Lemnos Heroes - Warrnambool's Sister Gertrude Davis

Sister Gertrude Davis, AWM image H15352 (Donor Miss GE Davis)

From Warrnambool to Lemnos and Beyond - Sister Gertude Davis
The story of Gertrude Davis reveals how the lives of Australian nurses was effected and transformed by the war. From her training as a nurse at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital, this Warrnambool nurse would see the horrors of war on Lemnos with the 3rd Australian General Hospital, then rise to be Principal Matron of all Australian nurses in India, Burma and Persia, where some 560 Australian nurses served. This is her story.

Gertrude Emily Davis was 31 years old when she enlisted with the Australian Army Nursing Service on 19^th May 1915. Born in Warrnambool, Victoria, she had received her 3 years nursing training at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital. Her experience included being a staff nurse and sister in charge of medical and surgical wards, as well as serving a period as Matron of a 20-bed private hospital.

She was also a member of the Royal Victorian Trained Nursing Association, the precursor in Victoria to the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation.
While she had been born in Victoria's western district, at the time of her enlistment her next of kin, her father Mr Harry Davis, resided at “Cleveland”, in Orrong Road, Elsternwick, in Melbourne’s inner southern suburbs.

On Lemnos

She departed Melbourne aboard the RMS Mooltan on 18^th May 1915, joining Matron Grace Wilson and the other 3^rd Australian General Hospital nurses who had embarked at Sydney. She arrived on Lemnos with the 3^rd Australian General Hospital contingent on 8^th August 1915.
 Like all the nurses on Lemnos, Gertrude had to deal with the extremes of weather in the northern Aegean – from summer heat to winter storms – as well as the massive number of casualties from the August offensives at Gallipoli and the steady flow of sick soldiers due to the poor sanitation of the peninsula. She departed Lemnos with her fellow nurses in January 1916.
She disembarked from Mudros aboard the Oxfordshire with the rest of the 3rd Australian General Hospital at Alexandria in Egypt on 27^th January 1915. She served with the hospital at Abbassia in Egypt until 18^th March 1916, when she departed for Suez. She then departed from Suez for Australia on 19^th March 1916 aboard the Demosthenes.

Service in India

Sister Davis would re-embark for overseas service at a series of military hospitals in India.The Australian nurses had been requested by the Government of India to tend to both wounded and sick prisoners of war and Allied soldiers. In these hospitals Australian nurses operated under British Army doctors.  Gertrude's service here which would see her awarded a range of medals and decorations.

She re-embarked for overseas service from Melbourne on 22^nd August 1916, aboard the Mooltan – the ship that had taken her and the rest of 3^rd Australian General Hospital to Lemnos originally in 1915. From September 1916 until November 1919 Gertrude served with various British hospitals in India, including the Victoria War Hospital (Bombay), 18^th British General Hospital (Gharial) and finally the 34^th Welsh General Hospital (Deolali) from mid 1917. The latter was the second largest hospital in the whole British Empire.

Mess room and sisters quarters of the No 34 Welsh General Hospital, Deolali, India, 1917. AWM image P00562.175

She also travelled throughout the Indian sub-continent inspecting army nursing services when she was promoted to Principal Matron of the Australian Army Nursing Service in India on 1^st January 1917, effectively Matron-In-Chief for Australian army nurses in India (including Burma and Persia). She would oversee some 560 Australian nurses who would see service in India between 1916-19.   
Her service in India saw Gertrude oversee nursing services to German and Turkish prisoners of war as well as British and Indian soldiers. Turkish prisoners of war were accommodated at the Victoria Hospital with its 700 beds. She is also reported to have helped combat cholera and smallpox in Southern Persia.

Along with administrative and other difficulties, conditions for the nurses in India varied, from experiencing the wonders of the Himalayas to the sometimes dangerous and unwelcoming. Conditions at the 18^th British General Hospital at Rawalpindi were described by Matron Davis as follows:

“Here, where no woman has ever been sent before – the last place God ever made – six of the AANS worked in the most appalling heat one could imagine.”

Four Australian nurses died during their Indian service, including two from cholera while at Bombay – Staff Nurses A.V. O’Grady and K Power, both in August 1916. Later in November 1916, Staff Nurse L.G. Moreton died of enteric fever, followed by Staff Nurse E Clare of pneumonia in October 1918.

Royal Red Cross

She was Mentioned in Despatches and awarded the Royal Red Cross 1^st Class. Her Royal Red Cross was awarded in 1^st January 1920 on the recommendation of the Government of India:

“…In recognition of her valuable nursing services in connexion with the Afghan war, 1919.”

Kaisar-I-Hind Medal

She was also awarded the Kaisar-I-Hind medal 1^st Class “for Public service in India” on 1^st January 1919. This was the first award of this medal to a woman who was not a resident of India. She was also awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War and Victory Medals.

She embarked for Australia from Bombay, via Singapore, aboard SS Dilwara and SS Charon on 17^th November 1919, arriving back in January 1920. Her appointed with the Australian Army Nursing Service was terminated on 4^th June 1920.

Return to Australia

While she was reported to be living in Warrnambool in 1926, Gertrude was later reported to being sister in charge at Melbourne's Jessie Macpherson Community Hospital and subsequently the Hamilton House community wing of the Alfred Hospital in 1933.

Gertrude was also active in the various nurse’s associations on her return from war service.

There is a report of her serving on the committee of the Returned Army Nurses Club in Melbourne in 1928, overseeing an increase in membership and being President of the Club in 1932. She presided over a nurse’s reunion for all who served in India, Burma and Persia in WW1 at Anzac House in Melbourne on Saturday 20 August 1938. In 1939 the Melbourne Argus reported that Gertrude was one of the attendees – along with Matron Grace Wilson - at a reunion of Alfred Hospital nurses held by the Alfred Hospital Nurses League at the Alfred Hospital Nurses Home. She became an office bearer in the Alfred Hospital Nurses League in 1940.
Gertrude died in 1964 in Victoria.
Lest we forget.
Jim Claven

Secretary

Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee