The Australian Women's Register

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.

Mary Frost attended Miss Carter’s School, East Adelaide School and St Peter’s Girls School. She went to Adelaide University to do English. At the outbreak of World War II Frost was in England teaching at a school in South Devon. She returned to Adelaide after the war, returning in a flying boat. Frost became an English teacher at St Peters where she won two Tennyson medals at the school. Later she became head of the English Department. Frost compiled A History of St Peter’s Girls’ School from 1894-1968, in 1972.

Phyllis Crompton’s grandfather came to South Australia on the ship ‘Fatima’ and lived at Stonyfell. Her father worked for him in the business which sold skins, wool and olives. Crompton and her sister were born in her parents house at Malvern and after her brothers were born they moved to Parkside. She attended Creveen School at North Adelaide and caught the tram to school. Crompton and her sister went to London and attended the Queensgate boarding school for a term, followed by a year at a school in Paris and then the Sorbonne. Returning to Adelaide Crompton went to Adelaide University and studied history. She became honorary secretary of the Junior Red Cross and joined the Lyceum Club in 1928.

Dr Elma Sandford-Morgan was brought up in a Baptist household. She attended Miss Martin’s school before her family sailed to Europe. Here she went to Cheltenham’s Ladies College for a year as a boarder. Returning to Adelaide in 1905, she studied piano at the Adelaide Conservatorium under Herr Reimann. Later she travelled with her family around Australia and in Queensland she met a doctor who suggested she do medicine. In 1910 she commenced medicine at Sydney University. Three years later she went with her family on a trip from China across the Siberian railway to Moscow. She graduated in 1917 and worked in Australia, London and at the Women’s Mission Hospital at Bewanee in the Punjab. Then in 1920 she went to a hospital in Bagdad. Here she married Captain Harry Morgan and their daughter Rosemary was born in 1922. Son Gavin was born in 1925. Later the family settled in Sydney and she worked at the Rachel Forster Hospital. 1928 she was appointed Assistant to the Director of Maternal Welfare in the Public Health Department, and in 1929 was the first woman to become Director of Maternal Welfare in the Public Health Service. She was a district commissioner in the Girl Guides and a representative to the Australian Federation of University Women. Moving to South Australia, Sandford-Morgan became Health Officer with the Mothers and Babies Association and helped set up Torrens House, a mothercraft training centre. During World War II joined the RAAN as a medical officer, was working in general practice, and for two years organised the Health Services of South Australia as the only woman member of the Parliamentary Commission. After the war she visited Europe and on return obtained a locum tenens as neoplasm registrar to the Anti-Cancer Foundation. She was appointed by the University of Adelaide to the Radio Therapy Department where she worked for eleven years. Sandford-Morgan retired in 1964 and then worked at the Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service until she was 80 years old. During 1966-1968 she attended the Medical Women’s International Association conferences in Rochester and Vienna and became president of the Australian Medical Women’s Association to work against bias according to sex and equal treatment of women doctors. Her main interest was preventative medicine and public health.

After marrying Dr Hubbard Champion Hosking in Adelaide in 1927, Lorna Hosking and her husband moved to Kokope near Rabaul where he was the Government medial officer. Two years later they moved to Rabaul. In May 1937 there was a temporary evacuation of the town when a volcano erupted sending steam, pumice and debris 25,000 feet into the air. During World War II women and children were evacuated to Australia when the Japanese were about to invade, Dr Hosking was put on board the ‘Montevideo Maru’ by the Japanese and it was bombed by the allies off Lugan as it had no Red Cross marks. There were no survivors. Mrs Hosking remained in Adelaide with her two daughters, Margaret and Elizabeth. She worked with the War Widows Guild which had been set up by General George Vasey and his wife. Shops were set up in each state and the Guild worked to improve pensions for the widows. In 1965 the Guild extended one of their buildings. It is named ‘Lorna Hosking House’ after the then Senior Vice-President. Lorna Hosking and one of her daughters returned to Rabaul in 1986 to see the town and place where they used to holiday on the coast.

Dorrie West went to school in Horsham, Victoria, before moving to Adelaide with her family. She completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Adelaide in 1921 and her teacher training. A teacher at Adelaide High School she left her position upon marriage in 1934, as was the custom of the time. During World War II she returned to teaching. She was an active member of both the YWCA and the Australian Federation of University Women. Following the death of her husband she joined the Lyceum Club and was President 1957-59. Her bequest to the University of Adelaide supports postgraduate scholarships for women and concerts at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide. Relatives remember Dorrie as being very engaging and encouraging.

Maisie Hone was born in 1897 in Mitcham. Her family moved to London when she was three so her father could study medicine. On their return he bought a motor car which was driven by a chauffeur. She went to school at Mitcham, Miss Thornber’s and MLC and studied at Adelaide University. She organised annual concerts for women only. In 1923 she married Ray Hone and they went to England on a cargo ship as Ray was the ship’s doctor. They returned in 1924 and their daughter Mary was born. Hone joined the Lyceum Club when it was still on North Terrace and was involved in the luncheons and the circles. Ray was away for three and a half years during the war. She started looking after children on Friday mornings to help mothers on their own and continued this for 20 years.

Marjorie Caw was the fourth child of Edith Agnes Hubbe, née Cook, 1859-1942, a South Australian educator. Her father was killed in the Boer War and her mother opened a school at Knightsbridge. Caw trained as a kindergarten teacher and taught at Halifax Street and Bowden. She travelled to Europe with her mother and Miss George of the Advanced School for Girls. They returned home when World War I broke out. On their return Caw set up a kindergarten in their drawing room (at Knightsbridge) following the Montessori methods she had observed on her travels. At the same time she studied economics at the University of Adelaide under Professor Heaton. She married Alfred Caw and they moved to Western Australia to farm at Kojonup. Her son William was born one year later and then her daughter Virginia. They returned to Adelaide by ship each year to visit her family. On one of these visits in 1929 she joined the Lyceum Club. During the depression she formed a branch of the Country Women’s Association (CWA) in Kojonup and over the years the branch helped many country people. She taught her children via correspondence school and sent her son to St Peter’s in Adelaide to board. She and her daughter went to Denmark for a world conference of the CWA. In 1922 they sold the property to her brother and returned to Adelaide where she became involved in the Lyceum Club. The Club helped her celebrate her 90th birthday in 1983.

Doris Chambers grew up on Noonameera which was an isolated cattle station and stores arrived via camel teams every six months. She moved with her family to Wannaminta which was owned by the Morden Pastoral Company and covered a million and a quarter acres. Chambers boarded at Woodlands school for three years from 1927. She married Jim Chambers in 1943 whose family dated back to 1836 when James Chambers jumped ship from the Coromandel. Her mother Myrtle White, who was born in 1888 in a tent on Acacia station, wrote several books about the outback and her friends included Dame Mary Gilmore and Miles Franklin. Doris and Jim stayed on at Wannaminta for 25 years, Jim having won the property in a ballot of land leases. Doris was responsible for publishing and sorting all the unpublished writings of her mother.

Shirley Cameron Wilson was the youngest child of Dr Charles Ernest Wilson who was a GP in Kadina and Nellie the daughter of William Strawbridge, the Surveyor General of South Australia after Goyder. Wilson attended Walford House School when the family returned to Adelaide. They moved to “Woodfield” in Fisher St Fullarton. Wilson trained as a nurse at Royal Adelaide Hospital, won 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 Wilson 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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Benevolent Society of New South Wales was the first charitable organisation to be established in Australia. It aims were ‘to relieve the poor, the distressed, the aged, the infirm,’ to discourage begging and to ‘encourage industrious habits’ among the poor and to provide them with religious instruction. In 1820 a Ladies Committee was established to attend cases of poor married women during their confinement. This service marked the beginning of the District Nursing service in Australia. In line with the changing needs of pregnant women, the Benevolent Society built and opened the Royal Hospital for Women in 1905 and was responsible for its administration until 1992 when it handed it over to the state government. The Society continues to work in the field of social welfare in New South Wales.

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.

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.