Australian nurses have served their country in times of war since 1900. Their stories are extraordinary.

On 17 January 1900, a contingent of 14 nurses of the New South Wales Army Nursing Service Reserve departed Sydney aboard the SS Moravian bound for Cape Town. They were the first Australian war nurses.

A general order issued on 1 July 1902 promulgated the change from state to federal organisation of the military forces of Australia. This date can be regarded as the birth date of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). Paragraph 9 of General Order 123/1902 states: “An Army Nursing Service Reserve will be organized from those trained nurses who are qualified and willing to serve as such with stationary field hospitals and base hospitals when required upon a national emergency.”

The nurses of the AANS Reserve were called upon for the first time during the Great War. According to newspaper reports at the time, by the end of the war, no fewer than 2,379 nurses had embarked from Australia, serving in Belgium, England, Egypt, France, Greece, India, Malta, New Britain, Salonika and on hospital ships and transports, while a further 588 nurses were enrolled for home service.

During the Second World War, as many as 4,000 nurses of the AANS, RAAF Nursing Service and RAN Nursing Service served in England, Greece, Crete, Egypt, Libya, Eritrea, Palestine, Syria, Ceylon, Malaya, Netherlands East Indies, New Guinea, New Britain and Solomon Islands, on hospital ships and transports, and throughout Australia.

From 1942 to 1945 RAAFNS nursing sisters served in New Guinea and the Netherlands East Indies.

In 1946, nurses of the AANS and RAAFNS and members of the Australian Army Medical Women’s Service were posted to the 130th AGH on the island of Eta Jima, near Kure, Japan, as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force. In 1948 the AANS was granted the prefix ‘Royal’ in recognition of its service during the two world wars.

Australian nurses remained posted in Kure until 1956. In 1951 the RAANS had become the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC) and other ranks had joined RAANC officers on deployment.

Between 1950 and 1956, 153 RAANS/RAANC and RAAFNS nurses served in Commonwealth hospital units in Japan and Korea during the Korean War and its aftermath.

In September 1955, six RAANC nurses were deployed to Malaya during the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960). They worked at the British Military Hospital in Kamunting, at a convalescent hospital in the Cameron Highlands, and elsewhere.

RAANC nursing officers remained in Malaysia (so named in September 1963) until at least October 1968.

Between May 1967 and November 1971, 43 RAANC nursing officers served in Vietnam.

Since 1990, Australian military nurses have supported Australian and multinational combat, peacekeeping and humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, Banda Aceh (Indonesia), Bougainville, Cambodia, East Timor, Fiji, Iraq, Kurdistan, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, the Persian Gulf, Rwanda, Somalia, Solomon Islands, Ukraine and elsewhere.

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SOURCES

• The Argus (Melbourne, 24 Jul 1919, p. 4), ‘Army Nursing Service.’
• Australian Army Journal (No.57, Feb 1954, pp. 37–42), ‘The Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps.’
• Australian War Memorial, ‘Australian nurses in the Korean War,’ 15 Jul 2020.
• The Australian Women’s Register, ‘Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC).’
• The Australian Women’s Register, ‘Australian Army Medical Women’s Service (AAMWS).’
• Bassett, J. (1992), Guns and Brooches: Australian Army Nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War, Oxford University Press.
• Biedermann, N., Advances in Historical Studies (Vol.6, No.2, Jun 2017, pp. 65–77), ‘Australian Military Nursing from ANZAC to Now: Embracing the Ghosts of Our Nursing Ancestors.’
• Casey, L. (2011), ‘Welcome the wounded: Australian service nurses in recent theatres of conflict,’ Australian War Memorial.
• McLeod M. and Francis K., International Journal of Nursing Practice (2007; 13: 341–347), ‘Invisible partners: The Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps pathway to the Malayan Emergency.’