WOMEN'S AUSTRALIAN ARMY CORPS in LE HAVRE, FRANCE

[Indunna]

Hi Guys

I am new to this forum and hoping someone might be able to help me

I have come across a photo in the Australian War Memorial of Australian WAAC's in LE HAVRE, FRANCE

everything I have read - has told me that Australia only sent women overseas as nurses and not in other areas of service

photo detail are given as

ID Number: P00408.003

1919-05-25. LE HAVRE, FRANCE. PICNIC WITH WOMEN'S AUSTRALIAN ARMY CORPS. ONLY THE MEN ARE NAMED. FROM L TO R: REG WOODROW, REG OVENS, JACK COLLEY, R.W. WATT, STEVE TAYLOR, 'YOGO' LYONS, NORM FAIRLESS

and can be viewed on line at

http://cas.awm.gov.au/TST2/cas_disp_pkg.pr...ss_level=Public

Hoping some one might be able to help with info on this unit

Jennifer

[frev]

Hi Jennifer

I'll be interested in the outcome of this too.

The only thing I can think of is that the person putting the inscription together misinterpreted it - and the photo is actually of British WAAC's (Women's Army Auxillary Corps aka Women's Auxillary Army Corps).

Cheers, Frev

[Indunna]

Have written to the Australian War Memorial about the photo asking for more detail

will post their answer when I get it

The National Archives - documents on line - search of Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (1917-1918), later Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (1918-1920).

at

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/waac.asp

Turned up 10 women who have given Australia as their place of birth

Lloyd-Kirk, Winifred Mary

Place of Birth: Victoria, Australia

29 November 1894

WO 398/137

King, Gwladys

Place of Birth: Australia

17 November 1896

WO 398/128

Harriss, Annie

Place of Birth: Sydney, Australia

14 March 1896

WO 398/100

Grylls, Florence May

Place of Birth: Buninyong, Victoria, Australia

20 June 1888

WO 398/95

Fletcher, Grace

Place of Birth: Sydney, Australia

20 July 1878

WO 398/78

Dakin, Marie Evelyn

Place of Birth: Melbourne, Australia

14 November 1892

WO 398/53

St John Clarke, Ethel

Place of Birth: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

7 October 1883

WO 398/41

Campbell, Mary MacNaish

Place of Birth: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

26 February 1888

WO 398/36

Sewell, Barbara

Place of Birth: Australia

18 December 1897

WO 398/199

Ross, Clementine

Place of Birth: Brisbane, Australia

14 October 1897

WO 398/192

Jennifer

[Jim Strawbridge]

Not sure if this means anything. There were a fair few Brits in Australia when war broke out and enlisted in the Australian forces. Conversely, just because these women were born in Australia does not mean that they were not living in the Uk and enlisted in the QMAAC. Remember that the QMAAC were generally domestic staff taken on for that purpose.

[Indunna]

The Australian War Mememorial response

Australian War Memorial Research Centre

ReQuest

Response to your question with Question #: RCIS12519

Your question is:

I have come across a photo in the Australian War Memorial of Australian WAAC's in LE HAVRE, FRANCE

everything I have read - has told me that Australia only sent women overseas as nurses and not in other areas of service

photo detail are given as

ID Number: P00408.003

1919-05-25. LE HAVRE, FRANCE. PICNIC WITH WOMEN'S AUSTRALIAN ARMY CORPS. ONLY THE MEN ARE NAMED. FROM L TO R: REG WOODROW, REG OVENS, JACK COLLEY, R.W. WATT, STEVE TAYLOR, 'YOGO' LYONS, NORM FAIRLESS

and can be viewed on line at

http://cas.awm.gov.au/TST2/cas_disp_pkg.pr...el=Public...etc

Hoping you can tell me some more info about this photo and the unit of WOMEN'S AUSTRALIAN ARMY CORPS

Jennifer Baker

Our response is:

Dear Ms Baker

Thank you for your enquiry regarding the role of Australian women in the First World War.

You are perfectly correct in thinking that Australian women did not go overseas in the First World War apart from in a nursing capacity. The AWAS or Australian Women's Army Service were formed in August 1941. The photograph you have listed is possibly incorrectly labelled. These women are probably the WAACs from Britain who were the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. I will pass this caption problem on to the appropriate section to investigate and get back to you if you like.

Our own Encyclopaedia entry on the Australian Women's Army Service is at the link below:

http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/structure/awas.htm

The text below has come from the British National Archives:

Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) Founded in March 1917 to provide women for employment with the British army at home and on the Western Front, thereby freeing men - previously working in administrative roles - for combat. The WAAC was divided into four sections: Cookery; Mechanical; Clerical; Miscellaneous. It was renamed the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps in April 1918.

The text below concerns the WAACS (Britain) and has come form our Collections database:

Intially called the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), the QMAAC was formed in Great Britain in 1917 from the earlier Women's Legion, allowing women who were not qualified for the nursing services to play a service role in the war. Its members were primarily employed as clerks, telephonists, waitresses, cooks, and instructors, many of them seeing service in France. A statement released by Buckingham Palace later in 1917 read 'As a mark of Her Majesty's appreciation of the good s! ervices rendered by the WAAC both at home and abroad since its inaugur ation, and especially of the distinction which it earned in France during the recent fighting on the Western Front, Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to assume the position and title of Commandant-in-Chief of the Corps, which in future will bear the name of Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps.' QMAAC was disbanded in 1921.

I hope this has been helpful.

Yours sincerely

Shelley Blakely

[Jennyford]

Just a quick comment on the reply from the Australian National War Memoria Research Centre, where they say "You are perfectly correct in thinking that Australian women did not go overseas in the First World War apart from in a nursing capacity." I'm afraid this is not true. Women doctors also came over to serve, in the RAMC, with the Scottish Women's Hospitals, and with the Women's Hospital Corps at Endell Street.

Ann Mitchell, in her excellent chapter 'Medical Women and the Medical Services of the First World War', lists 14 Australian women doctors who paid their own way to contribute to the medical services - I have found a couple more. I can give you names if you want. The reference for her paper is 'AM Mitchell, 'Medical Women and the Medical Services of the First World War', Festschrift for Kenneth Fitzpatrick Russell, Carlton, Victoria: Queensbury Hill Press, 1978'

Jennian

[Indunna]

Hi Jennian

it would be nice to know their names and the units they served in

- I find it very sad that the AWM doesnt Acknowledge them and may be putting their name here we can right that wrong in some small way

Jennifer

[Jennyford]

Here are the names I have, with a very few details. The best way to find out more is to look at the Medical Register for the war years, which will give you the medical school at which each qualified. Their archives should have information about the women. The next step is to consult the Medical Directory (if Australia has one), for 1920 or later. In the UK the Medical Directory gives fuller career details, supplied by the doctors themselves, though it is not compulsory, and not all doctors on the Register give information. If you start at the volume for 1920, which would have been prepared in 1919, you will have info up about their doings to the end of the war. Fortunately the early women doctors were proud of their achievements and tended to put their details in the Directory.

The following came over from Australia specifically to serve in WWI:

1. Eleanor Bourne, from Brisbane - Endell Street Military Hospital, with the Women's Hospital Corps - papers at State Library of Queensland. Also possibly adviser to Dr Jane Turnbull (Controller of the WAAC in the UK)

2. Vera Scantlebury, from Melbourne - Endell Street Military Hospital, with the Women's Hospital Corps (later a well-known paediatrician in Victoria) - papers at the Baillieu Library, University of Melbourne

3. Rachel Champion, from Melbourne - Endell Street Military Hospital, with the Women's Hospital Corps - no papers, but family alive

4. Elizabeth Hamilton-Browne, from Sydney - Endell Street Military Hospital, with the Women's Hospital Corps, then with No.19 General Hospital, in Egypt; subsequently M/O in France, in charge of 500 American women clerks who had been lent to the British Army - some reminiscences in the University of Sydney archives

5. Emma Buckley, from Sydney - Endell Street Military Hospital, with the Women's Hospital Corps

6. Phoebe Chappell - according to Mitchell, worked with the RAMC in France, though I can't find her on any lists

7. Marjorie Little - according to Mitchell, worked with the RAMC in France, though again, not on the lists I have

8. Karie Ardill - served with the Womens' & Children's Hospital, Dover Garrison & also in Egypt

9. Agnes Bennett (may be a Kiwi who trained in Australia - not sure)

10. Lilian Cooper - SWH 'London Unit', Aug 1916-Sep 17 & Feb-Mar 1919

11. Grace Cordingly

12. Mary de Garis

13. Lucy Gullett

14. Mabel Murray-Prior

15. Helen Sexton

Also, Laura Hope, Elsie Dalyell and Isabel Ormiston, who were already abroad when war broke out, according to Ann Mitchell.

Final thought - would Australian doctors at that time have been listed under 'Commonwealth', in the UK Medical Register and Directory? Not sure - don't think so, but I can't check without going to a big library.

Hope this helps

Jennian

[Sue Light]

No.6 on the list, Phoebe Chapple, has an entry with photo in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, but unfortunately I can't access the site today. She was serving with the RAMC, attached to Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps [formerly WAAC], and was the only female doctor to be awarded the Military Medal during the war for her actions on 29th May 1918. The date of the London Gazette is 19/10/18, and the citation:

For gallantry and devotion to duty during an air raid. While the raid was in progress Dr. Chapple attended to the needs of the wounded regardless of her own safety.

Sue

[Sue Light]

Here [hopefully] is the link to her entry in the ADB, although the site is a bit iffy at present:

Phoebe Chapple - Australian Dictionary of Biography entry

Sue

[Jennyford]

THanks for that, Sue

[Indunna]

found this on Dr Helen Sexton

Thanks Jenni & Sue for the info and names

- Jennifer

found this on Dr Helen Sexton

web ref: http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A110582b.htm

SEXTON, HANNAH MARY HELEN (1862-1950), surgeon, was born on 21 June 1862 in Melbourne, daughter of Irish parents Daniel Sexton, builder and architect, and his wife Maria, née Bromwell. She was educated at Carlton Ladies' College. After matriculating she planned to study medicine in England, as the medical school at the University of Melbourne was not open to women. Meanwhile she enrolled in arts and met Lilian Helen Alexander, who shared her ambition for a medical career. Resolving to press the university to admit female medical students, with the support of six other interested women they wrote to the university council and interviewed every council-member. Largely as a result of their persuasions, council in March 1887 passed by a substantial majority the motion to admit women to medicine.

In 1892 Sexton became the third woman to graduate M.B., B.S. in Melbourne. Penalized by the unwillingness of hospitals to appoint women, especially to honorary positions, the early graduates directed their efforts to establishing 'a hospital of our own'. Helen Sexton was one of the group of medical women who met under the leadership of Dr Constance Stone in September 1896 to found the Queen Victoria Hospital for Women and Children. It began as an out-patient clinic, but when it was officially opened in July 1899 it was a 'small airy hospital with eight beds and a well designed operating theatre'. Sexton was the leader of surgical work until she resigned in 1908, remaining on the honorary consultant staff as a gynaecologist.

In 1899 she became the first woman to hold an honorary position as surgeon in any other Melbourne hospital, with her election by subscribers to the position of honorary gynaecological surgeon at the Women's Hospital. Her ability won her acceptance and respect throughout Melbourne, and her early retirement due to ill health in 1910 prompted numerous expressions of regret and tributes from the medical world.

Sexton's medical career was not yet over. After touring Europe in 1912-14, she offered her services to the Australian authorities on the outbreak of World War I. She was refused, and instead joined several other women in starting a field hospital of twenty-five beds at Auteuil in France. Sexton was given the military rank of majeur in the French Army. She later worked at a hospital in Paris.

Sexton returned to Melbourne in 1917 and settled at Toorak, but in 1919, retiring finally from practice, she resumed her travels and eventually lived in Florence, Italy, where she was said to have done 'wonderful work among the poor'. In later life she suffered from arthritis and paralysis agitans. She died, unmarried, in London on 12 October 1950.

For some years a well-known figure in Melbourne, Sexton was noted for her tailor-made clothes, her 'dumpy hat' and 'flat, sensible shoes'. From her business investments and her medical cases she was said to have made 'a good pile', which enabled her to indulge her love of 'the hoary and the historical', of travel, and of art. In private, as in her career, she was said to be 'terribly serious about … life and duty, but she had a love of fun as well'. Melbourne Punch commended her bedside manner for its 'kindly brusquerie', and recognized, with some surprise, her 'broad sense of humour'. Above all she was noted for her great charm.

Select Bibliography

M. H. Neve, This Mad Folly (Syd, 1980); Age (Melbourne), 6 July 1899; Argus (Melbourne), 6 July 1899; Punch (Melbourne), 18 Mar 1909; P. A. Russell, Mothers of the Race: A Study of the First Thirty Women Medical Graduates from the University of Melbourne (B.A. Hons thesis, Monash University, 1982); letters, Queen Victoria Hospital (Melbourne) collection; University of Melbourne Archives. More on the resources

Author: Penny Russell

Print Publication Details: Penny Russell, 'Sexton, Hannah Mary Helen (1862 - 1950)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 11, Melbourne University Press, 1988, pp 570-571.

[Indunna]

De Garis, Mary Clementina (1881 - 1963)

http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A080699b.htm

Mary Clementina (1881-1963), born on 16 December 1881, elder of twin girls, achieved distinction. Her father's Mildura business prospered just in time to pay for a final year's schooling for 'Clemmie' at the Methodist Ladies' College in Melbourne, where she was dux in 1898. She matriculated with exhibitions in English and history, then graduated with high honours in medicine from the University of Melbourne. In 1907 she became the second woman in Victoria to take out an M.D. On the death of her fiancé in World War I, she served for fifteen months as head of the Scottish Women's Hospitals for Foreign Service attached to the Serbian Army and was decorated by the Serbian government. After post-graduate study overseas, she practised with distinction as an obstetrician in Geelong and was a pioneer in the feeding of high protein diets to pregnant women. Her publications include Clinical Notes and Deductions of a Peripatetic (London, 1926). She died at Geelong on 18 November 1963.