The Australian Women's Register

Jean Ashton was born at Woodside, South Australia. After appointments at Lameroo and Jamestown in South Australia, Jean did infant welfare training in Hobart, Tasmania, while awaiting call-up for the Australian Army Nursing Service. In 1941 she went with the 13th Australian General Hospital to Malaya and was among those who escaped from Singapore just before its capture by the Japanese in February 1942. When the ship ‘Vyner Brooke’ was sunk in Bangka Strait, Jean and fellow nurses were interned by the Japanese. She was among 24 nurses (from a total of 65) who survived until their release in September 1945.

Eve Bidstrup, née Blacker, grew up at Willunga, South Australia. In 1940 Eve was called up to the Australian Army Nursing Service. She was attached to the 2/4 Australian General Hospital and went with the unit to the Middle East early in 1941. The nurses in the unit were evacuated from Tobruk just before the siege of that garrison. In March 1942 the unit returned to Australia.

Betty Bradwell, née Pyman, was born in Adelaide, South Australia. Betty was called up to the Australian Army Nursing Service in 1940. In April 1941 Betty sailed with the 2/10 Australian General Hospital for Malaysia. After the withdrawal of forces from Singapore in February 1942, Betty and some of her fellow nurses reached Australia unlike many of their companions. Betty’s army career continued with postings to New Guinea, and in Australia.

Vera Gibbs was born at Port Adelaide, South Australia. In 1946 she was nominated by the Australian Nursing Federation for an appointment with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which took her to Germany and Poland in the immediate post-war period. Gibbs was Matron at the Darwin hospital and held a senior post at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. On her retirement she began private palliative care nursing.

Jean Gibson, née Irvine, was born at Kent Town, South Australia. She was called up to the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) in 1941. Her first posting was to Darwin where she experienced the Japanese air-raids in February 1942. She next spent a year at Port Moresby and then went with the 2/5 Australian General Hospital to Borneo (Balik Papan) where she remained until peace was declared in 1945. Jean remained with the AANS and in 1946 went to Japan. She returned to Australia in 1952, shortly before her discharge from the army.

Elizabeth (Bette) Uren was born at Maylands, South Australia. She was called up to the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and embarked for overseas in May 1940. After ten months at the 2/3 Australian General Hospital (AGH) in Surrey the nurses transferred to the Middle East and staffed the 2/11 AGH in Alexandria. On return to Australia Bette Uren served in Toowoomba and Warwick. In 1943 she was appointed Sister-in-Charge of a Casualty Clearing Station which in January 1945 was posted to the Solomon Islands. Bette’s final experience in the AANS was at the military hospital at Daws Road.

Kathleen Avery, née Bryant, was born at Port Augusta, grew up in Broken Hill. In 1914 she began training at Broken Hill Hospital. In 1917 she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service, and was posted mainly in Salonika. On return to Australia Kathleen continued as a member of the Army Nursing Reserve, but resumed civilian nursing. During the Second World War she helped establish the Woodside Camp hospital in South Australia. Throughout her career Kathleen was an active member of the Returned Sisters Sub-branch of the Returned Services League.

Enid Cherry was born in Adelaide in 1891. She served in the Australian Army Nursing Service between 1917 and 1919. In the 1920s she was appointed as an industrial nurse at Myers in Rundle Street, Adelaide. Here she remained for 23 years, as the nurse to provide care for staff and customers.

Nora Jacob was born in Adelaide, South Australia and grew up in Medindie. In 1917 the family moved to Geranium, South Australia, where her father managed the family farming property while his brother was in the army. After six years on the farm Nora went to Adelaide to begin training at Mareeba Babies Hospital. She continued her training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, completing the course in 1927. Nora’s subsequent work was in private nursing and district nursing.

Valda Millard, née Salmon, was born in Adelaide, and spent her childhood at Quorn, South Australia. After nursing in New South Wales and Queensland Val returned to South Australia and in 1951 was Clinic Sister for the Mothers and Babies Health Association (MBHA) in Port Lincoln and at Port Adelaide. This was followed by further appointments in Victoria and on a mission station on the Solomon Islands. Her nursing career resumed in Port Lincoln in the 1960s and she remained in the service of the MBHA until her retirement in 1983.

Lynley Dohnt was born at Gumeracha, South Australia. In January 1941, she was called up for service with the Air Force. With the rank of matron, Miss Dohnt served in Australia and overseas, and was discharged from the Air Force Nursing Service in 1946. After a short time as assistant to the almoner at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, she became the House Sister, an appointment which she retained until her retirement in 1958.

Millie Rowe (Min) was born near Kadina in South Australia. She recovered from tuberculous peritonitis in her late teen years, and was accepted for nursing training at the Wakefield Street Private Hospital, Adelaide, in 1917. In 1926 she became Matron of Wakefield Street Private Hospital, a position which she occupied until her retirement in 1946. She was an active member of the Australian Trained Nurses Association.

Mollie Dutton was born in Adelaide. Her parents opposed her desire to nurse. At the age of 28 she began training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) in 1924. After a short term in charge of the Magill ward of the RAH Mollie Dutton enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Nursing Service and as a matron served at RAAF hospitals in Darwin and Laverton, Victoria. After the war Miss Dutton returned to the RAH and was Sister in Charge of Bice Ward until 1954, when she retired to care for her elderly mother.

Kathleen Waterhouse was born at Clare, South Australia. In 1914 she commenced training at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. In 1917 Kathleen joined the Australian Army Nursing Service, and was posted to India until after the end of the war. In 1930 she was appointed Deputy Matron of the ACH, and in 1945 she became the Matron of that hospital, until her retirement in 1952. Miss Waterhouse was active in nursing affairs, and was a Foundation Fellow of the College of Nursing, Australia. She also served on the Council of the SA branch of the Australian Trained Nurses’ Association.

Dora Woods, née Birks, was born in Adelaide and began training at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital in 1909. In 1916 she was called up for nursing duties with the Australian Army Nursing Service. This interview deals with her army nursing experience, mostly in France, and with the period following the end of the war, in London. Dora returned to Australia in 1919.

Elizabeth Webb Nicholls was born in Adelaide to Mary and Samuel Bakewell in 1850. She joined the Christian Woman’s Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1886, and was elected provisional president in 1888. In 1889 she became Colonial president, a position she held until 1897. From 1894-1903 she was the Union’s Australian President, and post-Federation, she served as State President from 1906 to 1927. She joined the South Australian Women’s Suffrage League and subsequently became a League Councillor. In 1894 Elizabeth Nicholls assumed the role of Colonial Superintendent of the WCTU’s Suffrage Department. She was appointed to the Board of the Adelaide Hospital from 1895-1922 and was a justice of the peace – one of the four first women – from 1915. She died in 1943

Rosetta Jane Birks (née Thomas) was born in March 1856. She joined the Ladies’ Committee of the Social Purity Society which led to her interest in women’s suffrage. She joined the South Australian Women’s Suffrage League, becoming its treasurer. After suffrage was granted she joined the short-lived Woman’s League, working with Catherine Helen Spence, Lucy Morice and others. She was appointed to the board of the Adelaide Hospital in 1896. In 1902 she helped form the National Council of Women as well as becoming president of the Young Women’s Christian Association. She died in 1911.

Serena Thorne was born in Devon in October 1842, daughter of Samuel and Mary Thorne. In 1865 the church sent her to Queensland to help establish Bible Christianity and she arrived in South Australia in 1870, preaching throughout the colony from church halls to street corners. In March 1871 she married Octavius Lake whom she had known in Devon and they worked together to further Bible Christianity in South Australia. Serena Lake attended the foundation meeting of the South Australian Women’s Suffrage League in 1888 and was appointed to the Council. In 1889 the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) appointed her to the dual positions of Colonial organizer and Suffrage superintendent. In 1891 she was made a life vice-president of the WCTU. She died in 1902 aged 60.

Mary Frost attended Miss Carter’s School, East Adelaide School and St Peter’s Girls School. She went to Adelaide University to do English. At the outbreak of World War II Frost was in England teaching at a school in South Devon. She returned to Adelaide after the war, returning in a flying boat. Frost became an English teacher at St Peters where she won two Tennyson medals at the school. Later she became head of the English Department. Frost compiled A History of St Peter’s Girls’ School from 1894-1968, in 1972.

Phyllis Crompton’s grandfather came to South Australia on the ship ‘Fatima’ and lived at Stonyfell. Her father worked for him in the business which sold skins, wool and olives. Crompton and her sister were born in her parents house at Malvern and after her brothers were born they moved to Parkside. She attended Creveen School at North Adelaide and caught the tram to school. Crompton and her sister went to London and attended the Queensgate boarding school for a term, followed by a year at a school in Paris and then the Sorbonne. Returning to Adelaide Crompton went to Adelaide University and studied history. She became honorary secretary of the Junior Red Cross and joined the Lyceum Club in 1928.

Dr Elma Sandford-Morgan was brought up in a Baptist household. She attended Miss Martin’s school before her family sailed to Europe. Here she went to Cheltenham’s Ladies College for a year as a boarder. Returning to Adelaide in 1905, she studied piano at the Adelaide Conservatorium under Herr Reimann. Later she travelled with her family around Australia and in Queensland she met a doctor who suggested she do medicine. In 1910 she commenced medicine at Sydney University. Three years later she went with her family on a trip from China across the Siberian railway to Moscow. She graduated in 1917 and worked in Australia, London and at the Women’s Mission Hospital at Bewanee in the Punjab. Then in 1920 she went to a hospital in Bagdad. Here she married Captain Harry Morgan and their daughter Rosemary was born in 1922. Son Gavin was born in 1925. Later the family settled in Sydney and she worked at the Rachel Forster Hospital. 1928 she was appointed Assistant to the Director of Maternal Welfare in the Public Health Department, and in 1929 was the first woman to become Director of Maternal Welfare in the Public Health Service. She was a district commissioner in the Girl Guides and a representative to the Australian Federation of University Women. Moving to South Australia, Sandford-Morgan became Health Officer with the Mothers and Babies Association and helped set up Torrens House, a mothercraft training centre. During World War II joined the RAAN as a medical officer, was working in general practice, and for two years organised the Health Services of South Australia as the only woman member of the Parliamentary Commission. After the war she visited Europe and on return obtained a locum tenens as neoplasm registrar to the Anti-Cancer Foundation. She was appointed by the University of Adelaide to the Radio Therapy Department where she worked for eleven years. Sandford-Morgan retired in 1964 and then worked at the Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service until she was 80 years old. During 1966-1968 she attended the Medical Women’s International Association conferences in Rochester and Vienna and became president of the Australian Medical Women’s Association to work against bias according to sex and equal treatment of women doctors. Her main interest was preventative medicine and public health.

Dorrie West went to school in Horsham, Victoria, before moving to Adelaide with her family. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Adelaide in 1921 and her teacher training. A teacher at Adelaide High School she left her position upon marriage in 1934, as was the custom of the time. During World War II she returned to teaching. She was an active member of both the YWCA and the Australian Federation of University Women. Following the death of her husband she joined the Lyceum Club and was President 1957-59. Her bequest to the University of Adelaide supports postgraduate scholarships for women and concerts at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide. Relatives remember Dorrie as being very engaging and encouraging.

Maisie Hone was born in 1897 in Mitcham. Her family moved to London when she was three so her father could study medicine. On their return he bought a motor car which was driven by a chauffeur. She went to school at Mitcham, Miss Thornber’s and MLC and studied at Adelaide University. She organised annual concerts for women only. In 1923 she married Ray Hone and they went to England on a cargo ship as Ray was the ship’s doctor. They returned in 1924 and their daughter Mary was born. Hone joined the Lyceum Club when it was still on North Terrace and was involved in the luncheons and the circles. Ray was away for three and a half years during the war. She started looking after children on Friday mornings to help mothers on their own and continued this for 20 years.

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.

Peg Gooden was born in 1900. Her father died when she was young so she and her mother lived with her grandparents in North Adelaide. She went to St Peter’s Girls’ School. In 1923 she married Harvey Lawton and they lived at Lower Mitcham and joined St Columba’s Church in Hawthorn. Harvey Lawton died in 1930 and she married Lance Gooden in 1935. During World War II Peg joined the Comforts Fund committee and worked on the sock table. Music played a large part in Gooden’s life and she played at Lyceum Club lunches. She was also an active member of the Bowden Kindergarten Committee which helped underprivileged children.

Thelma Johnston was born in 1908 at Norton Summit and attended Norton Summit School until she was 12 years old. The family then moved to Adelaide and she went to the Methodist’s Ladies College. Johnston was interested in craft work such as china painting, jewellery, enamelling and spinning and weaving and during World War II did work for the Red Cross shop and afterwards the “Acorn” craft shop. She and her husband were members of the Royal Yacht Squadron and Legacy. During the war she set up a kindergarten for children sent down from the islands because of the fear of a Japanese invasion. She was also involved with Flower Day and coordinated the Lyceum Club flower roster for 4 years and worked for many years for Meals on Wheels.

Lois Mander-Jones grew up in Victoria and attended Presbyterian Girls College in Geelong. In 1940 she joined the Union Bank in Melbourne and then joined the Army. She was on General Blamey’s staff in Queensland. She became the personal assistant to the Director of Intelligence Brigadier John Rogers and also worked for Brigadier Kenneth Wills. On 9 June 1943 she married Evan Mander-Jones. Her husband went to New Guinea and returned to be the head of the Intelligence School. As couples could not work in the same unit she was transferred to Army Education. She became pregnant and was discharged from the army. She lost this baby and another child. Her husband was appointed Director of Education in South Australia. She had three sons and continued to work for the University. They spent a year overseas in 1959. She did a marriage guidance course and counselled for five years. Family commitments were dominant in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1965 she enrolled in a Diploma of Social Work and in 1968 she took a part time job as a research worker with the Institute of Technology. From 1970 to 1978 she worked as a part time supervisor and trainer of counsellors. Her husband died in 1975. In 1978 she started working at Flinders University as a part time social work demonstrator and she retired in 1982. She became involved with the Lyceum Club being Vice President and President and in 1993 Australian President of the Association of Lyceum Clubs. Mander-Jones was awarded honorary life membership in 1993.