OAM, BA, MA, Blitt, RN, RM, IWC, Hon. DNursing
- Born
- 4 January 1904
Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia - Died
- 3 December 2003
- Occupation
- Nurse, Author and Historian
Summary
The daughter of Alholstane Chase and Rosina (née Sherrin), Elizabeth Burchill completed her education at the Camberwell State School and the Ladies Business College, Melbourne, as well as at Melbourne and Monash Universities.
Before World War II Burchill worked at the Australian Inland Mission, Innamincka, Labrador, Grenfell Mission, and was a member of the British Ambulance Unit, caring for refugee children during the Spanish Civil War. She enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service on 21 December 1939 and was one of the first nurses from Victoria to go to the Middle East with the 2nd Australian Imperial Force in 1940. After the war she combined nursing with writing - particularly about the area in which she had nursed. Her publications include Australian Nurses since Nightingale: 1860-1990, a largely biographical history published in 1992.
On 8 June 1998, Sister Elizabeth Burchill was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to nursing, particularly as an historian, author and philanthropist. Also she has won the Jessie Lichfield Annual Award and the Veterans' Affairs Writers Award.
Elizabeth Burchill was my godmother
Gwendolyn Arthur - 3 January 2011, 11:34 AM EST
Thanks for letting us know Gwendolyn. Do you have any of her records, or stories you can share?
AWAP Administrator - 4 January 2011, 9:34 AM EST
This lovely lady crossed my families path in 1987, my husband was on his way to work one morning driving in his car, he stopped at a T intersection waiting for traffic to pass, all of a sudden a bubbly,forthright, character opened the passenger door and proceeded to get into his car,with this my husband was alarmed but felt an immediate trust in this person. She directly took control complimenting him and proceeding to give him orders to find Heathmont College... because thats where she was headed to do a talk. My husband directly took her there and under her spell, even asked if she wanted him to wait, no was her reply I'll be right! My husband and no doubts about that! In the evening my husband relayed the events of the day about meeting this incredible lady, but this was not the last time our family crossed paths. That week I was shopping in Ringwood Market when I noticed an elderly lady in the centre isle with books, I stopped and spoke with her and immediately realized this is the lady my husband meet a few days earlier. Elizabeth was as charming and strong as my husband had described she looked at me and my young children and said directly "you look like a good Mother, those children of yours look well kept". I asked her if she rembered my husband and she replied, Oh yes he seemed like a nice young man. I ended up puchasing her book which she signed. I enjoyed reading most of it, but as a busy mother of three small children did not finish and always said I would one day. 2011 the book has arisen when cleaning my old book shelf and on reading the cover have come to realise that Elizabeth may well have nursed my Grandfather in Egypt in 1940 as he served with the 2nd/6th AIF just before being captured and spending the rest of the war as a POW in Germany. Who knows my Granpa may have been nursed by Elizabeth. My family have often told the tale of this forthright lady who jumped in our car and her interesting life... as read in her book 'The Paths I've Trod'. I myself am now a nurse studying later in life and have a renewed admiration for the achievments of this incredible Australian Women whom I have just discovered passed away before her 100th birthday what an achievement! continue to RIP Elizabeth Burchill.
Sharon Grumont - 7 July 2011, 4:18 PM EST
I remember meeting Elizabeth Burchell at a Mitcham Scottish Society dance lesson. I was a young girl and can't rememeber how old I was.(I am now 54)But I was fascinated by her and the stories of work in the outback and have never forgotten her.
Merran Stuart - 27 December 2011, 8:49 PM EST