The Australian Women's Register

Summary

The daughter of Alholstane Chase and Rosina (née Sherrin), Elizabeth Burchill completed her education at the Camberwell State School and the Ladies Business College, Melbourne, as well as at Melbourne and Monash Universities.

Before World War II Burchill worked at the Australian Inland Mission, Innamincka, Labrador, Grenfell Mission, and was a member of the British Ambulance Unit, caring for refugee children during the Spanish Civil War. She enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service on 21 December 1939 and was one of the first nurses from Victoria to go to the Middle East with the 2nd Australian Imperial Force in 1940. After the war she combined nursing with writing – particularly about the area in which she had nursed. Her publications include Australian Nurses since Nightingale: 1860-1990, a largely biographical history published in 1992.

On 8 June 1998, Sister Elizabeth Burchill was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to nursing, particularly as an historian, author and philanthropist. Also she has won the Jessie Lichfield Annual Award and the Veterans’ Affairs Writers Award.

Events

• 1930

  Certificate in Midwifery from the Royal Women’s Hospital, Melbourne

• 1933

  Certificate in Infant Welfare from the Tweddle Baby Hospital, Melbourne

• 1981

  Bachelor Arts from Monash University

• 1938

  Postgraduate study, diseases of the chest, from the Brompton Hospital, London

• 1946

  Publication Labrador memories

• 1960

  Publication Innamincka

• 1970

  Publication New Guinea Nurse

• 1958 - 1960

  Nursing at Thursday Island

• 1952 - 1956

  Charge sister and nursing sister for the Department of Health, Darwin, Northern Territory

• 1946 - 1947

  Chief woman announcer at 3SR Radio, Shepparton, Victoria

• 1940 - 1946

  Captain for the Australian Army Nursing Service, 2nd AIF

• 1938

  Nursing at Labrador

• 1937

  Member of the British Ambulance Unit, caring for refugee children during the Spanish Civil War

• 1930 - 1932

  Nursing at the Australian Inland Mission, Innamincka

• 1969 - 1971

  Nursing in United States of America and Canada

• 1929

  Certificates in General Nursing from the Prince Henry Hospital, Melbourne

• 1965 - 1967

  Nursing in Europe

• 1961 - 1963

  Nursing in New Guinea

• 1974

  Publication Thursday Island Nurse

• 1981

  Publication The Paths I’ve trod

• 1992

  Publication Australian nurses since Nightingale: 1860-1990

• 1972 - 1976

  Member, Fellowship of Australian Writers

• 1972 - 1977

  Foundation member of the Maroondah Singers

• 1975

  Winner Short Story Award from the Army Repatriation Project