To England and Beyond

The three-day voyage to Taranto, Italy from Salonika was relatively stress free. Although, despite the war having ended, the Indarra received ‘wireless messages re mines floating about’ requiring strict attention to boat drills.

Fine weather prevailed with ‘everyone enjoying themselves immensely’ playing ‘deck quoits, cricket and ‘all kind of games.’ At night, they held concerts which were always a favourite entertainment for both participants and their audiences.

Early on the morning of 6 March 1919, the Indarra after negotiating a passage through a barrage of mines and nets in Taranto’s outer harbour, anchored half a mile off shore in the inner harbour which was full of large and small warships. At noon, 2,500 troops, officers and nursing staff disembarked.

Some of the British troops and all of the nursing staff spent the afternoon in Taranto before boarding the evening train to Cherbourg on the north western coast of France. The train snaked along the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea then turned inland from Ancona to Turin where the railway line connected to Modane, France via an eight-mile tunnel through the alps. From Modane, the train made its way to Cherbourg on the north western coast. The journey took almost a week but on reaching Cherbourg all that remained was a short trip across the English Channel to England.

After arriving in England about mid-March 1919, the nurses were granted a well-deserved three week’s leave. With their Celtic heritage, it’s more than likely Agnes, Jane, Maud and Sybil took the opportunity to visit their relatives in Scotland and Ireland.

On returning from leave, Jane and Sybil were posted to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital (AAH) at Dartford, Kent. Formerly an infectious diseases hospital, the 3rd AAH specialised in the treatment of ‘shell shock’, now known as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and war related neuroses. Shell shock patients unfortunately were at the mercy of Australian Army’s medical officers who had little knowledge or understanding of the condition. The more enlightened ones amongst them tried treatments such as massage, hypnosis and rest.

Unless invalided home or working on hospital ships, the majority of AANS nurses returned home to Australia as part of the nursing staff on various transport ships. This was the case for Agnes, Jane, Maud and Sybil who, by October 1919, were back on Australian shores.

Agnes came home on the Indarra known as a family ship because it carried soldiers, war brides and small children. Jan Bassett in her book, Guns and Brooches, Australian Army Nursing from the Boer War to the Gulf War alleges that family ships were unpopular among the nurses, one of whom stated that her colleagues were being sent back to Australia on family boats where they were ‘in charge of soldiers' wives who were having a terrible time’. This was further compounded if the boat lay over in a port such as Fremantle where their husbands drunkenness caused much heartbreak.

The lives of many nurses who served overseas were irrevocably changed as a result of their service. They arrived home tired and weary; physically and mentally exhausted and struggled to put aside the destruction, the waste and the agonies they had witnessed.