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Australian women in World War I

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Queensland nurses leaving on the SS Omrah for World War I, circa 1914
Women's Voluntary Registration Office, situated in the quadrangle of the Brisbane Town Hall, 1915. The office was established by the National Council of Women for the purpose of registering women willing to undertake work in connection to the war.
Recruitment posters urging women to get men to enlist

The role of Australian women in World War I was focused mainly upon their involvement in the provision of nursing services.[1] Australian women also played a significant role on the homefront, where they filled jobs made vacant by men joining the armed forces. Women also undertook fundraising and recruiting activities as well as organising comfort packages for soldiers serving overseas. Around the issue of conscription, women were involved in campaigning on both sides of the debate,[2] while they were also equally involved in the New South Wales strike in 1917. Nevertheless, despite this involvement, women have never occupied a central position in the Australian version of the Anzac legend, although since the 1970s their role has been examined in more detail as a result of the emergence of feminist historiography, and specialist histories such as the history of nursing.

Military service[edit]

One of the primary roles for Australian women during the war was nursing.[3] No other official military roles were available to Australian women during World War I.[4]

In May of 2015, a notice was posted in the Sydney Morning Herald under the headline "NO WOMEN DOCTORS", which stated:

The Minister for Defence is in receipt of a cable message from the High Commissioner, Sir George Reid, stating that the War Office regrets that it cannot utilise the service of women doctors.[5]

Doctors, such as Katie Ardill, Eleanor Elizabeth Bourne, and Phoebe Chapple, after being rejected by the Australian military, travelled at their own expense to enlist in other associated organisations taking part in the war effort.[6]

Nursing in the Australian military[edit]

For broader coverage of this topic, see Australian Army Nursing Service.

The Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) comprised more than 3000 nurses during the war, over 2,200 of whom served outside Australia.[3] When the first 25 nurses embarked with the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) in November 1914, they had no military ranks, and the nurses and the AIF were unclear about how the AANS might fit in with the AIF.[4]

In early 1916 there was an overhaul of the AANS, the members were given military ranks equivelant to officers.[7] Matrons wore two crowns on their shoulders as Majors did, the Sisters wore two star like the 1st Lieutenants, however, they were still only paid half of what the men received, and often required financial support from their families back at home. At this time, Evelyn Conyers was appointed as the Matron-in-Chief, and was responsible for running the service.[4] Conyers was a New Zealand born nurse who had immigrated to Australia, and had been part of the AANS since its inception in 1903.[8]

21 AANS nurses died during their war service and a number shortly thereafter. Nurses were present on the Western Front, and in Greece, England, India, Egypt, and Italy. They served not just in Australian military hospitals but also in British hospitals and in ships at sea. The AANS comprised trained nurses, trained masseuses, 14 ward assistants and 1 bacteriologist.[3] After enlisting with the AANS, Fannie Eleanor Williams, a trained nurse, worked as a bacteriologist in laboratories at the No. 3 Australian General Hospital in Lemnos from 1915, the Lister Institute in London from 1917, and the No. 25 British Stationary Hospital in France in 1918. She was awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross for her work.[9]

In 1917, four AANS nurses won the military medal for demonstrating bravery under fire: Sister Dorothy Cawood from Parramatta, New South Wales;[10] Sister Clare Deacon from Burnie, Tasmania;[11] Staff Nurse Mary Jane Derrer from Mackay, Queensland;[12] and Staff Nurse Alice Ross-King from Ballarat, Victorian, who was also awarded an Associate Royal Red Cross in 1918.[13] They were working on the Western Front, at the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station which was near the trenches at Trois Arbres near Armentières when on 22 July 1917, there was a German raid and five bombs hit the hospital.[14] The four nurses rescued patients who were trapped in the burning building.[13]

Service in the British Army Medical Services[edit]

Australian women were able to serve in the British Army Medical Services.[4] The most senior Australian woman in military service in World War I was Maud McCarthy, the British Imperial Forces's, Matron in Chief for France and Flanders. McCarthy was born in Paddington, Sydney, and was raised and educated in Australia, and she studied nursing at the University of Sydney. By the time she enlisted to serve in World War I, she had military decorations, having served as one of the then Princess Alexandra's personal military nurses in South Africa, and being involved in the formation of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, and from 1910, she had been the Principle Matron of the War Office. She held this position until World War I broke out.[15]

Associated wartime organisations[edit]

Hundreds of other Australian trained nurses served overseas with organisations including: the Red Cross, St John Ambulance and the Australian Voluntary Hospital. Australia also sent a number of female VADs to work in military hospitals. An example of these groups is the 20 nurses and a masseuse who were recruited to work in French hospitals by the Australian Red Cross Society, they were dubbed the "Bluebirds" in reference to the colour of their uniforms.[16] The Australian nurses had their roles changed mid-way through World War I. As the war went on, the facilities became better throughout. They were able to clean and sterilize utensils used to clean up wounds. Offer mental support and treatment. And finally offer strong medication.[citation needed]

Other volunteer work[edit]

The following women's voluntary organisations were involved in support work:[17]

Three women spinning wool to knit socks for soldiers during World War I in Tenterfield, New South Wales, ca. 1915

Awards[edit]

The following women received medals or other awards for their war work:

Opposition[edit]

A number of Australian women opposed the war, or certain aspects of it. Australian pacifists and anti-conscription activists during this period included Bella Guerin and Doris Blackburn.

See also: World War I conscription in Australia

Notable Australian women involved in the war[edit]

Main page: Category:Australian women of World War I

References[edit]

  1. ^ "1918: Australians in France – Nurses – "The roses of No Man's Land"". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 27 March 2011. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
  2. ^ "Forging the Nation: Australian Women". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 25 December 2010. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
  3. ^ a b c Kirsty Harris, More than Bombs and Bandages: Australian Army nurses at work in World War I, BigSky Publishing, 2011
  4. ^ a b c d "Australian Women and War". Anzac Portal. Department of Veterans' Affairs. July 2008. ISBN 978 1 877007 28 6. Archived from the original on 30 March 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  5. ^ "NO WOMEN DOCTORS". Sydney Morning Herald. 10 May 1915. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  6. ^ Sheard, Heather (2019). Women to the front: the extraordinary Australian women doctors of the Great War. North Sydney, NSW: Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-14-379470-7.
  7. ^ "Australian Army Nursing Service in World War I". DVA Anzac Portal. DVA (Department of Veterans' Affairs). 31 May 2024. Archived from the original on 8 June 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  8. ^ Heywood, Anne (4 May 2009). "Conyers, Evelyn Augusta". The Australian Women's Register. Archived from the original on 8 June 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  9. ^ Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology (15 June 2022). "Williams, Fannie Eleanor - Person - Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation". Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation. Archived from the original on 9 April 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  10. ^ Abbott, Jacqueline, "Dorothy Gwendolen Cawood (1884–1962)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 8 June 2024
  11. ^ "Tasmanian nurse decorated". North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times. Tasmania. 29 November 1917. p. 3. Retrieved 8 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ "Personal notes". Brisbane Courier. Queensland. 2 October 1917. p. 7. Retrieved 8 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ^ a b "Women in action – nurses and serving women". Archived from the original on 17 February 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
  14. ^ Finnie, Lorna M., "Alice Ross-King (1887–1968)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, archived from the original on 8 June 2024, retrieved 8 June 2024
  15. ^ McCarthy, Perditta M., "Dame Emma Maud McCarthy (1859–1949)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, archived from the original on 8 June 2024, retrieved 8 June 2024
  16. ^ Hetherington, Les (January 2009). "The Bluebirds in France". Wartime. 45: 58–60.
  17. ^ "Women in wartime". Archived from the original on 17 February 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
  18. ^ "The suffering Servians". Albury Banner and Wodonga Express. New South Wales. 25 January 1918. p. 38. Retrieved 23 April 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ^ "Cashin, Alice Alanna RRC (Matron, b.1870 – d.1939)". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 8 June 2024. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  20. ^ "Attestation Paper of Evelyn Augusta Conyers". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  21. ^ Rickard, John (2002). "White, Vera Deakin (1891–1978)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 16. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  22. ^ "Alicia Mary Kelly (1874–1942)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Archived from the original on 4 March 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
  23. ^ "Faith, Hope, Charity". Archived from the original on 20 July 2013. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  24. ^ "Florence Reid". National Archives of Australia. Archived from the original on 5 March 2019. Retrieved 3 April 2019.

External links[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Adam-Smith, Patsy. Australian Women At War, Penguin, Melbourne, 1996
  • Barker, Marianne. Nightingales in the Mud, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1989
  • Bassett, Jan. Guns and Brooches, Oxford Melbourne, 1992
  • Beaumont, Joan, ed. Australia’s War 1914-18, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1995
  • Beaumont, Joan. "Whatever happened to patriotic women, 1914–1918?." Australian Historical Studies 31.115 (2000): 273-286.
  • Cochrane, Peter. Australians At War, (ABC Books, Melbourne, 2001).
  • Coates, Donna. "Myrmidons to Insubordinates: Australian, New Zealand and Canadian Women’s Fictional Responses to the Great War." in P. Quinn and S. Trout, eds. The Literature of the Great War Reconsidered (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2001. 113-142).
  • De Vries, Susanna. Heroic Australian women in war: astonishing tales of bravery from Gallipolli to Kokoda. (HarperCollins, 2004. ISBN 0732276691).
  • Fallows, Carol. Love and War, (Bantam Books, Sydney, 2002).
  • Kretzenbacher, Heinz L. "The forgotten German-Australian stories of Australian history: Lesbia Harford’s The Invaluable Mystery and the predicament of German-Australians in the First World War." Australisches Jahrbuch für germanistische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft / Australian Yearbook of German Literary and Cultural Studies (2014) 7:45-77 online[dead link]
  • McKernan, Michael. The Australian People and the Great War (Nelson, Melbourne, 1980).
  • Oppenheimer, Melanie. "‘The best PM for the empire in war'?": Lady Helen Munro Ferguson and the Australian Red Cross Society, 1914–1920." Australian Historical Studies 33.119 (2002): 108-134.
  • Oppenheimer, Melanie. Australian Women and War (Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, 2008).
  • Oppenheimer, Melanie. Oceans of Love. Narrelle - An Australian Nurse in World War I, ABC Books, Sydney, 2006
  • Reid, Richard. Just Wanted To Be There, (Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, 1999).
  • Scates, Bruce. "The unknown sock knitter: voluntary work, emotional labour, bereavement and the Great War." Labour History (2001): 29-49.
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