Emily Grace Chappell

1889 - 1960

Australian nurses did not consider their work in India to be ‘active service’ and feared that after the war they would be called ‘cold-footers’. They did, however, consider their work on hospital ships to be ‘active service.’

This being the case, Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) staff nurse, Emily Chappell was most likely cock-a-hoop when in February 1917 she transferred from the Cumballa War Hospital in Bombay to the Ellora, an Indian Expeditionary Force 475-bed hospital ship which operated between the Mesopotamian port of Basra and Bombay.

Working on a hospital ship was extremely tiring due to the incessant heat. Some ships were so badly ventilated that, every four hours they had to turn right round in a circle to provide relief to those on board. The patients were often in a frightful condition often suffering from dysentery, cholera, malaria, paratyphoid and heat exhaustion. And then of course, there was the inevitable sea sickness which afflicted patient and carer alike.

Born on 14 March 1889 at Pelluebla in north east Victoria, Emily was the seventh child to practising Baptists, Arthur Chappell and Deborah Beaumont. She grew up on the family farm and was educated to merit level at South Yarrawonga Primary School.

The farmhouse consisted of two log buildings; the living quarters with a compressed dirt floor covered in hessian wheat bags and a kitchen. The family’s domestic water supply came from a brick lined well from which a hand pump was used to pump the water out.

The majority of the family’s food came from the farm’s vegetable garden, milking cows, hens and livestock. Daily bible readings, prayers and the saying of grace was woven into the fabric of everyday life.

Tragedy struck the family in December 1910 when Emily’s youngest sister, Elsie aged eleven, died from a fractured skull after being thrown out of a buggy. Elsie’s death, it seems had a profound effect on twenty-two year old Emily because in May 1911, she commenced as a probationer nurse at the Ovens District Hospital (ODH). During her time there she was admitted as a patient twice; firstly in 1912 for nearly two months with gastritis and then again in 1914 with eczema.

She was appointed Sister after gaining her general nursing qualification in July 1914.

After the outbreak of World War One, the military took over the Police Hospital in St. Kilda Road, Melbourne. With about 40 beds and an operating theatre, the building formed the nucleus of the No. 5 Australian General Hospital (AGH). The hospital opened in March 1915 under the watchful eye of Matron Barton and seven nurses. Tents were used when it was realized that the main building was not large enough to accommodate the influx of patients. The absence of gas, hot water and telephones made working conditions problematic for the staff.

By the time Emily began her four-month stint at No 5 AGH in August 1916, the Department of Defence were publicly appealing for the donation of fresh fruit and vegetables to feed the hospital’s 600 patients.

Of the one million Indian soldiers who served under the British in World War one, 74,000 died with tens of thousands injured. The Indian Government unable to cope with the number of casualties, in May 1916, cabled Australia for help requesting 50 lady nurses for employment in British War Hospitals at Bombay. Fifty nurses were despatched from Egypt. In early August 1916, the Indian Government cabled the Australian government again asking for 50 nurses to be supplied immediately and then another 50 a month later. Eventually around 560 AANS nurses, mostly from Victoria served in India between 1916 and 1919.

The SS Mooltan departed from Melbourne on Boxing Day 1916; on board were two ODH trained nurses, Emily Chappell and Flora Melville. Several days after their departure, the newspapers of the day were accusing the war office of meanness:

WAR OFFICE MEANNESS

A score or two of nurses have just been sent away by the Defence Department to India where they will stay for six months or so, and then move on to England. These ladies rank as lieutenants but get less pay than privates, their remuneration being 5/3 per day and 2/6 allowance, which all goes for board. In days when cooks in small families turn up their noses at 40/ a week plus board and lodgings, this pay for trained nurses does not seem great.

They are instructed never to travel second class, and when at theatres to go into the more expensive parts of the house, since, to do otherwise would be lowering the dignity of the rank they nominally possess.

What is worse is that although at the beck and call of the authorities, these young. women, all of whom have had to pass examinations and undergo severe training, are sometimes put off for a week or two at their own expense. Quite a number of them who have been selected to go abroad were told that there were too many nurses available, and that for economy’s sake they must take a fortnight's holiday without pay. In other words, they were fined £5/10 or so at a time when they were getting ready to go abroad to do their duty, and in fact, needed extra money. Many of them have had to forego pay for the few days of their final leave, and what is more, to pay their travelling expenses when going to bid farewell to their friends.

Every fat armchair general and lieutenant-colonel, who draws a large salary for infesting the barracks, insists on a special motor car being sent to his private residence for him, every morning, while the party in power sees nothing in giving 5/3 a day extra out of the farmers' wheat money to lumpers, who insist not only in being paid travelling expenses to their work, but also for the time they consume in the journey. Their pay has now touched we are told, 31/9 for a night's work, while. the nurse gets sixth of that amount. Surely something can be done by one of the three War Ministers Australia possesses to alter these anomalies. The Ararat Advertiser and Chronicle for the Stawell and Wimmera Districts, 30 December 1916.

After arriving in Bombay in January 1917, Emily was temporarily posted to the 600 bed Cumballa War Hospital. Of the Cumballa, Sister Gertrude Moberly, wrote:

Cumballa War Hospital is a huge place. There are 11 AANS Sisters here and I do not know how many English Army Sisters. The Matron … doesn’t understand our Australian freedom. She is Irish and awfully nice but oh, so strict, and the rules here are too absurd for words. Fancy trained women having to be in at 8.15 p.m. – that is the hour we dine. One must have special permission to stay out later than that.

Emily spent almost twelve months on the Ellora before being posted to the 600 bed Victoria War Hospital at Bombay. The hospital was originally the offices of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway but had been commandeered by the British and converted to a hospital. As the hospital was close to the docks it received the most serious cases including British prisoners of war and Turkish prisoners of war. Nursing in India under trying conditions and with long hours, 7.30 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. with three hours off every other day was not easy but the nurses did, however, relish the opportunity to expand their knowledge and competence in treating patients with beriberi, dysentery and typhoid.

In early January 1919 Emily, after disembarking at Southampton, England enjoyed a month’s furlough with her Welsh relatives in Cardiff. On her return to London, she was posted to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital (AAH) at Dartford in England. This 1400 bed hospital specialized in the treatment of war-related nervous conditions and neuroses.

Along with Australian nurses and invalided troops, Emily boarded the steamer, the Czar in late March 1919 bound for Australia. However, at Alexandria, Egypt, they embarked on the Dongola and arrived home in Melbourne on 16 May. Unlike the soldiers, the nurses were expected to work their passage home.

Her appointment with the AIF was terminated in July 1919 but reinstated in October 1919. This was most likely to due to the fact that whilst overseas Emily contracted malaria and was still being treated for it as an outpatient in September 1920 at the No. 11 AGH.

The Chappell family story is that Emily never fully recovered her health and did not work again after her return home. She never married but was fondly remembered by her family as someone who was gentle and caring and would be the first to offer assistance with the care of a newborn or a sick family member.

Emily died, not long after her seventy-first birthday, on 16 June 1960 at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital and was buried at the Burwood cemetery.

Thank you to Wendy Pfeiffer, a Chappell descendant who provided me with details of Emily's family background and various photographs.