Hunter Valley Nurses in the Great War - Book and Research by Historian Christine Bramble

Matron Ida Greaves, RRC, (centre) on the eve of her departure for France, 27 August 1914. From Greaves Family archive and Inside History website.

NSW historian Christine Bramble has undertaken great research into the story of nurses from the NSW Hunter Valley who served in WW1 - a total of some 80 women.
She has created a website - Hunter Valley Great War Nurses. Click there to find out some of the names and the story of these nurses.
She has also written a book - Sisters of the Valley: First World War Nurses from Newcastle and the Hunter Region. This is probably the only published regional study of Australian nurses in the First World War.
To read an interview with Christine about her book and research published in the Australia and NZ Inside History magazine, click here.
She estimates that approximately 3000 Australian women served as military nurses in the First World War.
Love on Lemnos
She also recounts finding a love story from Lemnos. The diary of Sister Kathleen Doyle, from Singleton, includes numerous references to a love interest she met on Lemnos. He is only referred to as “C.S.” Chritstine has been unable to identifyb this myserious love interest. She thinks that C.S. meant “other ranks” (supposed to be off-limits for serving nurses) or he was British or Canadian. the diary of Kathleen Doyle . She was on night duty nursing casualties from Gallipoli. Yet Christine recounts that her diary also recorded the horrors of war, noting that one of her patients from Gallipoli, who was delirious “called me Ruby all night long. It is really heartbreaking to see and hear all the awful sights.” He died the following night and Kathleen had the task of writing to his mother."
Christine's research also recounts the stories of other nurses of the Hunter, including the following:

• Based on access to the families personal archive, she tells the story of Matron Ida Greaves. A graduate of Newcastle Hospital, who was one of the first Australian women to serve in a field hospital during the War. She and Sydney nurse Matron Nora Fletcher were the first Australian women to be awarded the Royal Red Cross during the War. Few people from Ida Greaves’ home town are aware of this. Christine is currently writing a biography of Ida.
• Sister Lydia Abell had graduated from Newcastle Hospital in 1898 and she had been a founding member of the Australasian Trained Nursing Association. In 1914 she was too old at 42 to be accepted by the Australian Army Nursing Service and probably too well known in Australian nursing circles to lie about her age! She arrived in Europe in November 1915 and nursed at hospitals and on ambulance barges in France until the end of the war
• Sister Louisa Stobo from Maitland was a senior nurse, the Matron of Crown Street Women’s Hospital Sydney, who left for Egypt in one of the first contingents of nurses in 1914. She was at a hospital there when her brother Robert Scobie was wounded and evacuated from Gallipoli. She saw him recover from his wounds only to return to Gallipoli to be killed at the Battle of Lone Pine. Yet Louisa stoically continued her nursing work.

A great example of the local research that can uncover the personal stories behind the First World War - and the experience of Australians on Lemnos.
Thanks to Faye Threfall for finding this story.
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Lemnos Heroes - Nurse Clarice Daley and Sergeant Ernest Lawrence

Wedding photograph of Nurse Daley and Sergeant Lawrence, with Matron Wilson standing behind Sergeant Lawrence. West Mudros, Lemnos, 21st October 1915. AWM image P01360.002

Visiting the Greek Island of Lemnos today in the warmth of Greek summer, it is hard to imagine that in 1915 this was the main base for the Gallipoli campaign.
Prior to the landings on 25th April, the Allied armies assembled here, the Anzacs sailing from Alexandria to Lemnos’ great harbour of Mudros Bay. Over 200 Allied ships filled the harbour before the landing, including Australia’s famous submarine, the AE2. The Island would be filled with stores for the campaign, rest camps would be erected to accommodate the soldiers as they returned from the peninsula in September and October. And it was to Lemnos that the Anzacs were evacuated in December at the end of the campaign.
One of the main purposes of the base at Lemnos was as the location of field hospitals. Along with British and Canadian hospitals, two Australian field hospitals were erected here – the 2nd Australian Stationary and 3rd Australian General Hospitals. The hospitals on Lemnos would care for over 100,000 Allied casualties.
One of the 130 Australian nurses who served on Lemnos during the Gallipoli campaign was a young nurse from Box Hill – Clarice Jessie Daley.
Nurse Clarice Daley was 25 years old when she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service on 10th May 1915. She had been born in Box Hill and recorded her religion as Presbyterian. She completed her 3 years of nursing training at Melbourne Hospital. By the time of her enlistment, she and her parents had moved to “Turriff”, Beach Avenue, Elwood.
Clarice and the other 80 nurses of the 3rd Australian General Hospital sailed from Port Melbourne aboard the Mooltan on 18th May 1915. Initially sent to England, the coming Gallipoli campaign saw Clarice and the rest of the nurses diverted for service on Lemnos.

Nurse Dalet and the 3rd AGH depart Port Melbourne aboard the RMS Mooltan, 18th May 1915. AWM image C01009

She arrived on Lemnos on 8th August being welcomed to the Island by “skirl o’ the pipes”, played by the Hospital’s regimental piper, Archibald Monk. The scene was captured in a famous photograph.
Clarice’s time on Lemnos was a challenging one. The next day after she arrived hundreds of wounded soldiers began arriving from the ill-fated August Offensive on the peninsula. This was despite the fact that much of the nurses essential medical equipment had failed to arrive with them. As Matron Grace Wilson wrote in her diary at the time, “it was too awful for words”.
The Australian nurses would see the number of patients rise further over coming weeks. Despite the numbers, Clarice and her fellow nurses not only coped with the dreadful conditions but managed to achieve amazing recovery rates.
Beyond August, Clarice would see a change in the nature of the casualties arriving from Gallipoli. More and more the soldiers arrived seriously ill as a result of the poor sanitation on the peninsula, suffering from dysentery and enteric fever. To this would be added, pneumonia as the winter months arrived at Gallipoli.
The nurses recorded a 98% survival rate and were commended by Australia’s senior medical commander; Lieutenant General Featherstone wrote: “I believe that the Hospital would have collapsed without the nurses. They all worked like demons and were led and guided by Miss Wilson.” Clarice could be proud of her service.
Despite the exactions of service at the Hospital, it was during her time on Lemnos that Clarice became reacquainted with a former beau from Melbourne, one Ernest Lawrence.
Ernest was a commercial traveller and living in Elsternwick when he enlisted at the outbreak of the war, in August 1914. When they met again he was now a Sergeant in the 1st Light Horse Brigade Headquarters.
While we are not sure when Clarice re-met Ernest, his service records reveals that he was admitted to the nearby 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital on Lemnos in 12th July 1915.
Despite the apparent disapproval of Clarice’s family, their feelings for each other blossomed in the shadow of war and they decided to marry, there and then, on Lemnos.

Nurse Daley and Sergeant Lawrence, with their Anzac guard of honour at their wedding on Lemnos, 21st October 1915. AWM image P01360.001

And so took place the only marriage conducted amongst the Allied soldiers on Lemnos. Clarice Jessie and Ernest were married on 21st October 1915 at the Church Camp, West Mudros. In attendance were a number of their comrades, including Matron Grace Wilson, the matron of Clarice’s hospital on Lemnos and fellow nurses Beulah McMinn and Mary McIlroy. Army Chaplain Charles Winter officiated. Matron Wilson and the others signed the marriage certificate as witnesses, and this is now preserved in the Australian War Memorial.

Marriage certificate of Nurse Daley and Sergeant Lawrence, Lemnos, 21st October 1915. AWM image PR90 133

According to Army regulations, Army nurses could not be married women. Yet she was not discharged immediately and continued to serve until the hospitals were evacuated from Lemnos after the Gallipoli campaign had come to an end.
Clarice and her fellow nurses arrived in Alexandria in 27th January 1916 aboard the Oxfordshire. She arrived at the Australian camp at Abbassia in Egypt but it was here that Clarice bade her farewells from her fellow nurses for she embarked for her return to Australia on 9th February 1916 aboard the HT Nestor. She arrived back at Princes Pier in Port Melbourne on 13th March 1916 and was discharged from the Army on 31st July 1916.
Ernest returned to Australia in November 1918 and the two commenced their life together, going on to have four children. They returned to Australia to live at 52 Docker Street Elwood and are buried in St Kilda Cemetery. Ernest died in 1933 and Clarice in 1944. After the war, Clarice was awarded the British War and Victory Medals.
Their grand-daughter Judith was still alive and living in Port Philip in 2010.

Ernest and Clarice's Grave - Acknowledgement and Place of Remembrance

Below are images of the grave of Ernest and Clarice at St Kilda Cemetery. Sadly, there is no acknowledgement of their joint service in WW1 and their unique Lemnos story. It would be fitting if this was acknowledged with the Anzac "Rising Sun" badge and in the guide to the Cemetery produced by the Cemetery Trust. The Committee is endeavoring to contact any surviving family members to ascertain their wishes.
This could also be an annual place of remembrance - on Anzac Day or on 8th August, the day Clarice arrived on Lemnos - for Ernest and Clarice, and all the 130 nurses who served on Lemnos and the 148 diggers who remain buried there. Watch this space.

Grave stone of Clarice and Ernest, St Kilda Cemetery. Photograph Jim Claven 2014

Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial - 8th August 2015
Clarice Daley and the nurses of Lemnos will finally have a memorial to commemorate their service. On 8th August 2015, a new memorial statue designed by Peter Corlett OAM will be unveiled in Albert Park dedicated to Anzac nurses and soldiers who served and who are buried on Lemnos in 1915. The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative committee is currently raising funds to make this a reality.
Lest We Forget

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee
An edited version of this story will be published by the Box Hill RSL in the November edition of their magazine, Scuttlebut. Thanks to George Petrou. To view and download the article, click here.

News Flash - Official Visit to Lemnos to plan 2015 commemorations

"Representatives of the Australian Embassy, two army representatives from Australia and Turkey as well as Consular staff will visit Limnos on 11 and 12 November 2014.
They will meet with representatives of the local authorities and the local armed forces. The reason for the visit is the Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli and the possible visit of an army ship to Limnos next summer when the events in both Greece and Turkey will reach a climax."
Source:  limnosnea.gr
Thanks to Christina Despoteris for this news.
Jim Claven
Secretary 
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

WA Hellenic Centre - Anzac Hellenic Honour Board honours WW1 WA Hellenic Anzacs - Private's Gunellas and Kailis

Foundation Committee member and former Minister, the Hon John Pandazopoulos, MP recently visited WA to promote awareness of the Hellenic link to Anzac.
During the visit and presentations to parliamentarians, schools and the WA Hellenic community, John had the pleasure of visitng the WA Hellenic Centre.
One of the important features of the Centre is its Hellenic Honour Board - honouring the service in Australian forces of those Western Australians of Hellenic descent - including those who served in WW1.

 It honours two Western Australians of Hellenic descent whoi served in the AIF:

• Private Mick Gunellas of the 11th Battalion AIF, born in Perth, who enslisted in 1916 aged 21. He served and was wounded in France. He later served in the RAAF in WW2.
• Private Con Kailis of the 51st Battalion AIF, born in Kastelorizon, Greece, who enlisted at Geraldton in 1917, aged 21. He also served and was wounded in France.

Both diggers survived the war.
It would be good if the new Hellenic Centre in Melbourne was similarly able to honour those Anzacs of Hellenic descent from Victoria. The Committee has already proposed that the new Melbourne Hellenic Centre concisder displaying some photographs or even paintings commemorating the Hellenic connection to Anzac across WW1 and WW2.
Thanks to John for his work and highlighting this.
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commeorative Committee

Below (and above) are some images of the WA Hellenic Centre Honour Board - Photographs by John Pandazopoulos MP, 2014:

Black Diggers - Stories of aboriginal WW1 soldiers

It is estimated that approximately 1,300 aborigines served in the AIF in the First World War. Above is a studio portrait of one of those - aboriginal Anzac Corporal Harry Thorpe from Lakes Entrance in Victoria.
He enlisted at Sale in 1916, serving with the 7th Battalion in France. He was awarded the Military Medal for his courage and leadership in the field. He was killed in August 1918 and is buried in France - with his friend William Raelings,another aborignial Soldier who was awarded the Miluitary Medal and was killed on the same day.
The recent ABC Big Ideas forum at the Brisbane Festival held a discussion about the experience of Aboriginal soldiers in WW1. The following description of the program is from the ABC website:

"Black Diggers is the story of the aboriginal men who served overseas in World War One. They joined up even though, at the time, they had no voting rights and were not counted as humans in any national census. But they would fight and die for their country, approximately 1300 of them signed up for service.

But just why did these men enlist? Wesley Enoch is the director of Black Diggers, a play written by Tom Wright, and he has some very interesting answers as to motivation, “these men were fighting for the idea of another country.”
But these men came back to the same prejudices and racism. Many found that their wages had not gone to their families; some discovered their children had been taken; and others had their land seized for returned ‘soldier settlers,’ a group for which they did not qualify.
In addition to Enoch, the panellists include Lisa Jackson-Pulver, a public health epidemiologist and a Group Captain in the RAAF Specialist Reserve; Lee-Ann Buckskin, a board member for the Australian Council for the Arts; and Uncle Dave Williams, who is from the NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Veterans Association and served 30 years in the navy.
Katrina Sedgwick, from ABC Arts, moderates this session from the Brisbane Festival.
NOTE: If someone in your family enlisted for WW1, and they are not currently included in the 1300 indigenous soldiers already acknowledged, please get in contact with Gary Oakley at the Australian War Memorial."

Thanks to Vicky Kyritsis for alerting me to this program.
Lest we forget.
If you want to watch the video or listen to the audio of this interesting ABC program click here.
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

French and Canadian Hospitals on Lemnos - 'The Gallipolian' magazine Winter 2014 edition

A Canadian nurse on Lemnos, 1915.

The Winter 2014 issue of The Gallipolian (No. 136) will be published in early December 2014. 

Stories include:

• There are articles about the French and Canadian Hospitals on Lemnos.
• To mark the centenary of the Naval campaign there are articles on the early Naval Bombardments’ and about Holbrook VCs submarine B11 which sunk the Turkish battleship Mesudiye.

It will be very interesting for members of our Committee to read some new research on the French and Canadian Hospitals on Lemnos. The latter were located close to the Australian hospitals on the Turks Head Peninsula and Australian and Canadian nurses had much contact with each other.

General view of shipping in the harbour at Mudros with the French hospital in the foreground. IWM image Q13705

If you would like more information, to join the Gallipoli Association (UK) and recieve its quarterly journal, click  here.

Membership of The Gallipoli Association

Membership of the Association gives you:

• The highly respected The Gallipolian journal, posted to members three times a year. Its editorial policy is to increase our knowledge and understanding of the Gallipoli campaign.
• Full information on and access to remembrance events.
• Preferential invitations to conferences, lectures and Gallipoli battlefield tours.
• Free access to expert historical advice and research support.
• Full access to all areas of the Gallipoli Association forum.
• Access to 45 years worth of Gallipolian journal back issues, totally free.
• Access to the members contribution area.

You will also be contributing to preservation of the memory of the Gallipoli campaign and the exchange of related knowledge and expertise.

Gallipoli Association UK Annual Membership, only £20.00 GBP

Gallipoli Association Overseas Annual Membership, only £30.00 GBP

To join and subscribe, click here.

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee


 

The Pipers of the Trenches

As we know Scottish-born Anzac Piper Archibald Monk piped the Australian nurses of the 3rd Australian General Hospital into the hospital site at West Mudros on Lemnos on 8th August 1915.
Some 2,500 pipers served in the First World War - in British and other Empire regiments. 600 were wounded and over 500 killed.
Pipers served with the British regiments at Gallipoli, 25 of these were killed.
One of those who served at Gallipoli alongside the Anzacs was Piper Kenneth McLeman from Avoch, Ross-shire, who served in the Highland Light Infantry and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for bravery at Gallipoli. He tended the wounded after his pipes were shattered by shrapnel.
For four hundred years or more, Highland regiments advanced and attacked to the sound of the bagpipes. In the Great War, pipers climbed out of the trenches, unarmed, to face machine guns and shells. The descendants of those men return to the battlefields to discover individual stories of unparalleled bravery.
Read the article "The Tunes of Glory - Heroism of Scots Pipers reprised" from The Scotsman newspaper by clicking here.

 

Piper Laidlaw VC
One of those pipers was Piper Daniel Laidlaw of the King's Own Scottish Borderers Regiment.
He took part in the bloody Battle of Loos in September 1915, along with over 30,000 other Scottish soldiers in various regiments. Critically, gas that had been fired to aid the Allied advance had blown back over the attacking Allied troops. It was at this moment that Piper Laidlaw mounted the trench parapet to raise the spirits of his comrades with his pipes.
The following story about Piper Laidlaw and is winning of the Victoria Cross is from the victoriacross.org.uk website:
Born in 1875 in Little Swinton, Berwickshire, Daniel Laidlaw joined the 2nd Battalion, Durham Light Infantry on 11 April 1896 where he was immediately posted to India where he stayed for two years until June 1898. Whilst there he was employed on plague duty in Bombay from March to May 1898. After returning to Britain he was claimed out of the DLI by his eldest brother and served in the King's Own Scottish Borderers as a piper until April 1912, when he was placed on the reserve.
Upon the outbreak of war in Europe, Daniel Laidlaw re-enlisted in the KOSB on 1 September 1914 and went to France with the regiment the following June.

How Piper Laidlaw won the Victoria Cross at Loos, Illustrated London News, 4 Dec 1915

In his own words he describes his action that resulted in him being awarded the Victoria Cross:
"On Saturday morning we got orders to raid the German trenches. At 6.30 the bugles sounded the advance and I got over the parapet with Lieutenant Young. I at once got the pipes going and the laddies gave a cheer as they started off for the enemy's lines. As soon as they showed themselves over the trench top they began to fall fast, but they never wavered, but dashed straight on as I played the old air they all knew 'Blue Bonnets over the Border'.
I ran forward with them piping for all I knew, and just as we were getting near the German lines I was wounded by shrapnel in the left ankle and leg. I was too excited to feel the pain just then, but scrambled along as best I could. I changed my tune to 'The Standard on the Braes o'Mar', a grand tune for charging on.
I kept on piping and piping and hobbling after the laddies until I could go no farther, and then seeing that the boys had won the position I began to get back as best I could to our own trenches." 

The following is Piper Laidlaw's Victoria Cross citation from the London Gazette:
"For most conspicuous bravery prior to an assault on German trenches near Loos and Hill 70 on 25 September 1915. During the worst of the bombardment, Piper Laidlaw, seeing that his company was badly shaken from the effects of gas, with absolute coolness and disregard of danger, mounted the parapet, marched up and down and played company out of the trench. The effect of his splendid example was immediate and the company dashed out to the assault. Piper Laidlaw continued playing his pipes until he was wounded." London Gazette, 18 November 1915 , Loos, France, 25 September 1915, No. 15851 Piper Daniel Laidlaw, 7th Battalion, King's Own Scottish Borderers.

Piper Laidlaw's medals.

Daniel Laidlaw was invested with his Victoria Cross by King George V at Buckingham Palace on the 3rd February 1916.Daniel was promoted sergeant-piper on 12 October 1917, and was eventually demobilised on 3 April 1919; total service 20 years, 6 months. He died peacefully in 1950, aged 74, in Shoresedean, near Norham, Northumberland, and was buried in an unmarked grave in St. Cuthbert's Churchyard. There is a memorial plaque within the church.

A ceremony took place at St. Cuthbert's Churchyard, Norham, Northumberland, on 2nd June 2002 to place a headstone over the grave of Piper Daniel Laidlaw VC - "The Piper of Loos". The project was organised by the King's Own Scottish Borderer's Museum in Berwick-on-Tweed and by members of the Laidlaw family. 

Private John Dunnion, KOSB and Private Frank Claven, HLI
In re-telling this story, I am mindful of my own grandfather, Private John Dunnion of Dennistoun, Glasgow, who served in the King's Own Scottish Borderers  in the First World War, alongside Piper Laidlaw. He joined up in August 1914, serving on the western front, later becoming a prisoner of war and thankfully (for me and my family especially) the war.
My other grandfather, Private Frank Leo Claven, also from Glasgow, served with the Highland Light Infantry in the First world War, the same regiment as Piper McLeman. I have not been able to find out yet whether or not he served at Gallipoli but he also survived the war and went on to serve in India during the inter-war period.
The Flowers of the Forest
The official music of Scottish regiments for the fallen is the Flowers of the Forest, originally written in honour of the Scots who died at the Battle of Flodden. To listen to the music, click here.

The Pipers of the Trenches
Watch a great new documentary from the BBC on the Pipers of the Trenches by clicking here. The descendants of those men return to the battlefields to discover individual stories of unparalleled bravery.
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee