Military nursing in Australia dates back to the 19th century. Australian women served as nurses in the South African (Second Boer) War of 1899 to 1902.
Colonial nurses
Before World War II, women had very few ways to serve directly in the Allied armed forces. A mixture of laws and social norms in Commonwealth nations restricted women’s involvement in the military. One role open to Australian women was to serve as a nurse.
Australian military nursing traces its roots back to the pre-Federation period. Individual colonies created their own military nursing services. Nurses from New South Wales and Victoria accompanied Australian troops to the South African (Second Boer) War.
New South Wales nurses with souvenirs of their time in South Africa: (left to right) Matron Nellie Gould with her leather chatelaine containing tools of the trade, Sister Penelope Frater with her Queen Victoria chocolate tin, Sister Julia Bligh Johnston with a leather sjambok and Buller the dog. AWM A03962
Members of the New South Wales Army Nursing Service Reserve who served in the Boer War. Back row, left to right: Sister Annie Austin, Sister Elizabeth Ward Lister, Sister Mabel Steele, Sister Emily Hoadley, Sister Bessie Pocock, Sister Marion Martin. Middle row: Sister Annie Matchett, Sister Julia Bligh Johnston, Matron Nellie Gould. Front row: Sister Elizabeth Nixon, Sister Penelope Frater, Sister Anna Garden, Sister Nancy Newton, Sister Therese Woodward. AWM A02766
Australian Army Nursing Service
After Federation on 1 January 1901, the colonial forces merged. From this, the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) was formed. It was a reserve organisation in the early years, only mobilising nurses when war broke out.
Women served in the Australian Army in both world wars as members of the AANS. Over 2,000 nurses joined the AANS during World War I, and almost 3,500 served during World War II.
Working in the AANS was challenging and sometimes dangerous. Nurses often worked in appalling conditions. Near the battle front, they could come under fire.
During wartime, AANS nurses provided advanced care to patients at the later stages of medical treatment, such as:
- casualty clearing stations
- base or general hospitals
- hospital ships
- repatriation hospitals.
Learn more about AANS nurses in World War I.
Sick nursing sisters outside their sick quarters at 3rd Australian General Hospital, Lemnos Island, 1915. They nurses appreciated a few hours in the open air. [AW Savage, Photographs of the Third Australian General Hospital at Lemnos, Egypt & Brighton 1915-17, PXE 698, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.]
Sister Nellie Luke of the Australian Army Nursing Service bandages the wound of Private Geoffrey Abson in a tent ward of the 2/3rd Casualty Clearing Station at Heldsbach Mission, New Guinea, in March 1944. AWM 071020
Four members of the 2/13th Australian Army Nursing Service enjoying a tea break on the verandah of Australian General Hospital, Tampoi, Johor, Malaya, 1941. Left to right: Sister (Sr) Vivian Bullwinkel, Matron Irene Drummond, Sr M Anderson and Sr M Selwood. AWM P01344.008
Voluntary Aid Detachments
During World War I, volunteer organisations provided another way for Australian women to serve. The British Red Cross and the Order of St John managed Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs).
VADs worked in military hospitals and care homes across Australia, France, the Middle East and the United Kingdom. However, they were not trained nurses. They performed vital roles, such as:
- cleaners and maids
- clerks
- cooks
- drivers
- nursing assistants and ward orderlies.
Thousands of Australian women also joined the VADs during the early years of World War II. They began volunteering at military hospitals across Australia. A small number also served in the Middle East.
Members of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (Red Cross) depart aboard the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Formidable for Tokyo, Japan, to assist in the treatment and repatriation of Australian ex-POWs. In the months after the Japanese surrender on 15 August 1945 more than 13,700 ex-POWs were repatriated to Australia from various locations in both north and south-east Asia. AWM 115909
Private Amber Bushell, Voluntary Aid Detachment, in wet weather clothes, tries to hammer a tent peg more securely into the muddy ground at Kilo 89 camp, Gaza, Palestine, 1942. AWM P02480.008
Australian Army Medical Women’s Service
During World War II, the Army realised that it needed to incorporate the growing number of VADs. The result was the formation of the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service (AAMWS) in December 1942.
Around 8,500 women joined the AAMWS during World War II. They served in Australia and overseas, including Borneo, Bougainville and New Guinea.
After World War II, some AANS nurses and AAMWS members served in the peacetime army. In 1946, both services deployed members to Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF). They cared for British Commonwealth personnel and Japanese civilians while serving with BCOF.
Sponging a malaria patient, by Nora Heysen, October 1945, oil on canvas on plywood, 45.5 x 60.7 cm. Heysen, one of the three official female war artists, depicts AAMWS Private Hazel Lugge sponging malaria patient Private Ken Glover at the Medical Research Unit, near Cairns, Queensland, in October 1945. AWM ART24373
Members of the AAMWS undergo physical fitness training, c1944. AWM P00784.100
Royal Australian Army Nursing Service
The title 'Royal' was granted to the AANS in 1948 in recognition of nurses’ service to Australia. In 1949, the Royal Australian Army Nursing Service (RAANS) was incorporated into the Australian Regular Army.
With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, increasing numbers of casualties were evacuated to hospitals in Japan. RAANS and AAMWS personnel serving in Japan began caring for them.
Most of the care provided by Australians was at the British Commonwealth General Hospital at Kure. However, the Army also deployed nurses to South Korea. They served with the British Commonwealth Medical Zone Mobile Surgical Hospital in Seoul.
A member of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Service (RAANS) presents a trophy to a mother and baby in a competition at a fete organised by members of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF) in Nijimura, Japan, in aid of the NSW Flood Relief Fund, August 1950. Photographed by Harold Vaughan Dunkley. AWM DUKJ3417
A sister of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Service (RAANS) tends a Korean War casualty in the British Commonwealth General Hospital at Kure, Japan, in February 1951. AWM DUKJ3856
Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps
In February 1951, the Australian Army merged the RAANS and the AAMWS to form the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC).
The change removed the administrative control of nursing from the Royal Australian Medical Corps. As an independent corps, the RAANC adopted the Latin motto
Theatre staff of the 1st Australian Field Hospital, which was stationed at Vung Tau from April 1968 to November 1971, gather for a group photograph outside an operating theatre. The nurses are (left) Lieutenant Yvonne Werndley and Lieutenant Norma Dickson. The four men were theatre technicians whose names, unfortunately, remain unrecorded. AWM P01702.009
The service personnel of the RAANC continue to play a key role globally in:
- armed conflicts
- peace operations
- humanitarian operations
- disaster relief operations.
They have provided aid and comfort to thousands of patients, both military and civilian alike. Their contributions have changed and saved lives, and we are thankful for their extraordinary service.
Commemorating the dead
Although they're not working in the direct line of fire, many women serving as army nurses have lost their lives during service.
During World War I, at least 29 AANS nurses and 3 VAD members died while serving. During World War II, 72 AANS nurses, one VAD and 8 AAMWS members lost their lives.
In February 1942, 65 AANS nurses were evacuated from Singapore before it fell to the Japanese. Tragically, while aboard the SS Vyner Brooke, Japanese aircraft sank the ship. Only 28 nurses survived being prisoners of war; 22 had been imprisoned in Sumatra and 6 in Japan.
In May 1943, 11 AANS nurses died when the Australian Hospital Ship Centaur was torpedoed and sunk off Queensland.
In 1971, Lieutenant Barbara Black died of illness after her service in Vietnam, the only death since the founding of the RAANC.
Sister Ellen Savage of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS), the only survivor of twelve nurses on the hospital ship Centaur, is interviewed at Greenslopes Army Hospital about a week after the sinking. When the ship was sunk she reached a life-raft, and her subsequent behaviour, described in the following citation, earned her the George Medal: Although suffering from severe injuries received as a result of the explosion, and subsequent immersion in the sea, she displayed great heroism during the period whilst she and some male members of the ship's staff were floating on a raft, to which they clung for some thirty-four hours before being rescued by an American destroyer. She rendered conspicuous service whilst on the raft in attending to wounds and burns sustained by other survivors. AWM 044428
Nurses and soldiers lay flowers on the graves in Old Cairo Cemetery after attending a memorial service and march through the city streets on Anzac Day 1916. In the foreground is the grave of Sister Norma Mowbray, AANS, who died of pneumonia in January 1916. AWM C01794
Glossary
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