Best, Kathleen Annie Louise (1910 - 1957)

Kathleen Best, as nurse and army officer, was an inspiring leader in both a war and peace time environment. As an army officer in the Middle East, she distinguished herself through her courage and efficiency in her treatment and care of the wounded. After her wartime service, she assumed a number of peacetime appointments, which included becoming the founding director, Australian Women's Army Corps (Women's Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC)) in 1951. Kathleen Best's war effort was acknowledged by the award of the Royal Red Cross medal 'for gallantry, conduct and devotion in Greece 14/27 April 1941' and her subsequent role as Director of the WRAAC was honoured with her appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1956.

On 30 May 1940, Best enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service, Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) (service number NX12617), and was posted as matron of the 2nd/5th Australian General Hospital, which opened in December at Rehovot, Palestine. It moved to Greece on 10 April 1941 to assist the Anzac Corps in its battle against the Germans. Medical and nursing personnel worked under constant air raids, and by 25 April, most medical staff were evacuated to Crete. Best and 39 nurses volunteered to remain to care for the wounded, but later that day they were ordered to leave and survived a dangerous journey to Greece. She was awarded the RRC for her gallant conduct under difficult circumstances. She returned to Palestine to reorganise the hospital, then in August 1941, she went with the 2nd/5th AGH to Eritrea, Ethiopia.

Best returned to Australia in March 1942 and her AIF appointment was terminated on 13 June. She then took on the position of controller of full-time voluntary aid detachments for the Australian Army Medical Women's Service. She relinquished this post in February 1943 and was promoted to lieutenant colonel to become assistant adjutant general (women's services). In September 1944 she transferred to the Reserve Officers and became the assistant director of women's re-establishment and training in the Department of Postwar Reconstruction. This position involved helping servicewomen and female war workers adapt to the changed postwar conditions. The culmination of her career came with her appointment as the founding director of the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps in February 1951. She was promoted to the rank of honorary colonel in 1952 and was appointed to the OBE in 1956. She was a member of the Melbourne Lyceum Club. Two portraits of her, painted by Nora Heysen and Geoffrey Mainwaring, hang in the Australian War Memorial, Canberra.

Kathleen Best died in the Epworth Hospital, Richmond, Victoria, from melanonomatosis on 15 November 1957.

Chronology

1940 - 1942	Served in the Middle East
1942	Awarded Royal Red Cross Medal (RRC)
1942 - 1943	Controller for the Australian Army Medical Women's Service (AAMWS)
1943 - 1944	Assistant Adjutant-General Women's Services
1944 - 1949	Assistant Director, Re-establishment Division, Department of Post-War Reconstruction

Chaired by

• Branches and Regions, Australian Red Cross Victoria

  Branches Committee

  [1956 - 1957]

Director

• Women's Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC) (1951 - 1985)

  [1951 - 1957]

Membership

• Lyceum Club (Melbourne) (1912 - )

Related Corporate Bodies

• Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) (1903 - 1948)

  Service nos: NFX12617 (F391, V148401, VX102728)

  [1940 - 1944]

• Fundraising, Australian Red Cross Victoria

  Australian Red Cross Victoria founding member of the Citizens' Appeal Committee from 1949, Chairman Button Day Committee before death in 1957

Related Cultural Artefacts

• Kathleen Best Memorial Gates

Book Sections

• Lincoln, Merrilyn, 'Best, Kathleen Annie Louise (1910-1957), nurse and army officer', in John Ritchie (ed.), Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 13, Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, 1993, p. 176. [ Details... ]

See also

• RSL RETURNED SISTER’S SUB BRANCH Thanksgiving Service, 100 Years of Australian Army Nursing, 29 June, http://www.perthcathedral.org/. [ Details... ]
• Adam-Smith, Patsy, Australian women at war, Nelson, Melbourne, 1984, 386 pp. [ Details... ]
• Alexander, Joseph A (ed.), Who's who in Australia 1950, 14th edn, The Herald, Melbourne, 1950, 816 pp. [ Details... ]
• Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, 'Where are the Women in Australian science?', 22 August 2003, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/wisa/wisa.html. [ Details... ]
• Bassett, Jan, Guns and brooches : Australian Army Nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1992, 261 pp. [ Details... ]
• Bomford, Janette, Soldiers of the Queen : women in the Australian Army, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, Vic., 2001, 183 pp. [ Details... ]
• Brodziak, Innes (ed.), Proudly We Served: stories of 2/5th Australian general hospital at war with Germany, behind German lines and at war with Japan in the Pacific, 2/5th Australian General Hospital Association, Chatswood, NSW, 1988. [ Details... ]
• Gillison, Joan M, A History of the Lyceum Club Melbourne, The Lyceum Club, Melbourne, 1975, 118 pp. [ Details... ]
• Mount-Batten, Betty J, From blue to khaki: The enlisted voluntary aids and others who became members of the Australian Army Medical Women's Service and served from 19421-1951, Betty J Mount-Batten, [Wollstonecraft, N.S.W.], 1995, 280 pp. [ Details... ]
• Ollif, Lorna, Colonel Best and her soldiers: The Story of the 33 years of the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps, Ollif Publishing Company, Hornsby, NSW, 1985, 249 pp. [ Details... ]
• Reid, Richard, Just wanted to be there : Australian Service Nurses 1899-1999, Commonwealth Department of Veterans' Affairs, Canberra, 1999, 121 pp. [ Details... ]
• WRAAC Association, A Stroll down memory lane, 2001, 38 pp. [ Details... ]