Edit People: ANZAC Girls

Description: [[File:RUDALL Maude Bryce - c1910.jpg|thumb|'''RUDALL Maude Bryce - c1910'''|left]] === Gawler's ANZAC Girls === In 2014, the Bunyip featured an article on ‘[https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/15964467318 Gawler’s ANZAC Girls]’<ref>"Gawler's ANZAC Girls" (Bunyip 10 Sep 2014) https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/15964467318</ref> – it marked 100 years since the beginning of WWI and coincided with the 2014 Australian television drama series ‘ANZAC Girls’, which featured the rarely told stories of Australian and New Zealand nurses and sisters serving in WWI. At that stage local researcher Beth Page had identified 7 local women who served as nurses or sisters in WWI, by the following year when the ANZAC Centenary Record was published by the Gawler RSL Sub Branch, there were known to be 17 local women who had served, they were:<ref>Gawler RSL Sub Branch (2015) “ANZAC Centenary Record for the Gawler Town and District – 259 Days that created the ANZAC Legend” (Evanston Gardens Library 994.04 RSL)</ref> ====== Irene Ball (22) ====== ====== Dorothy Sarah Bennett (30) ====== ====== Sister Mary Editha Cullen (32) ====== ====== Louie Ekers (35) ====== Name changed from Louie Eggers, daughter of [[Eggers Carl Friedrich Wilhelm|Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Eggers]] ====== Lena Chloris Howie (31) ====== Sister to Leslie Bryant Howie and Frederick William Howie who also served WWI – Leslie was one of [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/6920027995 Gawler’s first 6 recruits] ====== Harriet Jackson (30) ====== ====== Sister Alice Maude James (34) ====== ====== Sister Frances Madge Killicoat (26) ====== ====== Sister Frances Catherine Laird ====== ====== Sister Margaret May Mann (31) ====== ====== Sister Maude Bryce Rudall (31) ====== Daughter of [[Rudall (Cr) Samuel Bruce|Samuel Bruce Rudall]] ====== Sister Julia May Schillabeer (28) ====== ====== Sister Florence May Stanley (27) ====== ====== Sister Lucy Martha Tremlett (41) ====== Sister Tremlett appears to have been the first local woman to serve in WWI, embarking for overseas on 28 Nov 1914 and serving in Cairo, France and England. A “chatty” letter home from Egypt was published in the Kapunda Herald in August 1915, in which Sister Tremlett writes of being busy but happy, of her role nursing in the measles isolation tents and of her appreciation for good work of the women at home supplying the Red Cross boxes containing clean linen, pyjamas, games, notepaper and envelopes for “our men”.<ref name=":0">“Nursing the Sick” (Kapunda Herald 25 Aug 1915) <nowiki>https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/124982597</nowiki></ref> She also touches on the almost unbearable heat, the fine sand that drifts in everywhere and the “sad side”, “one feels keenly at times, for many of our boys will never return home from the Dardanelles, and many homes in Australia will be desolate.”<ref name=":0" /> Following her war service, she went on to be appointed Matron of Gawler’s [[Hutchinson Hospital East Terrace 6|Hutchinson Hospital]] in February 1918.<ref>“Hutchinson Hospital” (Bunyip 22 Feb 1918) <nowiki>https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/100413216</nowiki></ref> For more details and a photograph of Sister Tremlett, see the [https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/15964467318 article published in the Bunyip in 2014]. ====== Sister Elsie Maud Trenaman (35) ====== Sister Trenaman was the first Matron of Gawler’s [[Hutchinson Hospital East Terrace 6|Hutchinson Hospital]] and was serving in that role when she felt impelled to enlist by the urgent need for skilled nurses; she embarked for overseas on 15^th May 1915 aboard “Mooltan”.<ref>The Call of Duty. Farewell to Sister Trenaman. (Bunyip 21 May 1915) <nowiki>https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/97735622</nowiki></ref> ====== Sister Ella Vickery (32) ====== ====== Sister Daisy Jane Wright (26) ====== === For more details on these nurses and sisters === https://gawlerworldwar1.weebly.com [researched by Beth Page] https://ausww1nurses.weebly.com Gawler RSL Sub Branch (2015) “ANZAC Centenary Record for the Gawler Town and District – 259 Days that created the ANZAC Legend” (Evanston Gardens Library 994.04 RSL) === “ANZAC Girls” were Qualified Professionals === Use of the term “girls” in the title of this page, follows on from the Bunyip article, the television series and other historic usage. In a letter home, whilst serving in Egypt in WWI, Sister Trenaman herself referred to the “dear folks at home” awaiting the return of “us girls and boys”.<ref>“Letter from Nurse Trenaman” (Kapunda Herald 5 Nov 1915) <nowiki>https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/124983250</nowiki></ref> In fact the nurses and sisters who served for Australia were not “girls”, most were school educated and had completed at least three years of training to obtain their nursing qualifications,<ref>https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/ww1/military-organisation/australian-imperial-force/australian-army-nursing-service</ref> so they tended on average to be older (around 30 years old) than soldiers (around 24.25 years). The ages of the local women who served, fit with this, most were in their 30’s at the time they enlisted (see approximate age of enlistment next to each name). To see the original "Gawler's ANZAC Girls" 2014 Bunyip article and photographs of a member of the Barossa Light Horse Historical Association in period nursing uniform, please [[https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/albums/72157647703377243 click here]] The fields below can each contain multiple values. Separate them with a comma.

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