Sister Edith Cornwell
Address : “Cleadon”, Westgarth Street, Northcote
Next of kin : brother, Alexander Cornwell, “Cleadon”, Westgarth Street, Northcote. Parents Henry and Isabella Cornwell, nee Winter.
As Matron Edith Cornwell and at 46 years of age (possibly 48 when she joined a second time), she was the most senior of the women from the district to enlist, both in terms of rank and age. She first enlisted in January, 1915 and embarked from Sydney with the 1 Australian Medical Corps on HMAT Kyarra. Her next of kin was then given as a sister, Mrs H. Norman in Waverley Road, East Malvern, also shown as her own address. For some reason, there nothing remaining other the basic embarkation details to reveal her activities over the next 26 months other than she appears to have served in Egypt before returning to Australia in February, 1916.
On 27 April, 1917, she re-enlisted (perhaps a little coy about her age, she was now 44 years), with her brother in Westgarth Street as next of kin and as her own address. This Attestation simply noted her three years mandatory training at the Alfred Hospital, but an alternative form specifically requiring details of earlier medical experience reveals she had held positions of Sister and Matron for 14 years, had been superintendent of the Royal Women’s Hospital and in charge of other private and public hospitals where no surgeon was resident.
She was another that embarked in Sydney on HMAT Ulysses, and like several others in the group was first assigned to the Croydon War Hospital and then 1 AAH, although the latter transfer was delayed until February as she spent in Southwell Hospital with an unknown illness.
In 23 February, 1917, she became the first woman from the district to receive an official award, the Royal Red Cross (Second Class) for her services in Egypt. She continued as Matron of the 1 AAH until April, 1919 when she embarked to return to Australia. By this time, she had been awarded another Royal Red Cross, this time First Class (one of only 46 awarded to Australian women) gazetted in London on 1 January, 1919, in Australia 23 May.
Her contribution to the nursing profession continued for many years – post-war she became Matron of the Caulfield Military Hospital and later of Returned Soldier’s Sanatorium at Wentworth Falls in New South Wales before serving ten years as the Matron of the Child Welfare Depot in Royal Park (formerly the Neglected Children’s Home).
It was during the former assignment that she suffered the rather tragic loss of her two Red Cross awards – they were lost in a robbery where trunks containing war bonds to the value of £195 and deposit slips for other investments held in various banks in Melbourne, but it was the loss of the Badges that appears to have cause her the most distress.
Matron Cornwell was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal by the International Red Cross in Geneva. The Medal was awarded in June, 1933 for outstanding services to nursing in both war and peace time and was presented with the award in September by Lady Isaacs, wife of the Australian Governor General, Sir Isaac Isaacs. At the time, Edith Cromwell’s was just the 57th awarded and just the third to an Australian.
She is noted in a letter in 1936 requesting replacement of a stolen Returned Serviceman’s Badge on the stationery of the Edith Cavell Trust Fund and reveals that as well as being the incumbent secretary of that fund, she had previously been the founding President of the Returned Australian Nurses Club.
Matron Cornwell died on 26 May, 1955 at Heidelberg House, Heidelberg and was cremated at Springvale Crematorium, a letter from the Imperial War Graves Commission requesting details of her service before her ashes were inserted into a memorial wall.
She was survived by three sisters, Mrs Isabella Norman, Mrs Alice Cochrane and Mrs. Bessie Stone, while five other siblings pre-deceased her – Mrs Annie Adams and brothers Edmund, Harry, Frank and Alexander.
Her father Henry was noted as passing away on 27 May, 1915 at the Westgarth Street address. The Northcote Leader suggested he was “an old pioneer of the state and a useful, energetic and esteemed citizen of Northcote for many years … the existence of the rockeries which beautified the entrance to the town was due in greater measure to no man than to the late Mr. Cornwell”. An earlier edition noted that one section of the rockeries was named after him, the other notables so honoured Messrs. Bastings, Candy, Clauscen, Dennis and Mitchell.
