways. Will think my own thoughts and write a book if the plot comes into my head."
- Done Laura Margaret Hope – Australian surgeon and missionary (1868-1952)
- Role: Surgeon
- Award: Both were awarded the Serbian Samaritan Cross in 1918.
- Organisation: Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service
- Units:
- Locations: Kragujevac, Serbia
- Key events: In 1915 vol. The Hopes treated wounded soldiers in Kragujevac, Serbia where they were captured and imprisoned in Hungary for two months.
- Not done: Edith McKay – Australian author and WWI nurse (1891-1963)
- Role: Nurse
- Award:
- Organisation: Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service
- Units:
- Locations: Gallipoli and Serbia
- Key events: During World War I, McKay volunteered as a nurse and was sent overseas to with the
MACEDONIA
edit- Elsie Dalyell – Australian medical doctor (1881-1948)
- Role:
- Award: In 1919 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) and was decorated by the Government of Serbia.
- Organisation: Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service 1916, Royal Army Medical Corps in 1917
- Units: 63rd General Hospital in Thessaloniki
- Locations: France, Greece, Malta and Turkey
- Key events: First in Skopje, Macedonia, in 1915 to help in managing the typhus epidemic of the time. She joined the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service in 1916 and the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1917. The RAMC placed her in charge of a laboratory in the 63rd General Hospital in Thessaloniki.
SALONIKA
edit- Done Olive Kelso King – Australian adventurer and WWI ambulance driver (1885–1958)
- Role: Ambulance driver
- Award: King received a total of four medals from the Serbian government, including the Order of St. Sava, the highest award for humanitarian service
- Organisation: Allied Field Ambulance Corps (AFAC), Scottish Women's Hospitals and later the Serbian Army
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: Using funds from her father, she supplied her own vehicle, a used lorry which she had converted into a 16-seater ambulance and christened 'Ella the Elephant' because of its size and weight. In 1915 King joined the Scottish Women's Hospitals (Girton and Newnham Unit) and was sent to the Sainte-Savine field hospital, near Troyes, France. In November 1915, the unit was sent to the Macedonian front, landing at Salonika, Greece and moving up to Gevgelija on the Greco-Serbian border. Thirty women, helped by 40 Royal Engineers, were able to dismantle the hospital before it was overrun.[1] By midnight the whole staff had got away except the three female chauffeurs. It was King's decision to head for the nearest railway station. They managed to get themselves and their ambulances on the last train before the station was bombed. By the end of July 1916, King had left the Scottish Women's Hospital and joined the Serbian army as a driver attached to the Headquarters of the Medical Service at Salonika.[1] By this time the Serbs had lost most of their transport and 'Ella' was one of only three cars attached to the Medical Headquarters.
LONDON
edit- Not done: Harriet Christina Newcomb – English feminist, activist, and educationist (1854-1942)
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation: Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service
- Units:
- Locations: london
- Key events: During World War I, Newcomb worked in London for the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service.
= O/S Volunteers not in formal organisations
edit- Not done: Mabel Brookes – Australian humanitarian and socialite (1890–1975)
- Role: volunteer
- Award:
- Organisation: n/a
- Units:
- Locations: Egypt
- Key events: During World War I, in 1915, she joined her husband in Cairo where he was working as commissioner for the Australian Branch of the British Red Cross. Along with other officer's wives she tended to sick and wounded servicemen, as well as assisting in the establishment of a rest home for nurses. Her experiences in Egypt left a deep impression on her, inspiring her war novels
- Not done: Alice Chisholm – Australian humanitarian (1856–1954)
- Role: Volunteer: Founded canteens, dormitories and dining rooms in Egypt for soldiers
- Award: CBE DBE
- Organisation:
- Units:
- Locations: Egypt
- Key events: During the First World War her son Bertram was wounded at Gallipoli. She travelled to Egypt to be closer to him; when she arrived she noticed the lack of facilities for the troops and established a canteen in the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis largely at her own expense. She opened a second canteen in Egypt at Port Said, and a third in Kantara for troops fighting near the Suez Canal with two other Australasian women. The Kantara canteen expanded to include dormitories and dining rooms and eventually had the capacity to handle thousands of men.[4] Profits from the canteens were used to provide the troops with comforts for their journey home
- Not done: Annie Wheeler – (1867–1950) soldiers' welfare worker
HEADING: The home front
edit- Not done: Dora Ohlfsen-Bagge – Australian painter, sculptor, and medallist (1869–1948)
- Role: designer of the Anzac Medal (1916), created to raise funds for Australians and New Zealanders who fought in the Gallipoli campaign, and Sacrifice (1926), the war memorial in Formia, Italy.[2][3]
- Award:
- Organisation:
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events:
- Not done: Myra Juliet Farrell – Irish-born Australian inventor and artist
- Role: Inventor.
- Award:
- Organisation:
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: Another of her inventions aided in Australia’s war effort. This was her “stitch-less button”, known as the press-stud today, and her “stitch-less hook and eye.” This gave soldiers the ability to rapidly take on and off the now pull-apart fronts of their khakis. She also created a Defence Fence, which had survived the lengthy assessment process, from many culled entries, following the department’s shout-out for ideas During World War I Farrell worked on the invention of a barricade that could repel ammunition and lessen the impact of shells.[6] The Australian Department of Defence took Farrell's plans for investigation,[6] but whether the barricade was developed and utilised was not acknowledged. At about the same time, she developed a light that could be projected to a great distance. She initially saw its use as being for advertising purposes,[6] but the military also took the plans and Farrell's prototype. The unconfirmed family legend is that the light was tested from the North Head of Sydney Harbour, causing confusion to the crew of a vessel out at sea who mistook the beam for that of the South Head lighthouse.
Australian Red Cross
edit- Not done: Australian Red Cross
People:
edit- Not done: Amelia Hetherington – Australian philanthropist (1862-1939)
- Role: president of the Kangaroo Branch of the Red Cross
- Award: Médaille d'Argent de la Réconnaissance Française, or the silver Medal of French Gratitude for this work.
- Organisation:Red Cross
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events:
- Not done: Edith Cowan – Australian social reformer and politician (1861–1932)
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation:Red Cross
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: During World War I, she collected food and clothing for soldiers at the front and coordinated efforts to care for returned soldiers. She became chairperson of the Red Cross Appeal Committee and was rewarded when, in 1920, she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).[7]
- Not done: May Moss – Australian suffragist
In 1914 she relinquished her position as vice-president of the Australian Women's National League at the onset of World War I in order to become the (then) only female member of the Victorian recruiting committee for the Armed Services.[3]
- Not done: Lillias Margaret Skene – Australian activist
Skene was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to the Red Cross during World War I.[2]
Australian Comforts Fund
edit- Not done: Australian Comforts Fund
People:
editThe Cheer-Up Society
edit- Not done: The Cheer-Up Society
People:
edit- Not done: Mrs A. Seager – (1870-1950) businesswoman and war-worker
- Role: Organiser
- Award:
- Organisation:
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: She organised hundreds of volunteers to cater for a "Cheer Up Our Boys" luncheon at Montefiore Hill for the 1,100 soldiers who were training under canvas at the Morphettville and Jubilee Oval camps, and were about to be posted overseas. From this sprang the Cheer-Up Society, with thousands of (mostly) woman volunteers, in dozens of branches throughout the State, who did much good work during the war, and of which Mrs. Seager was the indefatigable Hon. Secretary. President was William John Sowden. After the "Cheer-up Hut" was opened Seager was appointed (on a salary) as its "very able, very zealous, very efficient, and very tactful" manager.[7] nearly 100 branches, farewell entertainments to around 3,000 men.
- Not done: Mary Card – Australian designer and educator
- Role: Secretary of her district's Patriotic League
- Award:
- Organisation: Patriotic League
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events:
- Not done: Amelia Rygate – Australian politician
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation:
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: Dramatic and Musical Society during World War I, organising entertainment for serving soldiers.
HEADING: Anti-war movements
editOrganisations:
edit- Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
- Women's Peace Army
- woman voter
- women's political association
People:
edit- Partly done: Doris Blackburn – Australian political activist, legislator
- Role: social reformer and politician.
- Award:
- Organisation: Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: Spent her honeymoon organising anti-war and anti-conscription campaigns.
- Partly done: Bella Guerin – Australian activist
- Role: Anti-war proponent
- Award:
- Organisation:
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: An ardent anti-war propagandist, she led the Labor Women's Anti-Conscription Fellowship campaign during the 1916 referendum and spoke in Adelaide, Broken Hill and Victorian metropolitan and country centres against militarism and in defence of rights of assembly and free speech.
- Partly done: Marian Fleming Harwood – Scottish-born Australian scholar and pacifist (1846 – 1934)
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation:
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events: In 1907, with Rose Scott, she co-founded Sydney Peace Society.Between 1909 and 1914, she served its vice-president
- Partly done: Jessie Webb – Australian academic and historian
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation:
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events:
- Partly done: Cecilia John – (1877–1955) singer, feminist and pacifist
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation:
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events:
- Partly done: Vida Goldstein – Australian suffragist and social reformer
- Role:
- Award:
- Organisation:
- Units:
- Locations:
- Key events:
- Partly done: may Francis
- Partly done: Bella lavender
- Partly done: Elizabeth Wallace
- Partly done: Jennie baines
- Partly done: Adela Pankhurst
- Partly done: Celia John
Useful links
edit
Official commomweath of Aust John Madden, Lady Helen Munro Ferguson, Lord Stanley, Arthur Lyulph Stanley Lady Margaret Stanley (1915).
were leading military men, such as Vice Admiral Sir William Creswell (1915) and Colonel R. H. Fetherston (1915), as well as
eminent academics at the University of Melbourne with whom Helen had remained in contact, including Harry Brookes Allen (1915a, b), the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and also Mary Masson (1915a, b), wife of the Professor of Chemistry.
The addressees were of a similarly high standing within Britain, including politicians Sir George Stanley (Madden 1915), and Arthur Stanley Rickman Godlee (Allen 1915b); Sir Frederick Treves (Masson 1915b), and Sir Anthony Bowlby (Allen 1915a);