The Australian Women's Register

Lucy Retalic was born in 1910. Her mother was in the Red Cross and during WWI Lucy performed in concerts when she was 4 years old. She went to St Peter’s Girls’ School and joined Heather Gell’s Eurythmic classes after school. Miss Gell staged shows at the Tivoli theatre. Retalic became a kindergarten teacher and her first appointment was at the Riverside school. She became Director of the Lavis Kindergarten in Adelaide and then left teaching to work with doctors in Melbourne. In 1937 she went to England to work with ophthalmologists for 15 months. She returned home via Europe and during World War II worked with the RAAF trainee pilots to pass their eye tests. She married in 1948. Retalic was involved in the circles in the Lyceum Club and was leader of the Garden Circle. Retalic did a lot of overseas travel which she enjoyed. Retalic worked with ophthalmologists to provide screening for people in outback Australia to identify eye disease. This was organised through the Lions Club

Mary Colton, née Cutting, arrived in South Australia from London in 1839. She was closely associated with the South Australian Boarding out Society and the Adelaide Children’s Hospital. In 1879 she formed a city club for young women which became the Young Women’s Christian Association in 1884. She served as president until her death in 1898. She also worked with Mary Lee and others to form the South Australian Women’s Suffrage League and became its president in 1892.

Elizabeth Webb Nicholls was born in Adelaide to Mary and Samuel Bakewell in 1850. She joined the Christian Woman’s Temperance Union (WCTU) in 1886, and was elected provisional president in 1888. In 1889 she became Colonial president, a position she held until 1897. From 1894-1903 she was the Union’s Australian President, and post-Federation, she served as State President from 1906 to 1927. She joined the South Australian Women’s Suffrage League and subsequently became a League Councillor. In 1894 Elizabeth Nicholls assumed the role of Colonial Superintendent of the WCTU’s Suffrage Department. She was appointed to the Board of the Adelaide Hospital from 1895-1922 and was a justice of the peace – one of the four first women – from 1915. She died in 1943

Rosetta Jane Birks (née Thomas) was born in March 1856. She joined the Ladies’ Committee of the Social Purity Society which led to her interest in women’s suffrage. She joined the South Australian Women’s Suffrage League, becoming its treasurer. After suffrage was granted she joined the short-lived Woman’s League, working with Catherine Helen Spence, Lucy Morice and others. She was appointed to the board of the Adelaide Hospital in 1896. In 1902 she helped form the National Council of Women as well as becoming president of the Young Women’s Christian Association. She died in 1911.

Serena Thorne was born in Devon in October 1842, daughter of Samuel and Mary Thorne. In 1865 the church sent her to Queensland to help establish Bible Christianity and she arrived in South Australia in 1870, preaching throughout the colony from church halls to street corners. In March 1871 she married Octavius Lake whom she had known in Devon and they worked together to further Bible Christianity in South Australia. Serena Lake attended the foundation meeting of the South Australian Women’s Suffrage League in 1888 and was appointed to the Council. In 1889 the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) appointed her to the dual positions of Colonial organizer and Suffrage superintendent. In 1891 she was made a life vice-president of the WCTU. She died in 1902 aged 60.

Stella Sobels spent her childhood at Largs Bay and Semaphore. She attended the Lothian House School before moving to North Adelaide and attending St Peter’s Girls School and the Conservatorium, where she had singing lessons from Winslow Hall and Clive Carey. Sobels became involved in local theatre and radio. She went to England with the Australian choir in 1933. During World War I Sobels joined the Red Cross. When her father became ill she looked after him until he died in 1940. Sobels then returned to the Red Cross and stayed until 1957. A member of several Musical Societies in Adelaide, Sobels joined the Lyceum Club in 1947 where she organized music programmes.

Ruth Langley was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to community health particularly through the Asthma Foundation of South Australia on 26 January 1990. During World War II she completed voluntary work at the Cheer Up hut and joined the SA Transport Service. A member of the Lyceum Club Langley also was involved with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and the Asthma Medical Foundation.

Kathleen Avery, née Bryant, was born at Port Augusta, grew up in Broken Hill. In 1914 she began training at Broken Hill Hospital. In 1917 she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service, and was posted mainly in Salonika. On return to Australia Kathleen continued as a member of the Army Nursing Reserve, but resumed civilian nursing. During the Second World War she helped establish the Woodside Camp hospital in South Australia. Throughout her career Kathleen was an active member of the Returned Sisters Sub-branch of the Returned Services League.

Enid Cherry was born in Adelaide in 1891. She served in the Australian Army Nursing Service between 1917 and 1919. In the 1920s she was appointed as an industrial nurse at Myers in Rundle Street, Adelaide. Here she remained for 23 years, as the nurse to provide care for staff and customers.

Nora Jacob was born in Adelaide, South Australia and grew up in Medindie. In 1917 the family moved to Geranium, South Australia, where her father managed the family farming property while his brother was in the army. After six years on the farm Nora went to Adelaide to begin training at Mareeba Babies Hospital. She continued her training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, completing the course in 1927. Nora’s subsequent work was in private nursing and district nursing.

Valda Millard, née Salmon, was born in Adelaide, and spent her childhood at Quorn, South Australia. After nursing in New South Wales and Queensland Val returned to South Australia and in 1951 was Clinic Sister for the Mothers and Babies Health Association (MBHA) in Port Lincoln and at Port Adelaide. This was followed by further appointments in Victoria and on a mission station on the Solomon Islands. Her nursing career resumed in Port Lincoln in the 1960s and she remained in the service of the MBHA until her retirement in 1983.

Hilary Cranswick, née Hogarth, was born in Victoria. When her father enlisted in the war Hilary came with her mother and sister to live with relatives in Adelaide. Her father was killed during the war. She went to Britain in 1939 and held many wartime nursing positions including accompanying children of one of her employers to Canada when the blitz necessitated their evacuation. On returning to Australia in 1942 Hilary joined the Australian Army Nursing Service and had postings in Papua New Guinea and in New South Wales. She retired from nursing after her marriage.

Lynley Dohnt was born at Gumeracha, South Australia. In January 1941, she was called up for service with the Air Force. With the rank of matron, Miss Dohnt served in Australia and overseas, and was discharged from the Air Force Nursing Service in 1946. After a short time as assistant to the almoner at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, she became the House Sister, an appointment which she retained until her retirement in 1958.

Helen Galanopoulos, née Kondyli, was born in Greece and trained as a nurse at the Evangelismos Hospital in Athens 1951-1954. In 1958 Helen migrated to Australia and worked as an assistant nurse at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney. Later that year she came to join other members of her family in South Australia. After several months of non-nursing work, she was accepted as a student nurse at the Royal Adelaide Hospital to do one year’s training and take examinations for registration. As a registered nurse Helen has worked at the Repatriation Hospital and at Flinders Medical Centre where, at the time of the interview, she was employed in a part-time capacity in the Consulting Clinics.

Millie Rowe (Min) was born near Kadina in South Australia. She recovered from tuberculous peritonitis in her late teen years, and was accepted for nursing training at the Wakefield Street Private Hospital, Adelaide, in 1917. In 1926 she became Matron of Wakefield Street Private Hospital, a position which she occupied until her retirement in 1946. She was an active member of the Australian Trained Nurses Association.

Pat Gerrard, née Klingberg, was born at Cowell, on Eyre Peninsula, and grew up at Riverton. In 1950 Pat worked at the Repatriation General Hospital at Daw Park, Adelaide, and in 1951 she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service. Between 1952 and 1954 she was posted to Japan.

Mollie Dutton was born in Adelaide. Her parents opposed her desire to nurse. At the age of 28 she began training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) in 1924. After a short term in charge of the Magill ward of the RAH Mollie Dutton enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Nursing Service and as a matron served at RAAF hospitals in Darwin and Laverton, Victoria. After the war Miss Dutton returned to the RAH and was Sister in Charge of Bice Ward until 1954, when she retired to care for her elderly mother.

Elsie Hughes was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and spent her youth in Murray Bridge. When war broke out in 1939 Elsie returned to Britain where she joined the Reserve Queen Alexandria Imperial Military Nursing Service. She served during the war in military hospitals in Palestine and Egypt, and in Britain. On return to Adelaide in 1946 Elsie Hughes became Sister in Charge of the McEwin Theatre suite at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, an appointment which she held until retirement in 1966.

Judith Porter was born at Port Augusta, South Australia and began training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1954. In 1958 she applied to the Department of External Affairs for a posting in Papua New Guinea and after her appointment in 1959 spent fifteen years in that country, in hospitals, schools of nursing, and finally as Superintendent of Nursing Education. On returning to South Australia in 1975, Judith was appointed by the Hospitals Department to set up and conduct the first post- registration course in community health nursing. At the end of 1975, she became Principal Nursing Officer in the Hospital Department which in 1977 became the South Australian Health Commission. She was the first nurse to be Chairman of the Nurses Board of South Australia.

Margaret Trudinger was born in Adelaide, South Australia. ‘Trudie’ was on the staff of the Wallaroo Hospital when called up, in June 1940, to the Australian Army Nursing Service. Her nursing experiences in the army included postings to Woodside, Daws Road (both in South Australia), Palestine, Egypt, Port Moresby and Lae.

Jean Ashton was born at Woodside, South Australia. After appointments at Lameroo and Jamestown in South Australia, Jean did infant welfare training in Hobart, Tasmania, while awaiting call-up for the Australian Army Nursing Service. In 1941 she went with the 13th Australian General Hospital to Malaya and was among those who escaped from Singapore just before its capture by the Japanese in February 1942. When the ship ‘Vyner Brooke’ was sunk in Bangka Strait, Jean and fellow nurses were interned by the Japanese. She was among 24 nurses (from a total of 65) who survived until their release in September 1945.

Eve Bidstrup, née Blacker, grew up at Willunga, South Australia. In 1940 Eve was called up to the Australian Army Nursing Service. She was attached to the 2/4 Australian General Hospital and went with the unit to the Middle East early in 1941. The nurses in the unit were evacuated from Tobruk just before the siege of that garrison. In March 1942 the unit returned to Australia.

Betty Bradwell, née Pyman, was born in Adelaide, South Australia. Betty was called up to the Australian Army Nursing Service in 1940. In April 1941 Betty sailed with the 2/10 Australian General Hospital for Malaysia. After the withdrawal of forces from Singapore in February 1942, Betty and some of her fellow nurses reached Australia unlike many of their companions. Betty’s army career continued with postings to New Guinea, and in Australia.

Vera Gibbs was born at Port Adelaide, South Australia. In 1946 she was nominated by the Australian Nursing Federation for an appointment with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, which took her to Germany and Poland in the immediate post-war period. Gibbs was Matron at the Darwin hospital and held a senior post at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. On her retirement she began private palliative care nursing.

Jean Gibson, née Irvine, was born at Kent Town, South Australia. She was called up to the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) in 1941. Her first posting was to Darwin where she experienced the Japanese air-raids in February 1942. She next spent a year at Port Moresby and then went with the 2/5 Australian General Hospital to Borneo (Balik Papan) where she remained until peace was declared in 1945. Jean remained with the AANS and in 1946 went to Japan. She returned to Australia in 1952, shortly before her discharge from the army.

Elizabeth (Bette) Uren was born at Maylands, South Australia. She was called up to the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and embarked for overseas in May 1940. After ten months at the 2/3 Australian General Hospital (AGH) in Surrey the nurses transferred to the Middle East and staffed the 2/11 AGH in Alexandria. On return to Australia Bette Uren served in Toowoomba and Warwick. In 1943 she was appointed Sister-in-Charge of a Casualty Clearing Station which in January 1945 was posted to the Solomon Islands. Bette’s final experience in the AANS was at the military hospital at Daws Road.

Patricia Deal was trained at the Rachel Forster Hospital at Redfern. She worked in various Repatriation Hospitals, becoming the Director of Nursing at the Repatriation General Hospital in Daw Park, Adelaide. She also served as a nurse in Vietnam as part of the Australian Army Nursing Corps and remained an active member, retiring in 1986 with the rank of Major.