Dorothy Grace Lacey

Dorothy Lacey was among the 2/1st Australian General Hospital (AGH) nurses who endured a grueling seventy-eight-day journey from the Middle East to Australia. Their voyage began in early March 1942 when they boarded the Laconia, bound for Bombay. Upon arrival, they transferred to three ships and set off in convoy to Colombo, where they were met with the unsettling sight of ships still ablaze in the harbor following a Japanese air attack. After several days in Colombo, the nurses embarked on a zigzagging route through the Indian Ocean. They continued westward, spending a day in Mombasa on shore leave.

Arriving in Durban, South Africa, the group spent two weeks at a military hospital while their ships underwent fumigation. Finally, the convoy set off from Durban, navigated the treacherous roaring forties, and eventually reached Fremantle. Throughout this arduous journey, the nurses lived out of 18-inch travel suitcases, which held only one change of underwear, constantly on the brink of disintegration from wear and washing.

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The oldest of five children, Dorothy was the daughter of William James Lacey and Alice Maude Matthew. She was born on 15 May 1914 at the Woolshed, north west of Beechworth where her father was an engine driver.

In April 1932 , the Ovens District Hospital bankers directed the hospital not to draw any further cheques as the hospital's overdraft had grown to  £2,300 and was in danger of being closed. When Dorothy commenced as a probationer nurse in October of the same year, the overdraft through an advance payment from the Victorian government , a hospital ball and an appeal for monthly contributions had been reduced by around £800.

As a probationer, she was provided with a uniform, received free board and lodging and paid a salary of around ten shillings a week with one day off in seven. The training took three years with a preliminary examination after eighteen months and then senior examinations at the end of the next eighteen months. The matron at the time was, Agnes Moglia, a former World War One nurse who also had trained at the Ovens.

Her life as a trainee nurse , apart from an appendicitis operation in October 1934 and a bout of scarlet fever in December 1935, was relatively  smooth. She qualified as a general nurse in April 1937 and continued to work intermittently at the hospital until finally leaving Beechworth in 1939 to successfully undertake midwifery training  at the Women's Hospital. See Ovens and Murray Advertiser, 16 March 1940. 

Upon earning her midwifery qualification, she took up a position at the Warracknabeal District Hospital. In February 1941, she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service, and by April 1941, she was appointed as a staff nurse to the 106 Australian General Hospital (AGH) at the Bonegilla Army Camp. The 106th was a 600-bed military hospital that provided care for defense personnel in the surrounding area, as well as the wounded and disabled repatriated from the front. 

©Anne Hanson, 2025                                                                           E-mail:  Anne Hanson