WW1 Nurses who trained at the Ovens District Hospital, Beechworth

This plaque honours the indomitable spirit of fifteen women who did their nursing training at the Ovens District Hospital and served in the Great War. It was unveiled during a Remembrance Day ceremony in November 2012 at the Beechworth Health Service.

The daughters of farmers, small business owners, school teachers, ministers of religion and public servants, they left the safety of their homeland to apply their considerable nursing skills and give comfort to the horrific and overwhelming casualties of the Great War.

They served in hospitals in Egypt, Greece, England, France and India and on troop and hospital ships. In Greece they survived primitive living conditions, near starvation, freezing winters with inadequate clothing and in summer, swarms of malaria bearing mosquitoes. Cholera, paratyphoid and venomous snakes were all part of the Indian nursing experience.

One nurse, May Humphrey while posted to Wimereaux near the Somme in France, lived through numerous bombing raids during the worst winter for nearly one hundred years.

Another nurse, Matron Marie Cameron, survived a torpedo attack in the Agean Sea which left her with permanent disabilities. She was later awarded a Royal Red Cross 1st class.