The discovery of Sister Olive Haynes’ post-war connection is largely based on Women Were There, Too, one of the contributions written by Liz Pidgeon for “Fine Spirit and Pluck”, an anthology of WW1 stories from Banyule, Nillumbik and Whittlesea, published 2016 by Yarra Plenty Regional Library).
Sister Haynes re-entered the spotlight as a result of the dramatization of her life in the 2014 ABC-TV series “ANZAC Girls”, which was written using “We Were There Too”, a collection of Olive’s letters and extracts from her diary, edited by her daughter Margaret Young.
Olive Lilian Creswell HAYNES
Born Adelaide, parents Rev. James Crofts and Emma (nee Creswell) Haynes, Henry Street, St. Peter’s, Adelaide
Olive Haynes breaks the mould a little in that it is was only after the war that her connection to Ivanhoe came about. She was one of the early volunteers, registering 21 November 1914 and being allocated as a Staff Nurse to No. 2 Australia General Hospital. She embarked from Melbourne on 8 December, 1914 on HMAT Kyarra (A55), just one of the first shipment of 455 men and women attached to various branches of the Australian Army Medical Corps. After arriving at Alexandria in mid-January and served tending firstly those afflicted by the various diseases and illnesses rife under the oppressive conditions of Egypt (and the local brothels), then later the hundreds of wounded invalided back from Gallipoli.
Although she had no idea of the significance at the time, 23 November 1915 saw the embarkation for Egypt with reinforcements for 2 Casualty Clearing Station of Norval Henry Dooley (generally known as “Pat”), a recently graduated 22-year-old law student from the family home, “Airlie” at 12 Kenilworth Street, Ivanhoe
Olive Haynes was promoted to Sister in December while still in Egypt, and after arriving at Marseillaise in June, 1916 was temporarily transferred to 2 Casualty Clearing Station where at some point she met Pat Dooley. On 31 October, 1917, she returned to England after being granted 21 days sick leave; coincidentally Pat Dooley suffered a gunshot wound to the chest in France just a few days later and was invalided back to England. The next entry on Olive’s file shows her compulsory resignation on 11 December following her marriage in Oxford to Lieutenant Pat Dooley. Pat’s injuries were sufficiently serious for him to be invalided back to Australia as soon as he was deemed fit to travel, departing England on 10 January, 1918, but Olive had to wait a little longer for civilian shipping, embarking in late February as an “indulgence” passenger (meaning the Government paid for the voyage) and arriving in Melbourne on 2 May.
Liz Pidgeon’s extensive research into the family background post-war reveals an astonishing record of service to both military and civilian communities.
Pat Dooley was accepted into the Permanent Army after the cessation of hostilities, initially with his war-time rank of Lieutenant, but promoted to Captain in 1920 and later as a Staff Officer with the Intelligence Section. He resigned in 1931 to establish a private legal practice, but on 16 May, 1942, Dooley was accepted back into the Army and granted his old rank of Captain, serving with the Australian Army Legal Department at Caulfield.
He was officially discharged on 13 January of the following year and returned to private practice, established the partnership of Norval H. Dooley and Breen in Queen Street, Melbourne and serving as the Honorary Treasurer of Legacy, the foundation setup after the First World War to assist the families of deceased servicemen.
Olive, despite the rigors of a large family (including one daughter Phyllis with Down Syndrome) dedicated much of her time to helping others during the Great Depression of the early 1930s and worked tirelessly for the local Comforts Fund and Red Cross during Second World War; as well as with the Children’s Hospital Canteen and the Women’s Hospital where she was made a Life Member in 1945. She later established a school for intellectually handicapped children which later evolved into the Helping Hand Association.
The family was later in Maltravers Road, the number varying at times between 29, 31 and 37, the latter shown in 1955 when Olive Dooley applied for replacement medals in 1955 after she lent to her originals to one of her grandsons for his school Anzac Day celebration, apparently lost when they fell from his clothing while he was riding through a thickly grassed paddock.
The combined Haynes-Dooley family’s service to Australia was far from restricted to Pat and Olive.
One of Olive’s brothers, James Dalrymple Creswell Haynes, enlisted on 7 June, 1916 as a 28-year-old professional soldier at the Fort Largs Artillery Barracks, South Australia with his mother in St. Peter’s, Adelaide as next of kin. He served as 89, Gunner, Siege Artillery Brigade, later Private, 36 Heavy Artillery Brigade, before being invalided (“bad feet”) home to Australia arriving 28 February, 1919,
Pat’s younger brother, Raymond Dooley enlisted as a 19-year-old clerk from Kenilworth Parade and embarked as Corporal with the 29th Infantry (Machine Gun Section) and was promoted to Adjutant of the 29th and made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the Queen’s Birthday list of 1918, gazetted in Australia, 7 November, 1918.
Even more remarkably, all five of Pat and Olive’s sons served during the Second World War – in order of age:
*James Creswell DOOLEY (born 30 January, 1919), Service Number(s) NX129859, N378671, Sapper, LHQ Engineering School,
*David Raymond DOOLEY (28 June, 1920), 351014, VX22300, Private, (later promoted to Staff Sergeant while serving in the Middle East), 1st Army HQ,
*Malcolm Henry DOOLEY (19 November, 1921), VX60719, Gunner, 2 Battery, 12 Field Regiment Artillery,
*Alan John DOOLEY (3 March, 1923), X77803, Signalman, 1st Armoured Division Signals Corps HQ,
*Richard Dalrymple DOOLEY (28 March 1927), PM8348, Able Seaman, HMAS Lonsdale
Born in 1888 in Norwood, Adelaide, Olive Lilian Creswell Dooley, nee Haynes passed away on 10 May, 1978 in Heidelberg; Pat, her partner for over sixty years followed her just a few months later in September.
