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QAIMNSR │ Staff Nurse │ First World War │ France

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Family Background

Myrtle Elizabeth Wilson was born in 1877, in Fitzroy, Melbourne. She was the daughter of Catherine McNaughton Craig (1840–1923) and Andrew Stevens Wilson (1841–1898).

Catherine Craig was born in Glasgow, Scotland. She was the youngest daughter of Mr. John Craig, a merchant. Andrew Wilson was born in Baldock, Hertfordshire, England and came from a family of at least eight children. He migrated to Australia with one or more siblings and settled in Melbourne after spending time in Ashby (today the suburb of Geelong West in Geelong).

In 1865 Andrew and his brother John established an eponymous drapery business on Bridge Road in Richmond, an inner suburb of Melbourne. The following year they moved the business to Brunswick Street in nearby Fitzroy. The three-storey building that housed Wilson Brothers at the southern end of Brunswick Street remains a landmark to this day.

In the meantime, Andrew had met Catherine and they were married on 24 February 1866 at the Catholic Apostolic Church, on Queensberry Street in Melbourne. At the time of his marriage Andrew was living on Brunswick Street, presumably above the shop.

Catherine and Andrew began their family in 1867 with the birth of James John, followed in 1868 by Andrew Ernest William. After a four-year break, more children were born, Catherine Sarah in 1872, Godfrey Craig in 1874, Myrtle in 1877 and finally Lillian May in 1878. Sadly, Catherine died in the same year that Lillian was born.

At the time of Lillian’s birth, the family was living at 25 Moor Street, Fitzroy. In 1880 they moved to 58 Bell Street, Fitzroy and in 1883 to Northcote Road (now Queens Parade) in North Fitzroy.

Meanwhile, in August 1874 Andrew and John ceased trading under the ‘Wilson Brothers’ name and subsequently established a new business known as ‘The Universal Soft Goods Company.’ They continued to trade on Brunswick Street and by the early 1880s had opened additional branches on Errol Street in North Melbourne and Smith Street in Collingwood.

In June 1885 the Wilson brothers dissolved their business partnership by mutual consent and by December 1887 Andrew had moved the family to Brisbane.

BUNDABERG AND GIN GIN

After a period of time living in Brisbane, the family moved 300 kilometres north to Bundaberg, the centre of Queensland’s sugar cane industry, where Andrew Wilson opened another drapery business. In 1893 Myrtle attended Mrs. R. J. Boyle’s High School for Girls, a new private school that had opened in February that year. Clearly a bright pupil, Myrtle finished at the top of her class, Form IV Upper, and was also awarded the Language Prize.

In June 1894 Andrew, having established trust within the community over the past six or seven years, was sworn in as a ‘magistrate of the territory,’ otherwise known as a Justice of the Peace. Sadly, only four years later, on 9 December 1898, he died at his residence on Barolin Street. By this time he had opened a second draper’s shop in Gin Gin, 40 kilometres to the west of Bundaberg, and once probate was concluded Catherine Wilson inherited more than £3,000.

By 1900 Myrtle had moved to Gin Gin, where, towards the end of that year, she was appointed secretary of the Gin Gin School of Arts. Over the next two years or so she helped to transform a dilapidated old building with a collection of useless, worn-out books into an orderly, nicely furnished centre with a new bookcase full of the latest books – a centre that was now able to hold technical classes.

In September 1902 Myrtle resigned from the School of Arts to take up an appointment as teacher at Talgai West Provisional School, on the Darling Downs, which was set to open that month. She left Gin Gin on 15 September.

NURSING AND WAR SERVICE

In time Myrtle decided to take up nursing and secured a position as a trainee at Brisbane General Hospital. Her sister Lillian (by now known as May) had also become a nurse. After training in the early 1900s at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, May was appointed matron of the Aramac Hospital in central Queensland and later joined the staff of Bundaberg General Hospital.

By 1914 Myrtle was working at Bundaberg General with May, who was by then head sister under Matron Donaldson (and succeeded Matron Donaldson as matron by 1920).

In early 1915, with war raging in Europe, Myrtle felt that she needed to do her bit for the country. She was unable to join the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS), as applications from Australian nurses far outstripped the number of places available, so she chose to go to England instead with the aim of joining the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR), the British equivalent of the AANS. (Myrtle’s sister May, on the other hand, was able to join the AANS and ended up serving in the camp hospital at Enoggera Army Camp in Brisbane.)

Myrtle took advantage of a government program facilitating the recruitment of Australian nurses to the QAIMNSR and in March received a telegram from the Imperial Service Committee advising her to hold herself in readiness to proceed overseas. Similar telegrams were received by Matron Beatrice Graham Cheesman of the Lady Chelmsford Hospital in Bundaberg and Sister Wilhelmina Sarah Dods of St. Andrew’s Private Hospital. Myrtle duly resigned from the staff of Bundaberg General and prepared to go overseas.

VOYAGE TO ENGLAND

On 4 April 1915 Myrtle, Matron Cheesman, Sister Dods and Sister Evangeline Alice Clerke (known as Eva) departed Brisbane on the Orontes. After stopping at cities along the way – including Melbourne, where, on 14 April, nurses Eileen King, Katie Heriot, Constance O’Shea and Estelle Doyle of the Homeopathic Hospital on St Kilda Road embarked – the ship departed Fremantle at 11.00 am on 21 April with 28 or 30 prospective QAIMNSR nurses aboard under Matron Janey McRobie Lempriere of the AANS.

The Orontes arrived in Colombo, Ceylon on 30 April. The nurses disembarked and at midnight arrived at the Grand Orient Hotel. In the morning a delicious breakfast was followed by a morning’s sightseeing, after which they returned to the ship.

After setting out again the Orontes soon reached the Gulf of Aden. After passing Aden it entered the Red Sea and then sailed up the Suez Canal between Suez and Port Said. The Orontes then traversed the Mediterranean in six days and arrived at Gibraltar on 18 May, where the nurses enjoyed a three-day break. On 26 May the nurses arrived in England.

Myrtle disembarked in London and on 31 May signed her agreement with the QAIMNSR. She was officially appointed on 9 June and on the same day, alongside her colleagues, crossed the Channel to France.

FRANCE

After spending the night in Boulogne, Myrtle and the other QAIMNSR recruits travelled 50 kilometres east to No. 7 General Hospital, based in La Malassise, a former Benedictine monastery in Longuenesse, Saint-Omer. The hospital had been established by the British Red Cross before being taken over by the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Sometime in December Myrtle contracted pneumonia. Her condition worsened and on 17 December she was admitted to No. 14 General Hospital in Wimereux, near Boulogne. She continued to deteriorate and on 19 December was placed on the dangerously ill list. Australian authorities, the War Office and relatives were duly notified. Over the next few days her condition became critical.

Myrtle died on 23 December 1915. On 1 January her colleague Priscilla Wardle wrote that “poor old Wilson died on the Thursday night before Christmas at 7.30 p.m. She was conscious to the last and spoke of us all and told Edith [Donaldson] to say goodbye to us. She and Edith took communion two days before she died.”

Myrtle was buried on 24 December. Unfortunately, her colleagues at No. 7 General Hospital were not told of her death in time to attend her funeral at the Wimereux Communal Cemetery. There were a great many officers in attendance but only around 12 nurses. The Matron-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders, Maud McCarthy, was incensed that so few nurses, through a communication mix up, had had the “opportunity of paying a last respect to one who had come so far and who was among strangers,” as she wrote in her diary.

On 27 December Myrtle’s brother Godfrey was advised by cable of her death, and on 29 December Matron McCarthy wrote to Myrtle’s mother to inform her personally of her daughter’s death.

REMEMBRANCE

Myrtle’s name is memorialised on the Australian Service Nurses Memorial Wall in Bundaberg, on the Corinda Sherwood Shire Roll of Honour in Brisbane, on the Commemorative Roll at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, and in many other places.

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SOURCES

• Great War Forum, posts from ‘Marilyne’ (26 Oct 2023) and ‘frev’ (27 Oct 2023).
• La Malassise (website), ‘L’histoire de La Malassise.’
• McKeagney, J., ‘Myrtle Elizabeth Wilson 1877–1915,’ in ‘Fitzroy People’ (2022) by The Fitzroy History Society.
• The National Archives (UK), ‘Myrtle Wilson WO 399/9132.’
• Scarlet Finders (website), ‘War Diary: Matron-In-Chief, British Expeditionary Force, France And Flanders.’
• Victorian Collections, ‘Priscilla Wardle, WWI Diary,’ from the collection of Ballarat Base Hospital Trained Nurses League.

SOURCES: NEWSPAPERS

• The Age (Melbourne, 27 Jun 1885, p. 16), ‘Advertising.’
• The Argus (Melbourne, 24 Mar 1866, p. 4), ‘Family Notices.’
• The Argus (Melbourne, 20 Aug 1874, p. 8), ‘Advertising.’
• The Bundaberg Mail (Qld., 23 Feb 1922, p. 4), ‘Personal.’
• The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser (Qld., 30 Jan 1893, p. 2), ‘Advertising.’
• The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser (Qld., 13 Jun 1894, p. 2), ‘Local and General.’
• The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser (Qld., 12 Dec 1898, p. 2), ‘Family Notices.’
• The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser (Qld., 17 Sept 1902, p. 3), ‘Gin Gin.’
• The Bundaberg Mail and Burnett Advertiser (Qld., 7 Apr 1914, p. 3), ‘Nurses Appointed.’
• Daily Mercury (Mackay, Qld., 27 Mar 1915, p. 5), ‘Social.’
• Gympie Times and Mary River Mining Gazette (Qld., 25 Mar 1915, p. 3), ‘Personal.’
• Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld., 10 Sept 1901, p. 3), ‘Gin Gin.’
• Maryborough Chronicle, Wide Bay and Burnett Advertiser (Qld., 18 Sept 1902, p. 4), ‘Gin Gin.’
• Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld., 5 Mar 1936, p. 4), ‘Matron L. Wilson.’
• The Telegraph (Brisbane, 23 Dec 1887, p. 2), ‘Supreme Court.’