Nita Prideaux

ConflictSecond World War
Nursing ServiceAustralian Army Nursing Service
Units10th Australian Camp Hospital (Coorparoo), 4th ACH (Redbank), 77th ACH (Tenterfield) & 116th Australian General Hospital (Charters Towers)
Overseas Service
Final Service No.QFX56381
Final RankLieutenant
Family Background

Nita Alice Prideaux was born on 12 December 1917 in Charters Towers, Queensland. She was the daughter of Clarissa Henrietta Bromhall (1885–1945) and Joseph Henry Prideaux (c. 1883–1950) of Millchester Road, Charters Towers.

Both Clarissa and Joseph grew up in Charters Towers. Clarissa was the daughter of Charles Bromhall, a miner originally from the English Midlands, and Clarissa White, originally from Middlesex, England. Joseph was the son of Richard Prideaux, a miner, and Mary Ellen Cornelius. The family had moved from South Australia to Tasmania and then to Charters Towers.

Joseph was a plumber in the mining industry and even as a young man was very community minded. He joined the Charters Towers Fire Brigade in July 1902 and then the Queenton Fire Brigade in October 1903, of which in 1905 he became honorary secretary. He was also the secretary of the Fire Brigade Brass Band in 1904.

Clarissa and Joseph were married on 29 December 1907 by the Rev. Mr. Nightingale at St. Phillips Church in Millchester, a town close to Charters Towers and now a suburb. After the ceremony and the wedding breakfast the happy couple left by the express train for Townsville, en route for Kuranda, near Cairns, and Mount Molloy.

By 1908 Clarisa and Joseph were living on Gladstone Street in Charters Towers. In September that year Clarissa gave birth to their first child, Joseph Charles Prideaux (1908–1969). Over the next 15 years, six more children were born, Clarissa Ellen (Nell) Prideaux (1910–1953), Richard Arthur (Carter) Prideaux (1913–1985), Olive Doris Prideaux (1915–1998), Nita in 1917, Ernest Alfred (Ern) Prideaux (1921–) and finally Joyce Ethel Prideaux (1923–1986).

School and Nursing

Nita began attending Queenton State School on 29 January 1923 and remained a pupil until the end of 1929. She then went to Charters Towers High School and at the end of 1935 achieved passes in bookkeeping, business methods and stenotyping. She was a member of the Girl Guides Association and a keen tennis player – taking after her father, who had built a court in their backyard. While at high school Nita won the school tennis championship.

With her strong humanitarian instinct, when Nita finished her schooling she decided to become a nurse and began training at the Charters Towers District Hospital. She gained her certificate and subsequently accepted a position as a nursing sister at the Glen Rowan Private Hospital in Brisbane before moving to the Emerald District Hospital in Central Queensland in February 1942.

Enlistment

It was around this time that Nita applied to join the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS). She may have been motivated by the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, the bombing of Darwin on 19 February, or perhaps even the arrival home of 60 AANS nurses who had evacuated Singapore on the Empire Star just before its fall. Moreover, all three of Nita’s brothers had enlisted in the Australian Military Forces (AMF), Richard (sometimes known as Carter) and Ernest in February 1941, and Joseph in July 1941.

Nita Prideaux, c. 1943. (Townsville Daily Bulletin, 11 Nov 1943)

Nita’s application was accepted and on 5 June 1942 she travelled to Rockhampton to have her medical and enlist. She was appointed to the AMF at the rank of sister and awaited her call up. In the meantime, she continued her nursing work at Emerald.

After receiving her call up in August, Nita left Emerald and spent a few days with her parents at Charters Towers before for leaving for Brisbane to take up her duties with the AANS. On 18 August she was taken on strength and posted to the 10th Australian Camp Hospital (ACH), based in ‘Erica,’ a large home on Beresford Terrace, Coorparoo owned by Isaiah and Edith Lahey. On 19 September Nita was transferred to the 4th ACH at Redbank. On 28 September she was transferred again, this time to the ACH at Tenterfield, New South Wales. This hospital too was based in a grand home, ‘Stannum,’ and later became known as the 77th ACH.

On 29 April 1943 Nita herself was admitted to the 77th ACH with an unnamed illness. She was discharged on 4 May.

Just over three weeks later, on 29 May, Nita was transferred once again, to the 116th Australian General Hospital (AGH) in Charters Towers. The unit had been raised at the local racecourse in January 1942 but by 17 March that year had moved into Mount Carmel College, on Hackett Street. The college was adjacent to the Charters Towers airfield, allowing Australian and Allied patients to be flown in directly from New Guinea.

Illness

On 11 August 1943 Nita was seconded to the Second Australia Imperial Force (2nd AIF). She remained at the 116th AGH but might now have an opportunity for an overseas posting. However, on 16 September she was admitted to the 116th AGH with anaemia. She was diagnosed with rectal cancer and on 1 October was placed on the seriously ill list. Nita died on 19 October. There was nothing anyone could do to save her life.

The following day, when Nita was laid to rest at the Charters Towers War Cemetery, a large number of her 116th AGH colleagues formed a guard of honour, indicative of her popularity and the regard in which she was held.

Five days later, these verses appeared in The Northern Miner:

NITA

Her life on earth is over,
The sound of tumult cease;
Her home it is for ever
A land of joy and peace.

She chose the path of duty
And died at duty’s call,
Nursing the sick and dying,
She gave life – her all.

Angelic bands have borne her
From sickness, pain and strife,
To peace that’s everlasting
And her eternal life.

They laid her in a soldier’s grave,
A fitting attribute,
A tribute to her memory
Was the reverent last salute.

A tribute to Sister Nita Prideaux by J. M. Clark.

In memory of Nita.

SOURCES
  • Ancestry.
  • BirtwistleWiki, ‘116th Australian General Hospital.’
  • National Archives of Australia.
  • Queensland Government Archives, ‘Admission Register – Queenton State School’ (ITM639782 15/04/1907 to 20/08/1931).
  • Queensland Government, Births, Deaths and Marriages.
  • Queensland Government, Queensland WWII Historic Places, ‘116 Australian General Hospital.’
SOURCES: NEWSPAPERS
  • The Evening Telegraph (Charters Towers, 23 Jul 1902, p. 3), ‘Fire Brigade Board.’
  • The Evening Telegraph (Charters Towers, 22 Oct 1903, p. 3), ‘The Town Fire Brigade.’
  • The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, 2 Mar 1904, p. 7), ‘Municipal Council.’
  • The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, 5 Jul 1910, p. 4), ‘Family Notices.’
  • The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, 7 Dec 1935, p. 3), ‘Speech Night.’
  • The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, 8 Aug 1942, p. 1), ‘Gossip.’
  • The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, 23 Oct 1943, p. 7), ‘Personal.’
  • The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, 25 Oct 1943, p. 3), ‘Nita.’
  • The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, 19 May 1950, p. 2), ‘The Northern Miner.’
  • The Northern Miner (Charters Towers, 19 May 1950, p. 2), ‘Advertising.’
  • Townsville Daily Bulletin (30 Dec 1907, p. 3), ‘Ending.’
  • Townsville Daily Bulletin (11 Nov 1943, p. 2), ‘Nursing Sister’s Death.’
  • Townsville Daily Bulletin (19 May 1950, p. 2), ‘Obituary.’