They called her Rachel and they all adored her. She worked tirelessly, looking after her boys; standing by them when they needed her strength, and her devotion was rewarded. Sister Alicia Mary Kelly won the Military Medal for her bravery under fire in August 1917. She was one of only 7 AANS nurses to receive this honour during WW1.

Alicia was born in County Mayo, Ireland c1886, and the family migrated to Australia. She undertook her nursing training at the Melbourne Hospital, and then moved on to the Eye & Ear Hospital, before taking charge of Dr Kent Hughes’ Private Hospital. Alicia was a member of the Royal Victorian Trained Nurses Association.

When she enrolled in the AANS in 1915, Alicia was 29 years old, and living with her mother, Jane, at Mt Dandenong in Victoria. Along with 26 other staff nurses & Matron Cornwell, Special Reinforcements for the 1st Australian General Hospital, Alicia embarked at Sydney on the A55 Kyarra on the 13th of April 1915. They arrived in Egypt on the 27th May.

The 1st AGH was based in the Palace Hotel at Heliopolis, and during the months of July & August, they had the care of a 10th LH trooper from Western Australia, who lay seriously ill with pneumonia. The illness most likely saved Arthur Chipper’s life, preventing him from charging to his death at the Nek with his brother Henry. Recovering from his illness, Arthur saw the war through until early March in 1918, when he was invalided back to WA suffering multiple neuritis.

Arthur & Alicia had most likely struck up a friendship whilst he was a patient, and possibly corresponded during the rest of the war, however, they parted company in 1915, when at the end of August Alicia was detailed for Transport duty to Australia on board the Euripides. She returned to Egypt & the 1st AGH in December.

In April 1916 Alicia boarded the HS Salta, and moved with the 1st AGH to France, where they took over the old site of the No. 12 British Stationary Hospital at the Rouen Racecourse. Most of the wards here were in tents, and the work was very heavy, especially during the Battle of the Somme. December saw her attached to the 29th Casualty Clearing Station. On the 3rd of April 1917 she was promoted to Sister.

Shunted between various CCS’s, it was while she was temporarily attached to the 3rd ACCS in Belgium, that the camp came under a heavy enemy bombardment on the 22nd of August, and Alicia won her medal.

The following letter and article tell the story.

3rd A.C.C.S., B.I. Forces, 29/8/17.

Dear Mrs Kelly, - I have often intended to write to you. I am chaplain of the unit of which your daughter, Miss A.M. Kelly (but whom we all call Rachel) has been a sister. I think you ought to know what a wonderful influence for good she has been upon everyone – officers, orderlies, and patients. From the Colonel downwards, every man and woman adores her – though I need hardly say we do not tell her so. No one has ever shown greater devotion to duty, greater courage in the face of danger, greater unselfishness in every way. She has been a mother to every soldier she comes across, and every man is a better man for having met her. She has been recommended more than once for decoration (she may not know this), and we shall never be contented till she receives recognition of her splendid devotion; but very few honors fall to nurses, and then they always go first to the heads.

We have just passed through a very trying time. We have been bombed continually. The noise of the guns, only a hundred yards from the camp, has been startling and deafening. One bomb fell close to the sister’s quarters, killing an officer and an orderly, and riddling the sisters’ tents in which they were sleeping, fortunately on the ground. Rachel suffered a good deal from sleeplessness, and looked worn out, but the duty was so exacting she had to go on; in fact, she will never give in. Finally came the day when the Germans deliberately shelled the camp, and no one who has not seen it can realise what it means to have huge armour-piercing shells fall in your midst with a burst of quarter of a mile all round. We got all the sisters away to a trench at the back of the camp, but when all had gone we found Rachel alone in her ward, giving to each patient an enamel bowl to cover his head from flying pieces of shell – absolutely comforting all these poor, frightened, helpless creatures in her calm and sweet motherly ways and we had literally to drag her to a place of safety. I cannot write at any great length, but a man could cry for very pride at being associated with such a girl, and with gratitude that God has endowed her with such graces and virtues. And the dear child didn’t know that she had been perfectly heroic; she was only troubled that she couldn’t obey the order to seek shelter, because her poor boys looked so frightened, and all the orderlies had run out of the ward.

She has now been sent to 3rd A.G.H. We shall miss her greatly, but she ought to have a change from the exciting C.C.S. work for a time. It seems a shame that a mother should not be able to see her daughter and the glorious life she is living. Glorious, I say, but she is the humblest, gentlest child that ever lived. And so I wanted you to know in this very brief way how much the army values and how much it owes your daughter. My own great joy is to hear that my son is doing his duty in the world, and I wanted you to know that though you have made this great sacrifice of being parted from your daughter, there are thousands who are benefiting from your sacrifice and who thank God for this splendid revelation of noble womanhood. With all good wishes that you may soon have your daughter back safe and happy, I am,

G.C. MUNSCHAMP, C.P.

Inglewood Advertiser, Fri Jan 18, 1918:

Nurse Wins Military Medal.

Miss E.A. Conyers, Matron-in-Chief of the Australian Army Nursing Service, who is home on furlough, gives the following interesting account of how the Military Medal was won by Sister Alicia Kelly. Sister Kelly is a cousin of the Misses Kelly and Mrs Body, of Inglewood:

“Some weeks ago news reached Australia that the Military Medal had been awarded to Sister Alicia (Rachel) Kelly. Miss Conyers has an interesting story to tell of this heroic sister and how she won the decoration.

“Sister Kelly was off duty at one of the casualty stations, which was in danger of being demolished by the enemy,” explained Miss Conyers. “All the staff had been ordered to evacuate. A padre on his round discovered Sister Kelly on duty in a hospital tent with several patients. He remonstrated with her for remaining behind.

“I could not leave my patients,” she answered.

“Her quiet courage and clever resourcefulness enabled these nerve-shattered men to come through the ordeal of the bombardment with a cheery confidence.

She knew that to feel secure these patients must have some kind of cover for their heads. Metal helmets were not available, so she used enamelled head-basins. She was aware that the basins would not be shrapnel proof, but she also realised that a protective covering of some kind would have an influence in strengthening the morale of the men. She remained at her post until the bombardment ceased.”

Two days after her act of bravery Alicia reported for duty at the 3rd AGH, in the coastal town of Abbeville, where they dealt mainly with ‘gassed’ patients. Finally, at the end of October that year, she traveled to England for 2 weeks of leave, rejoining the 3rd AGH on the 15th November 1917.

Probably aware that Arthur Chipper had been invalided home in the March of 1918, it’s likely that Alicia requested to return to Australia on transport duty, and on the 22nd of that month, she was transferred to London to take up this duty. However, on the 17th April, she was still waiting to be allotted to a ship, and was meanwhile attached to the 2nd AAH at Southall.

She finally embarked on the HS Ruahine on the 12th May 1918, as the Sister-in-charge for the voyage back to Australia. On arrival at Fremantle on the 5th July, Alicia was presented with a silver cup, which her patients had made for her during the trip.

Disembarking in WA, Alicia married Arthur Chipper a month later, on the 7th August, and this effectively saw her discharged from the AANS. The Chipper’s farmed at Bullaring, but Alicia went back to nursing with the advent of WW2, and was the Matron at the Old Women’s Home Woodbridge, Guildford.

Having suffered with her health since her return from the first war, she succumbed to a bout of pneumonia on the 16th April 1942 at Bullaring, age 56. Her ashes rest in the Crematorium Rose Gardens at the Karrakatta Cemetery in Perth.

A month after her death, Arthur enlisted for service in the war and served with the 10th Bn. He later remarried, but died in 1956, age 69, and is buried with his second wife at the Narrogin Cemetery, WA.

Alicia’ medals have been entrusted to the Army Museum of Western Australia, where they are safe behind glass & available to be viewed by the public.

Heather (Frev) Ford, 2008