The Australian Women's Register

50 minutes Shirley Cameron Wilson was born in 1918, the youngest child of Dr Charles Ernest Wilson who was a GP in Kadina and Nellie who was the daughter of William Strawbridge, the Surveyor General of South Australia after Goyder. They lived in Kadina for 9 years and enjoyed the country life. Nellie and her sister Ethelwyn were both artistic. Shirley attended Walford House School when the family returned to Adelaide. They moved to “Woodfield” in Fisher St Fullarton. Shirley trained as a nurse at Royal Adelaide Hospital, one the Gold Medal, and then did a year of midwifery training in Melbourne. During World War II she enlisted as an army nurse and before she was called up worked in the Women’s Land Army. She went to New Guinea with the 2nd 8th General Hospital and stayed 13 months. After the war she studied at Melbourne University. She came back to nurse her mother, father and aunt until they died. During this time she developed an interest in art and completed her research for the book “The Bridge over the Ocean” which she wrote with Keith Borrow. She and her sister Honor moved to adjoining units in Hazelwood Park in 1973 and Shirley worked on her book about South Australian Women artists. She was the leader of the Antiques and Collecting Circle at the Lyceum Club for nine years.