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CBE, RRC
On 3 June 1919, Matron Adelaide Maud Kellett was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Military) for nursing service in World War I. Kellett had been twice mentioned in despatches during the war. She was awarded the Red Cross Medal (23 February 1917), and the Florence Nightingale Medal.
Adelaide Kellet trained at the Sydney Hospital and served with the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) during World War I. She left Australia with the first convoy of Australian Imperial Forces (AIF). Kellett was matron of Choubrah Hospital, Egypt (1914-1916), before nursing at the No. 2 Australian Army Hospital in Southall, England, from 1916-1917. Later she was matron at the No. 25 General Hospital in Hardelot, France (1917-1919).
Returning to Sydney, Kellet nursed at the No. 4 Australian General Hospital in Randwick (New South Wales) in 1920. She was the first matron with the Department of Repatriation Hospitals in New South Wales. From 1920 to 1926 she was principal matron of the Australian Army Nursing Service 2nd Military Base in Sydney. Kellet retired in 1944 after 23 years as matron at the Sydney Hospital.
Sources used to compile this entry: Alexander, Joseph A (ed.), Who's who in Australia 1944, 12 edn, The Herald and Weekly Times, Melbourne, 1944, 906 pp; Mitchell, Ann M., 'Kellett, Adelaide Maud (1873-1945)', in Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, Australian National University, 2006, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090548b.htm.
Anne Heywood
Created: 16 October 2002, Last modified: 29 April 2009
http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/IMP0160b.htm
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