Remembering Those Who Served And Cared

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As we reflect on the Anzac centenary and the many events from the First World War that have shaped our present world, it is important to remember and reflect on the role nurses played alongside Australian soldiers. Australian nurses have served during wartime for over 100 years. Even now, the images associated with wartime are those of Australian soldiers charging up the slopes of Gallipoli, but rarely do you see or read depictions of the nurses who cared for the injured and dying. It wasn’t until 1997, almost 80 years after the end of the First World War, that the Australian Government dedicated a site on Anzac Parade in Canberra, the Australian Service Nurses National Memorial - to commemorate the contribution of nurses in all theatres of war.

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The ACN (Australian College of Nursing) is committed to remembering the service of Australian nurses during wartime and has partnered with Dr Ruth Rae in a commemorative publication - The History of Australian Nurses in the First World War: An ACN Centenary Commemorative Trilogy. The Trilogy details the important contribution of Australian nurses and, most notably, Australian nurse leaders who served in the First World War.
Even in the 19th century, nurses saw the need for strong nurse leadership and the necessity of a universal standard of nurse education. The Australasian Trained Nurses’ Association (ATNA) was established in 1899, followed by the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) which was established in 1903 as part of the Australian Army Medical Corps. The AANS was a reserve unit comprised of nursing services from each former colony and consisted of entirely part-time, volunteer nurses – including pioneer Australian nurse leaders such as Matron Adelaide (Maud) Kellett, Matron Julia Ellen (Nellie) Gould, Matron Jessie McHardie White and Matron Rose Creal.
The first cohort of Australian nurses left Australia in September 1914 and over the course of the war served wherever Australian troops were stationed. Nurses - including pioneering Matrons Kellett, Gould, White and Creal - were recruited from the AANS reserve and the civil nursing profession. There were 2,468 Australian civilian nurses’ who volunteered for active service during the First World War and more than 400 who served in Australia. Of those 41 individuals were lost during this time in the line of duty, and the past years have seen at least 388 decorated for their dedication and efforts to the First World War.
These nurses had to deal directly with both the physical and mental health concerns that affected those who served on the front-lines. Like our servicemen, many nurses travelled far from their homes with no real sense of what was ahead of them. They experienced the challenges of being out of their depth, away from home and inundated with injured and sick patients – as well as having to fight for recognition of their medical efforts.
One example of the extreme conditions nurses had to work in, were the experiences of the 300 AANS nurses who left Australia in late 1914 and arrived in Egypt early 1915. These nurses were posted to either the 1st Australian General Hospital (1 AGH) or the 2nd Australian General Hospital – both stationed in Cairo. With the influx of patients from Gallipoli in April 1915, the facilities became overcrowded and the equipment and supplies totally inadequate; the Australian nurses worked around the clock. Eventually 1 AGH took over a nearby amusement park, turned the ticket office into an operating theatre and the skating rink, scenic railway, and skeleton house into wards –illustrating quite remarkable ingenuity.
Although many of these nurses were working in unimaginable conditions, it was strong nurse leadership that ensured these First World War nurses, at least, had a reasonable level of training. In Veiled Lives, the third book in the Trilogy, Dr Rae discusses the persistence of Matron Jane Bell in gaining more training for her nurses:
Surgical trainee nurses were instructed in operating theatre procedures and became proficient in assisting surgeons during procedures as well as assisting the anaesthetist. This demonstrated a great deal of foresight on the part of Bell because these same operating theatre nurses were, in a few short years, assisting surgeons in CCS [Casualty Clearing Station] and in makeshift theatres on hospital ships, repairing the damaged bodies of soldiers who had just been wounded. Women who became nursing volunteers during the First World War were ‘overwhelmed with nervousness and embarrassment’ because ‘thanks to the Victorian tradition which up to 1914 dictated that a young woman should know nothing of men but their faces and their clothes until marriage pitchforked her into an incompletely visualised and highly disconcerting intimacy’. Fortunately, this was averted for future army nurses who would have been ill-equipped to manage such a situation if Jane Bell had not persisted with her proposal. (Rae 2015a, pp64)
Even with the extra training provided, many nurses were unaware of the impact that the war would have on not only their patients’ mental health but their own. Not only did Australian nurses have to deal with the impacts of seeing their countrymen and friends killed or wounded in the war, many had to deal with shell shock; the long term physical and mental effects of war. Dr Rae highlights this in Scarlet Poppies, the second book in the Trilogy.
Staff Nurse Leila Brown found the only way to deal with shell shock was to exercise common sense and compassion. She found that when she ‘did night duty in this ward … men would fight their battles over again in their sleep. A man … would suddenly jump from his bed and with a wild expression hiss between his teeth ‘lie down you b------ fools or you’ll be seen’ and similar things. You had to be careful in getting him back to bed – he was in a fighting mood and would certainly give anyone a blow who interfered with him.’ Many narratives detail the pain the nurses felt watching the physical manifestations of shell-shock in the young, otherwise, healthy, men. It is difficult to explain why some nurses were able to compartmentalise the atrocities perpetuated by war yet others suffered the full psychological weight of their experiences. (Rae 2015b, pp140-141)
As would have been the case for some servicemen, there were also moments of beauty –although these moments were often intertwined with horror. Matron Maud Kellett, when serving on the hospital ship Gascon in 1915, stated poignantly:
... The sunsets were most glorious … even more beautiful than at Lemnos, in as much, as the last ray of the after glow disappeared, the whole side of the mountain facing us, began to shimmer with myriads of lights, from the dug-outs. Viewed from the deck of the “Gascon” by night, Anzac Cove was indeed a most picturesque sight, and one could hardly realise what a deadly inferno it was, until the guns began to talk. (Rae 2015b, p. 104)
When thinking about the contribution and sacrifice our ancestors made to protect our country it is important to remember that Australian nurses were standing alongside the soldiers. The number of lives saved by Australian nurses can never be calculated and their contribution, though sometimes not always widely known or discussed, extends far beyond the frontline of the war.
ACN would like to acknowledge and thank Dr Ruth Rae for her assistance with this article.

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“When thinking about the contribution and sacrifi ce our ancestors made to protect our country it is important to remember that Australian nurses were standing alongside the soldiers.”

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References
Rae, R. 2015a, Veiled Lives: Threading Australian Nursing History into the Fabric of the First World War (3rd edition), ACN, Canberra, ACT.
Rae, R. 2015b, Scarlet Poppies: The Army Experience of Australian Nurses during the First World War (3rd edition), ACN, Canberra, ACT
Image on page 109 provided by John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland Neg: 164825
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