WWI Nurses Remembered

Nursing the wounded from Gallipoli in a Cairo Hospital during WWI. Photo courtesy of State Library of South Australia

15 Ipswich Hospital nurses served in World War I. This Friday on November 10, the Ipswich Hospital Museum will unveil a plaque in their honour. They are calling for any descendants to get in touch with them and come along.

Ipswich Hospital Museum volunteer Mary Purser believes that while honouring the nurses is worth doing in its own right, the event will be much more meaningful as many of the nurses’ descendants will be present when the plaque is unveiled.

“The nurses all worked or trained in Ipswich Hospital before joining the war effort to tend to the needs of sick and injured soldiers, in places such as Egypt, India, Mesopotamia, France, England and on board Commonwealth hospital ships,” Mary said. 

“It is impossible for us to fully comprehend what the nurses would have experienced. Collectively, they tended to bomb wounds, gunshot injuries, trench foot, typhoid, influenza and many other sicknesses, all in a time with no antibiotics and limited anaesthesia.”

Dr Robyn Henderson, Executive Director Nursing and Midwifery believes the absolute compassion and ethos of caring, is something that still remains among nurses today.

“We are very proud of the contribution that the 15 nurses from Ipswich Hospital made to the larger effort of nurses from Australia and its allies during World War I. This plaque will help to ensure we always remember their role in the war, the nursing profession and the history of Ipswich Hospital,” she said.

Two of the nurses were from the one family and a third was their cousin. Ruth Maughan Robson and her sister Jane Selina Robson were from Ma Ma Creek. They also had a brother Francis (Frank) William Robson who served in WWI and was killed in action on July 22, 1916, as his sister Ruth was about to depart for the front from Australia for the second time. Elsie Jane Pollock from Grantham was their cousin. 

Judy Pender from Biloela is Ruth Robson’s granddaughter. She remembers her Grandma as someone who was really good to her and her eight siblings.

“She never spoke about her experiences during the war. She did talk a lot about the death of her son Leslie Edgar George, in WW2. He was a Prisoner of War in Japan when he died of Tuberculosis.”

A list of the 15 Ipswich WWI Nurses

Margaret Bourke

Staff Nurse, Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS)

Born 22 July 1891 at Tullabrack, Ireland

Aged 27 years

Enlisted 7 October 1918

Embarked 14 October 1918 at Sydney per “Wyreema”

Disembarked “Wyreema” on 10 December 1918 at Fremantle for duty at Quarantine Station – operated to isolate and treat people returning from the battlefields with infectious diseases like the Bubonic Plague, Small Pox, Venereal Diseases, TB, and Spanish Flu.

Appointment terminated 23 April 1919.

Eileen Cowen

Non AANS

Served in Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Regiment

World War I Nurses from QAIMNSR were about 10,000 regular and reserve nurses serving in countries such as France, India, East Africa, Italy, Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Salonika and Russia.

The corps traces its heritage to Florence Nightingale.

Bonnet of AANS nurses’ outdoor dress. AWM photo

Rose Jane Langford

Sister, AANS, 1st Australian General Hospital

Born in Hull or Devonshire, England

Aged 36 years

Enlisted 11 November 1914 in Brisbane

Serviced in Egypt and on the field in France (Egypt records missing)

Promoted to Sister 1 August 1915

Returned to Australia on board “Baranbah” 14 April 1917

Died 9 March 1935 in Qld

Mentioned in Despatches of Brigadier General FHG Cunliffe CMG, 16 March 1916 for services in August 1915 in Egypt during Gallipoli conflict. 

Clara Northall

Non AANS

Served in Queen Alexandra’s Imperial

Military Nursing Service Regiment.

(left) Hospital staff in 1891 with nurses wearing first hospital uniforms issued.
Back row: N. Clara Northall, Mrs Jackson, N. MacFarlane, N. Innes, N. Waller
Centre: Dr Thornton (Medical Superintendent), Mrs Holocroft (Head Nurse) Mr. Thompson (Dispenser)
Sitting: N. McManus and N. Harlow 

Helen Ritchie

Staff Nurse, AANS

Born 1890 in Tweed River, NSW

Aged 27 years

Enlisted 19 May 1917

Embarked 29 May 1917 in Melbourne on board “Kanowna”

Served in India, and on ships “Takada” and “Sicilia”

Served in Egypt, India and Mesopotamia

Transferred to England dangerously ill with multiple illnesses – Tonsillitis, Inflammation, Malaria, Bronchitis and Influenza

Invalided to Australia 22 February 1919 on board “Novgodrod”

Discharged unfit for further service 7 July 1919

Resided in Kelvin Grove. Died 1961 Lambeth, London

Ipswich Hospital Nurses 1930s
Back row from left to right: Jean McLelland (POW in Japan for three years during WWII),
Ruth Robson, Sylvia Rudd, Elsie Spencer.
In the front row from left to right: Elaine Jones, Frances Leetch, Mavis Munsell, and Rita Cooney.

Jane Selina Robson

Staff Nurse, AANS

Born 1892 in Grantham, Qld

Aged 26 years

Enlisted 7 October 1918

Embarked 14 October 1918 at Sydney on board “Wyreema” intended for Greece but disembarked at Freemantle for duty at the Quarantine Station – operated to isolate and treat people returning from the battlefields with infectious diseases like the Bubonic Plague, Small Pox, Venereal Diseases, TB, and Spanish Flu.

Discharged 24 April 1919.

Died 11 October 1962 in Queensland. Buried at Mt Thompson Memorial Gardens

Queensland State Library photo

Annie Scott

Matron

AANS

Born Durham, England

Enlisted 11 November 1914 at Brisbane, Qld.

Embarked 21 November 1914 from Brisbane on board “Kyarra”.

Aged 35 years

Served in Egypt, France and Bombay

Obtained rank of ‘Matron’

Returned to Australia 1 December 1919 on board “Medic”

Margaret Young Winning

Born 1872

Trained at Ipswich Hospital and worked there from 1896–1904.

In 1913, she was nursing in England but moved to Paris, France, where she worked for the Central Anglo-American Association.

She attempted to join the Australian nurses at Gallipoli but was unsuccessful. She joined the American Ambulance Hospital in Paris and spent the remaining war years nursing in various centres in France.

After the war, Ms Winning lived in the south of France but, in WW2 and working at the Paris Embassy, she was captured and imprisoned in a convent. Ms Winning escaped to Monte Carlo.

After her death in 1966, the Margaret Y Winning Trust Fund was formed. At her request and as a mark of gratitude to her training hospital, the Margaret Y Winning Scholarship was set up for Ipswich Hospital nurses. 

The Ipswich Hospital Muesum is open to the public every Wednesday from 9am-12pm. It is located on the ground floor of the Jubilee Building.

If you can help in the museum’s search for descendants, please get in touch by emailing info@ispwichhospitalmuseum.

Anecdotes about the Australian Nurses sourced from the Australian War Memorial