Research Notes

Miriam (Minnie) Selina Welshman


1883-1957 

Born 20 April 1883 at Yackandandah to Arthur Cromwell Welshman, a school teacher & Margaret Ann Mitchell. The second of four children.





Arthur was a teacher for all of his professional life - described as a weak teacher who lacked vigour and was devoid of energy!

 

Whilst in the north east, he taught at Dederang, Baranduda, Wodonga and Prentice, north east of Rutherglen.



From the ODH House Committee report 20 March 1905 – The Superintendent reported that he had engaged Miss M. Welshman [aged twenty-one] of Wodonga for the vacancy among probationer nurses and she has commenced duty.

From the ODH House Committee report 11 December 1905 – The Superintendent reported the illness of Nurse Welshman …

From the ODH Inpatient Register 1 January 1906-28 April 1925 - Admitted to the ODH with phlebitis. Discharged 31 January 1906 to her father A.C. Welshman, Rutherglen.

.... that Nurse Welshman had recovered from her recent Illness and was away on sick leave ... Ovens and Murray Advertiser, 13 January 1906.

From May 1908 Una Journal - Royal Victorian Trained Nurses’ Association - FINAL NURSING EXAMINATION.

The examination was held on the 2nd and 3rd June. Eighty-five candidates presented themselves at Melbourne, Ballarat, Bendigo, and Beechworth. …  M. Welshman (Ovens Hospital).

 

Date of qualification – 16 May 1908.

 

1909 to December 1911 at Winfield, (a Trained Nurses’ Home)  340 Albert Street, East Melbourne.

 

1912-October 1914, address is c/o Miss Josling, Hutt Street Adelaide.

 

It would be impossible to over estimate the services rendered in the home by the Trained Nurse, but as in times of sickness relatives often do not know where to send for a nurse on whose competence they can thoroughly rely, it will be well if your readers would bear in mind the fact that particulars as to "Miss Josling’s Nurses' Home Hutt Street, Adelaide, can always be found in the advertising columns of this paper. Miss Josling's Home is registered under the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association. Trained certificated nurses are sent to all parts of the State on receipt of letter or telegram, and Miss Josling may always be relied on to send them by the very quickest available route, and to select just the kind of nurse the special circumstances call for. Miss Josling's telephone number is 839 and as the services of a nurse may be required hurriedly and unexpected, it will be a wise precaution if a note is made of this number, as also of the address of the Home in Hutt Street. Petersburg Times, June 1912.

 

1915 at Rutherglen – occupation nurse.

 

August 1917 Minnie is living with her family at 20 Docker Street, Elwood


7 November 1917 - Enlisted but had previously joined the AANS.

26 November 1917 embarked on the Indarra bound for Bombay.

18 December 1917 – Disembarked at Bombay. Posted to the Colaba War hospital for duty.

3 October 1918 - transferred to Station Hospital, Bangalore.

14 July 1919 – Transferred to 19th British Station Hospital, Rawalpindi.

September 1919 – admitted to Sisters Hospital, Kuldana.

17 November 1919 – left Bombay on the Dilwarra bound for Singapore where she embarked SS Charon arriving in Fremantle on 24 December 1919.

16 January 1920 – ‘proceeded overland to Melbourne’.


Kamesburgh House - State Library Victoria




20 May 1920-22 June 1927 Minnie is employed as a nurse at the Anzac Hostel, North Road, Brighton, previously Kamesburgh House.

 


1922 –surgical operation for uterine trouble.

1927 – prolapse operation. Granted a small pension by the Repatriation Commission.

 

In May 1927 Sister Miriam Welshman, for example, asked the ECTF [Edith Cavell Trust Fund] for assistance because, she said: `as I do not feel equal to nursing have decided to grow flowers for a living.’ She had suffered from sandfly fever while nursing in India during the War, but attributed her main health problem, persistent `uterine trouble’, to lifting patients while working at the Anzac Hostel at Brighton after the War. She set up her little flower farm at Narre Warren North, but it did not prosper. She was forced to make at least fourteen applications to the fund for assistance between then and 1940 …  because of `bad seasons’ and her `old trouble’. Guns and Brooches, Jan Bassett, 1992.

 

Sandfly fever, also known as phlebotomus, pappataci, or 3-day fever, is an arthropod-borne febrile disease transmitted by phlebotomine sandflies. Although not fatal Sandfly fever is a highly incapacitating and debilitating condition.

 

The property Minnie purchased was on Station Road, Narre Warren North. However, the property did not have a water supply.

 

WELSHMAN-MITCHELL. - [Golden Wedding.] - On the 29th March, 1880, at Hillsborough, by the Rev. W. Brown, of Beechworth, Arthur C., eldest son of Arthur and Ann Welshman, to Margaret, second daughter of William B. and Margaret Mitchell. (Present address, 20 Docker Street, Elwood.) The Argus, 29 March 1930

 

1932 – strawberry crop failed.

1936 – a section of her property was flooded.

1938 – severe frosts and a drought caused severe damage to her flower crop.

1940 – averaged income of about £1 per week and received a repatriation pension of 2 shillings a week.

 

Minnie continued at Narre Warren North until at least 1942.

 

Mr Welshman, for a number of years in charge of the Wodonga West S.S., paid a hurried visit to Wodonga on Tuesday, when he renewed a number of acquaintances. Mr. Welshman first came to Wodonga in 1876 as a junior teacher in the Wodonga S.S. He left this district for some years and returned to take charge of Wodonga West School. It is now nearly 40 years since he left here. Since his retirement from the Education Department he had been a member of the teaching staff of Scotch College, Melbourne. Wodonga & Towong Sentinel, 4 October 1940.

 

From 1945 Minnie lived at 20 Docker Street, Elwood, with her sister Ilma. Repatriation pension increased to 25%.

 

WELSHMAN -On April 1 at his home 20 Docker Street Elwood Arthur Cromwell dearly loved husband of the late Margaret Welshman and loved father of Arthur (deceased) Miriam, Ilma and Morton aged 89 years - Sweet rest (Privately cremated) The Argus, 3 April 1947.

 

13 September 1957, Minnie died at Repatriation Hospital, West Heidelberg after a long illness – bowel and stomach cancer.

 

WELSHMAN- On September 13, at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, Miriam Selina Welshman of 20 Docker Street, Elwood, daughter of the late Arthur and Margaret, sister of Ilma. Late AANS., AIF. The Age, 17 September 1957.

 

Cremated 16 September 1957 at Springvale.




©Anne Hanson, 2023                                       E-mail:  Anne Hanson