Australian Nurses of 1915

Australian Nurses of 1915 - 12 September 2013, Katrina Hedditch  The history of Australian nurses during 1915 in Egypt, on hospital ships at Gallipoli and under canvas on Lemnos Island, was forgotten for two generations despite being one of the dramatic epics of the First World War. A handful of brave women sailed to Anzac Cove for the Landing on April 25, and following the August Offensive another 130 nurses, a quarter of them from Victoria, arrived on Lemnos where they found hundreds of wounded men lying on a rocky hillside without equipment, food or water. Some nurses carried grief for brothers, cousins and friends killed and maimed on the peninsula and most were laid low by disease but they worked valiantly to save the shattered young Anzacs they called ‘our boys’. During their tour of duty, the nurses drew on deep reserves of training and discipline, courage and fortitude to alleviate suffering and bring order out of chaos. Their story is a tale of the power of the human spirit as well as an important chapter in the Anzac tradition.