Lemnos Hero - Bendigo's Nurse Mary McIlroy

Stephen Lee showing me Mary's wonderful WW1 photographic album.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting a descedent of one of our Lemnos Nurses - Nurse Mary McIlroy.
Over lunch with Sandra and Stephen Lee we talked about the serivice of Stephen's great auntie, the sister of his paternal grandmother.

Mary's RVTNA Nursing Certificate.

Born in Bendigo and trained at Bendigo Gold District General Hospital, Mary sailed on the SS Mooltan with the other nurses of the 3rd Australian General Hospital. She served on Lemnos, then Egypt, Western France, England and then on the Italian Front. She was famously present at the wedding of fellow Nurse Clarice Daley and Sergeant Ernest Lawrence on Lemnos in 1915 - signing the wedding certificate.

Nurse Mary McIlroy, second left rear, at the Clarice Daley's wedding on Lemnos, 1915. AWM image.

While on service Mary took a number of photographs and wrote a series of postcards home which document her service and experiences in WW1. Viewing these fragile images at our meeting, I was moved by their survival and yet again more records of life on Lemnos in 1915.
These records are cherished by Stephen and his family and has shared them with me.
More to come on this unique story.
Thanks to Stephen and Sandra Lee.
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Invitiation - Lemnos Commemoration Dawn Service - 6am, 4th March 2015, Sydney Cenotaph

On 4th March 1915, the first Anzacs landed on the Aegean Island of Lemnos to prepare for the  landings at Gallipoli.

This comprised the 3rd Infantry Brigade, an engineer company, a field ambulance, a casualty clearing station, a brigades transport and part of a field bakery.
These were the first of 50,000 Australian soldiers and nurses who would come to Lemnos and Gallipoli in the ten months of this long and bloody campaign.
Lemnos would be transformed into the major base for the Gallipoli campaign - its safe and large harbour where the Allied armada assembled, one of the key supply bases, the location of key medical services, including Australian field hospitals, the great Anzac Rest Camp at Sarpi and the place were 148 Australians lie buried in its two commonwealth war cemeteries.

To commemorate the landing of the first Anzacs, a special dawn service will be held at the Sydney Cenotaph, Martin Place, 6am, Wednesday, 4th March 2015.
This is the first commemoration of the landing on Lemnos - and hopefully the first of many in Australia.
Congratulations to the Sydney and NSW Lemnian Community for organizing this important event.
If you can attend, please do.
To download the Media Release, please click here.

Jim Claven 
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Other Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Events planned for Sydney in 2015:
Tuesday 24 February — 24 May 2015
Photographic Display — State Library of New South Wales
Lemnos 1915: Then & Now combines images of contemporary Lemnos with eyewitness photographs taken from 1915 to reveal a unique perspective. Photographs by Cheryl Ward & Bernard de Broglio combined with images from the State Library’s First World War collection. (Free event)
Tuesday 3 March — 22 March 2015
Photographic Exhibition: Kogarah Council, ‘Life Away from the Trenches’
Venue: Kogarah Library.
Wednesday 4 March 2015
Dawn service at 6.00am, Cenotaph Martin Place, to commemorate 100 years that the first Anzacs stepped on Lemnos. Public welcome to attend the service
Thursday 5 March 2015
Art Gallery of NSW and Lemnos1915 present a lecture: “The Lemnians – Ancient Amazons of Lemnos to the Anzac Nurses of WW1”, inspired by the Sir William Russell Flint painting circa 1924 held by the Art Gallery NSW collection. A reproduction of the painting will be delivered to Lemnos by the RAN Frigate Anzac on its commemorative journey to Gallipoli. Free.
Saturday 7 March 2015
Sydney Lyceum commemorates Lemnos1915 with performances by international Lyceum groups from Lemnos and Kavala, UNSW Theatre (Ticketed event. To purchase tickets, please call 0466 217 088 or 0414 365 520)
Thursday 12 March — 22 March 2015
Photographic Exhibition: ‘Australia and Lemnos forever connected’
Venue: Rockdale Town Hall Exhibition. To honour the Anzac buried on Lemnos from Rockdale –- Alfred Smith
Saturday 14 March 2015
Lemnian Association of Australia combined Dance (Ticketed event. To purchase tickets please contact Con Havas 0410 421 943)
Close of special program
Sunday 15 March 2015
Through These Lines: Towards Lemnos 1915 by Cheryl Ward -– theatrical production about nurses on Lemnos. Venue: The Factory, Newtown (Ticketed event. To purchase tickets, please call 9550 3666)
Thursday 26 March — 25 April 2015
Photographic Exhibition: Strathfield Council. Venue: Homebush Library.
To honour the Anzac buried on Lemnos from Strathfield – Francis Reynolds Cowdery
Sunday 19 April — 29 April 2015
Photographic Exhibition: Anzac Soldiers & Nurses – Life on Lemnos images from the AW Savage Collection State Library of NSWpresented by Marrickville Council and Lemnos1915 as part of the “Marrickville Remembers” Commemoration. Stroll the streets of Marrickville where images of wwi will be displayed in Marrickville shops. In honour of Marrickville Anzac buried on Lemnos – Arthur Witt
Friday 23 October — 24 November 2015
Photographic Exhibition: Waverley Library Gallery
For additional Lemnos1915 events please see www.facebook.com/lemnos1915
Email: lemnos1915@gmail.com
Thanks to Lemnos1915, Lemnos Association of NSW’s Commemorative Program for the Centenary of ANZAC. The aim of ‘Lemnos1915’ is to raise awareness of the role that Lemnos and its inhabitants played in the Gallipoli campaign.

Jim Claven 
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Lemnos Hero - Nurse Violet Duddy Plaque Unveiling in Queenscliff

Nurse Violet Duddy, photographed with other 3rd AGH nurses in Abbeville France, 23 June 1918. AM E02578

All of our members and supporters who are able are urged to attend the unveiling of the Nurse Violet Duddy Memorial Plaque by the the Queenscliff Historical Museum, President and Committee of Management.
The event will take place on Monday 16th March, 2015 at 11:15am at Queenscliff Cemetery, 159 Point Lonsdale Rd, Point Lonsdale.
Following the ceremony, light refreshments will be served at the Queenscliff Historical Museum 49 Hesse St Queenscliff (next door to the Post Office) where the Nurse Violet Duddy Exhibition will be on display.
Please RSVP by Tuesday 10th March, 2015 to Queenscliff Historical Museum via email - qhminf77@bigpond.net.au or post to P.O. Box 135 Queenscliff, Victoria 3225.
All enquiries to Queenscliff Historical Museum on 5258 2511
For directions to the unveiling see this map:

 

Thanks to  Maggie Stowers, Volunteers Researcher, Queenscliff Historical Museum, for this information.

Nurse Violet Duddy - A Lemnos Nurse
Violet was a New Zealand-born Australian Army Nursing Service nurse in WW1 - having been born in Hastings in 1886. She was 29 years old when she enlisted on 22 July 1915 and had completed her nursing training at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital.
She served with Matron grace Wilson's 3rd Australian General Hospital on Lemnos from August. She would have witnessed the vicissitudes of the nurses as they battled to provide nursing care to the sick an wounded of Gallipoli under the trying conditions in the Island's Allied medical services.
Along with the rest of the Australian nurses on Lemnos, Violet returned to Egypt in January 1916 and went on to serve in France, with the 3rd AGH.
She was promoted to Sister in 1918 and was Mentioned in Despatches "deserving special mention" in 16th March 1919. 
She returned to Australia after the war. She died in 1961.
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

State Library of Victoria WW1 Exhibition - Features Australian Nurse Alice Kitchen

The State Library of Victoria has put together a magnificent exhibition of posters, photographs, diaries and ephemera from WW1. Get along to see it if you can.

 

One of the features is a display regarding Nurse Alice Kitchen who served in Egypt (treating the wounded sent from Gallipoli and Lemnos), France and England.

 She was born in Amherst, near Ballarat, and served with the 1st Australian general Hospital in Cairo.
Of her time in Egypt, Alice wrote famously:

"It is all too dreadful and every day we hear of someone we knew being killed or wounded."

The display includes her diary, medals and photographs. Well worth a visit.

 

As the AWM website story about Australia's WW1 nurses records on the situation in Egypt during the Gallipoli campaign:
"By the end of 1914, around 300 AANS nurses had left Australia for Egypt. On the long sea voyage, they were kept busy assisting with vaccinations and operations, and training male orderlies. The nurses were posted either to the 1st Australian General Hospital (1AGH), established in the grand Heliopolis Palace Hotel in Cairo, or to 2AGH in Mena House, a former royal hunting lodge. With the rapid influx of patients from Gallipoli in April 1915, the facilities were soon overcrowded, and equipment and supplies inadequate. Nursing staff worked around the clock. 1AGH took over a nearby amusement park, turning the ticket office into an operating theatre and the skating rink, scenic railway, and skeleton house into wards. Within three months it was operating as a 1,500-bed hospital. Some of the badly wounded were returned to Australia on hospital ships, accompanied by nurses."
Some of the WW1 posters displayed at the exhibition are worth seeing too:

 

Jim Claven

Secretary

Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Viewing of Our Nurse Sculpture A Success!

The Nurse - The Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

Yesterday evening commemorative sculptor Peter Corlett OAM revealed the final clay model of the nurse sculpture which will form the major part of our Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial.
This is a major milestone in making our Memorial a reality.
In front of representatives of the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee Executive, major sponsors and supporters, and the media, Peter revealed his creation.

The happy viewers celebrate Peter's work. Photograph Dean Colls 2015

Peter explained the process by which he designed his sculpture. Drawing on the stories and photographs of the nurses on Lemnos - including the famous Matron Grace Wilson - as well as classical sculpture, Peter has created a lasting symbol of the 130 nurses who served on Lemnos in 1915. When fully assembled in Albert Park, she will be joined by a seated soldier, sheltering him from the horrors of war on the peninsula.
Peter explained that this final clay sculpture will now begin the process which will see it cast in bronze. He will also now finalise the sculpture of the seated soldier.

The sculpture with some of the photographs used by Peter as inspiration. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

Our President, Lee Tarlamis, thanked Peter for his tireless work and explained the road that we have travelled to get to this important point. For the last three years, the Committee has worked to ensure that the role of Lemnos in Australia's Anzac story is appropriately remembered and commemorated as part of the Centenary of Anzac. This sculpture and the Memorial it will form a major part is a key part of that commemoration. It's final erection at Albert Park will provide a lasting reminder of Lemnos role and a great legacy for future generations.
Lee pointed out that the next milestones will be the creation of the bronze nurse sculpture itself, followed by the completion of the soldier sculpture, the engraved stone plinth, memorial signage and eventually the  assembly of the memorial at Albert Park planned for August this year. He pointed out that everything is on track for this event.
While most of the funding for the sculpture has been secured, more is needed. Lee also explained our new project - a complementary book, a major and authoritative re-telling of the Lemnos role in Anzac, focusing on the photographs from 1915 and the words of the Anzacs themselves.
He also mentioned our forthcoming fundraising event - the Lemnos Gallipoli Photographic Exhibition to be held on 22 march at the Thessaloniki Association in High Street Northcote. He urged all to attend.
Lee thanked all those who have supported our work - including the City of Port Phillip, the Marble Centre, the Lemnian Community of Victoria, the RSL Hellenic Sub-Branch and George Petrou - as well as all the sponsors and members of the community who have purchased our badges or attended our functions. Well done.

Peter Corlett explaining his inspiration. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

Lee Tarlamis addresses the crowd. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

As well as our Executive members, those attending included representatives of the City of Port Phillip, the ETU, nursing community amongst others.

Peter with his creation. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

Litsa Athanasiadis of the Pontiaki Eastia with our nurse sculpture. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

Our Treasurer Terry Paule admiring the work. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

Louise Skacej, sculptor and Peter's model for the nurse. Photograph Jim Claven 2015

The event was also attended by media representatives - SkyNews, the Herald Sun and Neos Kosmos.
Everyone enjoyed Peter and Willys' hospitality and welcome to Peter's studio at their home. And another thank you to Louise Skacej (aka the nurse!) and her partner Dean Colls for all their help on the night. Thanks to Peter, Willys, Louise and Dean - much appreciated!

Note SkyNews will be running a news item on this event tomorrow (Friday 20 Feb) or Saturday 21 Feb. Keep an eye out for it!

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee

Below are some images of the sculpture. Photographs by Jim Claven 2015

 

 

Your Invited - Lemnos Gallipoli Photographic Exhibition!

The Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee is please to announce our latest fundriasing event - our Lemnos Gallipoli Photographic Exhibition!
This exhibition showcases forty of the most important images from the photographic record of Lemnos' role in Australian's Anzac story.
Sourced from various collections in Australian and overseas, they feature the photographs taken by the Anzac's themselves as well as by other famous Allied official photographers.
All images are in the highest resolution and beautifully framed.
All attendees to the Exhibition will received an accompanying booklet, telling the story of Lemnos and Gallipoli, of the photographers and will contain reproductions of the selected images themselves, as a momento of your attendance.
This is our Committee's major fundraiser for the year. Book a ticket and come along.  A number of items will be available for sale - including our famous commemorative badges as well as original paintings by Melbourne commemorative artist, George Petrou.
All proceeds will go towards the realisation of our commemorative projects, including our Lemnos Gallipoli Memorial and the associated commemorative publication.
Make sure you book your place - this event is sure to sell-out.
Download the leaflet above for details.
Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commmemorative Committee

URGENT - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR OUR STALL AT ANTIPODES FESTIVAL

Images from last years festival. Photo Jim Claven

Melbourne's famous Greek community publiic festival - the Antipodes Festival - is on again.
It is being held on the 14 & 15 February and the Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee will again have a presence there. This will be the 3rd year that we have participated in this event and it is a great opportunity to promote the work that we do. It does however take a great deal of work to set-up and staff the stall across the two days.
That's why we are seeking volunteers throughout both these days to help staff our stall. It doesn't matter if you only have an hour or two to spare - it will all help.We need volunteers for Staturday evening (6-10pm) and Sunday morning (from 10am), but ny time you could volunteer would be appreciated.
Please contact Jim Claven (0409 402 388 - jimclaven@yahoo.com.au) or Lee Tarlamis (0411 553 009 - lee.tarlamis@hotmail.com) if you are available to help.
We need volunteers for Staturday evening (6-10pm) and Sunday morning (from 10am), but ny time you could volunteer would be appreciated.

Images from last years festival. Photo Jim Claven

Jim Claven
Secretary
Lemnos Gallipoli Commemorative Committee