Jessie McHardy White (M.B.E., R.R.C) (nee Williamson)
Address : Crathie House Private Hospital, Gipps Street, East Melbourne
Next of Kin : Sister, Margaret Woodhead, “Glenarra”, Queen’s Parade, North Fitzroy
Parents : John and Mary Williamson (nee McHardy)
(“McHardie” is the spelling in most of the first World War documentation and many other references; it was correctly “McHardy”, her mother’s maiden name, but it was always used in conjunction with “White”, although not hyphenated).
There were two nurses from Yarra Glen that served – while Yarra Glen does not now fall within Eltham and thus the current scope of WikiNorthia, it was part of the Shire during the First World War.
There was no mention of either of the women on any of the lists of volunteers published in the Evelyn Observer or its later counterpart, the Eltham and Whittlesea Advertiser, and if it wasn’t for their names being mentioned by the Advertiser at a Yarra Glen Welcome Home on 12 September, 1919 along with a group of servicemen, their considerable service during the war may well have faded into history
Along with Edith Cornwell (Northcote) and Charlotte Joan McAllister (Brunswick), Matron Jessie McHardy White was one of the three outstanding nurses from the northern part of Melbourne during the First World War.
Given enrolment with the Australian Army Nursing Service was restricted to single or widowed nurses, Jessie McHardy White was also unique in being the only widow from the 30-plus group of nurses within the WikiNorthia boundaries. She married Thomas James White in 1893, and he appears to have been the Thomas James White listed as passing away in Hawthorn in 1896 at 27 years of age. There were no children of the marriage.
She had two periods of service, the first scantily documented in official records, but her second Attestation in June, 1917 reveals she obtained her three-year Nursing Certificate at the Alfred Hospital, had worked at the Royal Women’s and had been a member of the Australian Army Nursing Service for 12 years.
At the time of her volunteering, she was in charge of Crathie House Private Hospital in Gipps Street, East Melbourne. She left Melbourne on 19 October, 1914 on HMAT Benalla as part of a small medical team attached to the 8th Infantry Battalion (the embarkation record shows “White, J McH, 8th Infantry Battalion”, there were around 1,270 serviceman also aboard).
There is a brief record of her serving in Egypt with 1 Australian General Hospital, and she later continued on to England where she later served as the first Principal Matron at the new Commonwealth Military Offices in Horseferry Road, Westminster London. Subsequent reports suggest that her major role was in ensuring the welfare of the nurses themselves rather than an active medical involvement (see letter below).
She returned to Australia on 28 June, 1916 and in October was noted as being the Guest of Honour at a function held in her honour at the Caulfield Military Hospital.
The record of her return is marked “for retirement” and she was formally discharged on 24 September, but with war spreading to the Balkans, the British Government requested additional nurses and she re-enlisted in June, 1917, claiming to be 44 years of age.
She was actually 47 and thus over-age – no record of her original enlistment in 1914 survives for comparison, but Victorian registrations show her as born in Healesville (the 1917 Attestation suggests Yarra Glen) in 1870, one of six girls to John and Mary Williamson).
Matron McHardy White left Sydney on 9 June aboard the ill-fated RMS Mooltan as Principal Matron in charge of the first unit of nurses bound for Salonika. As well as herself, the group consisted of a Matron, eight sisters and 80 nurses, most of whom were experiencing their first taste of military service.
She served at 66 General Hospital and later 52 GH before embarking on 7 March, 1919 for the one month leave in England granted to all Australian nurses regardless of their theatre of service.
In recognition of her service over nearly four years, Matron White was invested as a Member of the Order of the British Empire, gazetted in London on 15 April, 1919 and in Australia on 23 July. Before her original return to Australia, she was also awarded the Royal Red Cross (gazetted 3 June, 1916 (1st Class) as part of the King’s Birthday Honours, and 21 September in Australia. She was also Mentioned in Despatches twice (June 1916 and June, 1918).
Her service in Greece also saw her awarded two foreign decorations – the Greek Medal for Military Merit and the Serbian Order of St Sava – 5th Class. While the former was awarded to 18 Australian nurses who served at Salonika, Matron White was the only Australian to be awarded the Serbian decoration.
The decoration was instigated in 1883 and awarded by the Kingdoms of Serbia and (then) Yugoslavia and the Serbian Orthodox Church for meritorious achievements in the arts, science, education and religion. It was expanded in 1914 to take into account humanitarian services by members of the military.
Post-war, Matron McHardy White appears from correspondence in her files to have been at her sister’s address in North Fitzroy until 1925 when she settled in Kew (where she displayed some prowess as a golfer, noted as winning a couple of Kew Golf Club Ladies events). She moved to Hawthorn in 1938 where she died at her home in 1957 at 87 years of age.
Fittingly, she became the first President of the Salonika branch of the Returned Nurses Club in 1922, a position she held until around 1954 and for several years in the 1930s was a vice-president of the Alfred Hospital Nurses League;
TO THE EDITOR OF THE ARGUS.
Sir, – The public who so generously responded lo Lady Bridge’s appeal should know how the Christmas gifts were appreciated by the nurses at the front, as the following shows:-“The Australian nurses in England desire me to thank you most sincerely for the beautiful Christmas boxes, especially for the thought and care in the gifts chosen, everyone getting just what she wanted. I was able to get them all distributed before Christmas Day, and it was a very pleasing task. (Signed J. McHardy White, Principal Matron, A.A.N.S. in England.
See also Sister Isabel Russell Ross
