The City of Brunswick :
- Elizabeth Gertrude FLEMING
- Annie Frances GRIFFIN
- Mabel Lucy HUTCHINSON
- Linda FLOWER
- Alice Elizabeth KITCHEN/KITCHIN
- Blanche Catherine KILSBY
- Charlotte Joan McALLISTER (O.B.E)
- Flora MELVILLE
- Elvina Mary OVEREND
- BLANCHE Lily RICKETTS
- Sarah Jane PROCTER
- Olive Mary ROSE
- Florence WILLANS
- Blodywn Elizabeth WILLIAMS
The Town of Coburg :
- Milanie Treleavan AMBLER
- Octavia Ione KELSON
- Margaret Ellen ROTHERHAM
The Shire of Eltham :
- Edith Caroline Muncton MILLER
- Frances Mary MILLER (Queen Alexandra Military Nursing Service)
- Isabel Russell ROSS
- (Mrs) Jess McHardy WHITE (nee WILLIAMSON)
The Shire of Heidelberg (then including Fairfield and Alphington) :
- Harriett Mary Hazel BAIN
- Emma Argyle CUTHBERT (R.R.C)
- Evelyn DAVIES (Fairfield)
- Elsie Longman DEAKIN (Fairfield)
- Mary Ann FARRELL
- Elizabeth GALLAGHER (Mont Park)
- Florence Eva HARTE (Ivanhoe)
- Olive Lilian Creswell HAYNES (Ivanhoe)
- Ada HODSON (R.R.C) (Ivanhoe)
- Eileen Jessie McCALMAN *
- Ida O’Dwyer
- Olive Winifred PETERSEN
- Mary Elizabeth Jane ROBERTS (Fairfield)
- Eliza SMITH (Mentioned in Despatches) (Ivanhoe)
- Helen Sutherland TORBET *
The City of Northcote :
- Harriett Mary Hazel BAIN
- Eileen BEAGLEY
- Jessie Helena COUSTON
- Ernestine Mabel EDWARDS
- Jessie FLANNERY
- Minnie KNIGHT
- Florence May LAITY
- Thora McLENNAN
- Gladys Nettska SUMNER
- Ruby Emily Olive WILSON
- Edith CORNWELL
The Shire of Preston :
- Elsie Lena FAHEY
- Winifred JEFFREYS
- Amy Veda O’GRADY
- Amy Alice SIMPSON
The Shire of Whittlesea :
- Rosalind Eva BALLARD
The Glenroy Military Hospital :
The Glenroy Military Hospital at the time of the First World War was within the City of Essendon, but subsequent realignment and amalgamations place it within today’s City of Moreland and thus within the Scope of WikiNorthia. Coburg and Brunswick. Local historian Cheryl Griffin has identified two nurses, who although not residents of the area are known to have been working at the Glenroy Military Hospital at the time of their enlistment, plus a third who spent a short time as Matron at Glenroy before returning overseas.
- Hilda Elizabeth ALLEN
- Sarah Leatham DUFF
- Alice Marion PRICHARD
Revision : November, 2018
An Additional entry : The family connections of Ida O’DWYER where with St. Kilda, but prior to volunteering, she was Matron at Mont Park, and after returning with a highly impressive record and with the awards of Royal Red Cross (First and Second Class), she was also Matron at Macleod Sanatorium prior to taking up the same position at No. 11 Australian General Hospital in Caulfield.
Revision : February, 2018
An Additional entry : Frances Mary MILLER (sister of Edith already included). She does not appear in A.I.F. records, but she was identified as the “MILLER, F.M” on the Honour Board at St. Margaret’s Anglican Church in Eltham. She was one of 130 Australian nurses that paid their way to England to join the Queen Alexandra Military Nursing Service. Frances was unmarried when she died in the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital 26 July, 1952 at 73 years of age.
Revision : February, 2018
An Additional entry : Annie Frances GRIFFIN. Noted as at 54 Park-street, West Brunswick when she enlisted and sadly became a casualty of the war, dying in the Caulfield Repatriation Hospital on 11 June, 1922.
Revision : April, 2017
Servicemen that enlisted received plenty of attention, but what about the 30 or so nurses from our area?
Generally, they were ignored by the local newspapers and Honour Rolls with a couple of exceptions, that of Vera O’Grady and Winifred Jeffreys who are both commemorated on the Preston War Memorial.
Perhaps there was a reason – nurses were only accepted if they had already volunteered for the Australian Army Nursing Service formed in 1902 as a volunteer force of nurses who declared their willingness to be called up in times of national emergency. They were then required to formally enlist in the A.I.F. before serving overseas.
Like the men that enlisted, their life stories vary greatly, but at least three went on to careers in civilian life of great distinction.
Although life in the Nursing Services was undoubtedly strenuous and at times severe, it appears to have instilled a level of physical resilience in those that served – the dates of their eventual death have been traced for just over half that survived the war and the average age on their demise was 80.5 years, which given the shorter life expectancy of nearly 100 years ago was probably 12 to 14 years longer than that of the general populous.
Updated 29 July 2024
