For a lost soldier

Studio portrait of Dr Phoebe Chapple. She was educated at the Advanced School for Girls in Grote Street, Adelaide before entering university aged 16. She gained her Bachelor of Science in 1898, and, inspired by South Australian women’s advocate and Adelaide’s first practising woman doctor, Dr Violet Plummer, Phoebe went on to study medicine. For academic excellence in her second year she was awarded the university’s Elder Prize. She graduated as a doctor in 1904. During the First World War she became frustrated with the Australian army’s refusal to appoint women doctors. She travelled to England in February 1917 to enlist in the Royal Army Medical Corps. She was appointed as surgeon to Cambridge Hospital in Aldershot. Later, she was attached to Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps (QMAAC) and moved to France. Chapple was accorded the honorary rank of captain and was one of the first two women doctors sent to the front. On 29 May 1918, Chapple was inspecting the QMAAC Camp 1 near Abbeville in France when it came under a German aerial bombing attack. Using the glow from a lorry that had been set on fire, German aircrew dropped three bombs on the compound. Two destroyed huts while a third exploded on a covered trench used by the women as a shelter. The explosion killed eight women and a ninth was mortally wounded. Six were slightly wounded. Working in the dark for hours, Phoebe moved through the destroyed trench, tending to the dead and wounded. For her actions during and following the air raid, Chapple was awarded a Military Medal (MM), the first woman doctor so decorated. The citation for the award reads: ‘For gallantry and devotion to duty during an enemy air raid. While the raid was in progress Doctor Chapple attended to the needs of the wounded regardless of her own safety.’ At the time of recommending the award for Chapple, the Commander-In-Chief was unable to authorise a Military Cross, a comparable award given to officers, as the women did not hold commissions. A recommendation for a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) was considered more appropriate for the women though the MM was finally decided upon as it could only be won in the field. Dr Phoebe Chapple BSc MB BS MM died on 24 March 1967, aged 87 and was cremated, with full military honours, at Centennial Park Cemetery.

Studio portrait of Sister Clarice Molyneux Dickson RRC. From the collection of Anne Mary Pocock who was born into a farming family on 20 July 1863 in Dalby, Queensland. Known as “Bessie”, she worked for some years as a domestic servant in Grafton. Following the death of her fiancé she commenced nursing training at Sydney Hospital, aged 27. On completion, Pocock joined the hospital staff. In 1899 she joined the New South Wales Army Nursing Service Reserve (NSWANSR) and was one of 14 NSWANSR nurses, led by Matron Ellen (Nellie) Gould, to serve in South Africa with the New South Wales Army Medical Corps. They arrived in 1900 and Bessie was posted to No. 2 British Stationary Hospital in East London, South Africa. It was housed in an old Agricultural Show building where conditions were primitive. In her diary, Pocock wrote: “just 3 huge rooms, 2 with boards on the floor …We had about 500 patients in a very little time … It was very hot here, the building all covered with corrugated iron, flies very bad, everyone required mosquito nets.” (AWM PR05050)

Pocock went on to serve closer to the front, first in Johannesburg, then at Middleburg in the Transvaal, where she was Sister-in-Charge. Here she treated wounded and ill soldiers until she herself contracted typhoid in May 1902. She was invalided to Britain. For her service in the Boer War, Pocock was Mentioned in Despatches and received the Queen’s and the King’s South Africa medals. She attended the coronation procession in London on 9 August 1902.
Pocock returned to Australia in 1903 and was one of the Boer War nurses who joined the Australian Army Nursing Service Reserve (AANSR) in the lead-up to the First World War. 

With the outbreak of the First World War, Pocock again enlisted, initially serving with No 2 Australian General Hospital. She served in Cairo and Ismailia then became matron on the Hospital Ship Assaye off Gallipoli. She went on to serve in France, Belgium and England. On 2 May Pocock was awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross for her nursing service; she was later twice mentioned in despatches. 

Arriving back in Australia in 1919, Pocock returned to her role as matron at Gladesville Hospital in Sydney, before opening a private hospital Ismailia in Chatswood. In her retirement she remained an active member of both the Australasian Trained Nurses’ Association, of which she became a life member, and the AANS. Pocock never married and lived with her nieces until her death on 16 July 1946. 

BRITISH OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH FROM THE WESTERN FRONT. THE FALL OF PERONNE. British officers studying maps in Peronne.

Studio portrait of a child dressed in military uniform, possibly the son of Pte Eldershire.

Informal outdoor portrait of Maud Butler who twice attempted to stow away to the front. Firstly, on the HMAT Suevic in December 1915, where she disguised herself as a soldier and hid in a life boat for over a day until she was discovered and returned to Australia. Her second attempt was aboard the HMAT Star of England in March 1916, where she feigned drunkeness and stumbled aboard with other troops returning from leave. She was discovered the following morning during a routine check - her service number did not match any on the officer’s list. Following this attempt, Maud was charged and found guilty of having wrongfully worn military uniform. In light of these failures, Maud abandoned the idea of travelling to the front and instead tried to help the war effort by collecting money for charity. On 25 April 1916 she was collecting money while wearing an AIF uniform when she was arrested by Military Police. They initially thought she was a soldier contravening a recent military order that men in uniform could not collect money for the war effort, not realising she was female. Maud pleaded guilty, escaping a fine and promised never to appear in uniform again.

Portrait of 3710 Private Francis Edmund Bilton, 5th Battalion. Note the cat curled up asleep in the corner. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had the concession to take photographs at the Broadmeadows and Seymour army camps during the First World War. In the 1930s, the Australian War Memorial purchased the original glass negatives from Algernon Darge, along with the photographers’ notebooks. The notebooks contain brief details, usually a surname or unit name, for each negative.