The Australian Women's Register

Summary

Shirley Cameron Wilson was the youngest child of Dr Charles Ernest Wilson who was a GP in Kadina and Nellie the daughter of William Strawbridge, the Surveyor General of South Australia after Goyder. Wilson attended Walford House School when the family returned to Adelaide. They moved to “Woodfield” in Fisher St Fullarton. Wilson trained as a nurse at Royal Adelaide Hospital, won the Gold Medal, and then did a year of midwifery training in Melbourne. During World War II she enlisted as an army nurse and before she was called up worked in the Women’s Land Army. She went to New Guinea with the 2nd 8th General Hospital and stayed 13 months. After the war she studied at Melbourne University. She came back to nurse her mother, father and aunt until they died. During this time she developed an interest in art and completed her research for the book The Bridge over the Ocean which she wrote with Keith Borrow. She and her sister Honor moved to adjoining units in Hazelwood Park in 1973 and Wilson worked on her book about South Australian Women artists. She was the leader of the Antiques and Collecting Circle at the Lyceum Club for nine years.