Laura Isabel Sandwith

Laura graduated as a trained nurse from the Ovens District Hospital in December 1938. Born in December 1909, she was the fifth child of Samuel Fisher Sandwith, a farmer at Millbrook near Ballarat and Ellen Cornish.

Three years after she completed her training, Laura was nursing at the 1,500 bed 115^th AGH at Heidelberg. In 1940, the nurse to patient ratio was eighty nurses for 1,200 beds, fifty for 600 beds and twenty-six for 200 beds. However, in 1942, the number for 1,200 beds increased to 120, and for 600-bed hospitals to seventy-five.

The first Victorian ambulance train came into service in February 1942. Painted moonstone grey, with the Red Cross conspicuously displayed on the roof and sides, the train contained nine ward cars with thirty-nine standard bunks, thirty-six bunks in the personnel car, a staff car with sleeping accommodation for fifteen and a kitchen/restaurant car.

No. 1 Ambulance Train

For seven months in 1943, Laura now a Lieutenant was nursing on the 6^th ambulance train which ferried wounded and convalescing soldiers from Melbourne to Heidelberg station where they were collected by ambulance and taken to the 115^th AGH. Later in the war, wounded Victorian soldiers who, after disembarking in Sydney, were entrained to Albury where they were transferred to the 6^th ambulance train which brought them to Melbourne.

From her service record, Laura appears to have spent approximately five years as a nurse with the AANS, and for the greater majority of that time she was attached to the 115^th AGH. She unsuccessfully applied for discharge from the AIF in October 1945. However, her appointment was terminated five months later in March 1946.

Laura’s life as a civilian, despite many hours combing through online newspapers and genealogical web sites, is a mystery. The only references found were listings on the 1949 and 1954 Victorian electoral rolls and a note on her service record stating that she was assigned to the retirement list in December 1964. She seems to have simply disappeared. Her service record described her as being five feet one and a half inches in height with grey eyes, fair complexion and brown hair.

Sources

Laura Isabel Sandwith, Service Record Number VFX65928, National Archives Australia.