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Australian women in World War I

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Queensland nurses leaving on the SS Omrah for World War I, circa 1914
Women's Voluntary Registration Office, situated in the quadrangle of the Brisbane Town Hall, 1915. The office was established by the National Council of Women for the purpose of registering women willing to undertake work in connection to the war.
Recruitment posters urging women to get men to enlist

The role of Australian women in World War I was focused mainly upon their involvement in the provision of nursing services.[1] Australian women also played a significant role on the Homefront, where they filled jobs made vacant by men joining the armed forces. Women also undertook fundraising and recruiting activities as well as organising comfort packages for soldiers serving overseas. Around the issue of conscription, women were involved in campaigning on both sides of the debate,[2] while they were also equally involved in the New South Wales strike in 1917. Nevertheless, despite this involvement, women have never occupied a central position in the Australian version of the Anzac legend, although since the 1970s their role has been examined in more detail as a result of the emergence of feminist historiography, and specialist histories such as the history of nursing.

The outbreak of war[edit]

When the war broke out between Britain and Germany in August 1914, Australia, as a dominion of Britain, was also at war and pledged full support.[3] The government began recruiting for their military, and had strict enlistment requirements, only accepting the fittest men of military age (19 to 38 years of age).[4][5] Australia's first significant contribution to the war at this time was to disrupt the German outposts in the pacific with a small, quickly assembled military unit called the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force. They focussed first on disrupting wireless communication lines for Germany’s most powerful fleet in the region, the East Asiatic Squadron.[5] In the meantime, Australian women at home and abroad who wish to support the war effort began to get involved in other ways.

The Australian Voluntary Hospital[edit]

Main article: Australian Voluntary Hospital

In August 1914, Lady (Rachel) Dudley, the estranged wife of the former Governor-General of Australia, the Lord Dudley, decided to create a hospital from Australian doctors and nurses who were in the United Kingdom.[6] There were relatively large numbers of Australian doctors and nurses because advanced qualifications required a trip overseas.[7]

Lady Dudley discussed her proposal with King George V, and then with the Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener, and the British Army's Director General Army Medical Services, Sir Arthur Sloggett, who authorised the hospital. The hospital was formally offered to the British government by the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Sir George Reid on 15 August 1914.[8] Volunteers responded to advertisements that Lady Dudley placed in English newspapers on 17 August 1914. Women doctors were not accepted, but women nurses were welcomed.[7] Ida Greaves, from Royal Newcastle Hospital, was appointed matron. The hospital soon reached a strength of 120 staff, of whom 36 were nurses.[7]

Military service[edit]

One of the primary roles for Australian women during the war was nursing.[9] No other official military roles were available to Australian women during World War I.[10]

In May of 2015, a notice was posted in the Sydney Morning Herald under the headline "NO WOMEN DOCTORS", which stated:

The Minister for Defence is in receipt of a cable message from the High Commissioner, Sir George Reid, stating that the War Office regrets that it cannot utilise the service of women doctors.[11]

Doctors, such as Katie Ardill, Eleanor Elizabeth Bourne, and Phoebe Chapple, after being rejected by the Australian military, travelled at their own expense to enlist in other associated organisations taking part in the war effort.[12]

Nursing in the Australian military[edit]

For broader coverage of this topic, see Australian Army Nursing Service.

The Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) comprised more than 3000 nurses during the war, over 2,200 of whom served outside Australia.[9] When the first 25 nurses embarked with the Australian Imperial Forces (AIF) in November 1914, they had no military ranks, and the nurses and the AIF were unclear about how the AANS might fit in with the AIF.[10]

In early 1916 there was an overhaul of the AANS, the members were given military ranks equivelant to officers.[13] Matrons wore two crowns on their shoulders as Majors did, the Sisters wore two star like the 1st Lieutenants, however, they were still only paid half of what the men received, and often required financial support from their families back at home. At this time, Evelyn Conyers was appointed as the Matron-in-Chief, and was responsible for running the service.[10] Conyers was a New Zealand born nurse who had immigrated to Australia, and had been part of the AANS since its inception in 1903.[14]

21 AANS nurses died during their war service and a number shortly thereafter. Nurses were present on the Western Front, and in Greece, England, India, Egypt, and Italy. They served not just in Australian military hospitals but also in British hospitals and in ships at sea. The AANS comprised trained nurses, trained masseuses, 14 ward assistants and 1 bacteriologist.[9] After enlisting with the AANS, Fannie Eleanor Williams, a trained nurse, worked as a bacteriologist in laboratories at the No. 3 Australian General Hospital in Lemnos from 1915, the Lister Institute in London from 1917, and the No. 25 British Stationary Hospital in France in 1918. She was awarded the Associate Royal Red Cross for her work.[15]

In 1917, four AANS nurses won the military medal for demonstrating bravery under fire: Sister Dorothy Cawood from Parramatta, New South Wales;[16] Sister Clare Deacon from Burnie, Tasmania;[17] Staff Nurse Mary Jane Derrer from Mackay, Queensland;[18] and Staff Nurse Alice Ross-King from Ballarat, Victorian, who was also awarded an Associate Royal Red Cross in 1918.[19] They were working on the Western Front, at the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station which was near the trenches at Trois Arbres near Armentières when on 22 July 1917, there was a German raid and five bombs hit the hospital.[20] The four nurses rescued patients who were trapped in the burning building.[19]

Service in the British Army Medical Services[edit]

Australian women were able to serve in the British Army Medical Services.[10]

Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS)[edit]

The QAIMNS were an elite military nursing service and was part of the British Army. Volunteers had to be between 25 and 25 years old, single and need to be of good social standing. They required three years of hospital training and have a good references. The nurses had officer ranking and were addressed as 'Sister'.[21]

Matron-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force on the western Front[edit]
Dame Maud McCarthy, Matron-in-chief, British Expeditionary Forces on the Western Front.

The most senior Australian woman in military service in World War I was Maud McCarthy, the British Expeditionary Force Matron-in-Chief for France and Flanders. McCarthy was born in Paddington, Sydney, and was raised and educated in Australia, and she studied nursing at the University of Sydney. By the time she enlisted to serve in World War I, she had military decorations, having served as one of the then Princess Alexandra's personal military nurses in South Africa, and being involved in the formation of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, and from 1910, she had been the Principle Matron of the War Office. She held this position until World War I broke out, when she sailed on the first British Expeditionary Force ship that left England, and arrived in France on 12 August 1914.[22] Under her command were all the trained nurses and volunteer medical workers on the Western Front, which included the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service, the Territorial Force Nursing Service, and the nursing detachments connected to the Australian, Canadian, Indian, South African militaries, and after 1917, the United States of America, as well as The Red Cross and the Voluntary Aid Detachments.[23]

McCarthy answered directly to the Matron-in-Chief of the QAIMNS, Ethel Becher, and the Director of General Medical Services. Her role was to manage all aspects of nursing administration, and deployment and training of nurses, throughout the Somme campaign. She was required to manage the nursing across all the military facilities, such as the casualty clearing stations, hospital trains and barges, stationary and base hospitals, and hospital ships. Her headquarters were at Abbeville, however she had to travel across all the medical units of the western front. In the month of July in 1916, she travelled to 18 different hospitals across France and Belgium to review conditions of the patients and the nurses, and the quality of nursing services.[23]

One of the most decorated nurses of World War I,[23] McCarthy received praise for her work, including from one Army general who stated:

She's perfectly splendid, she's wonderful … she's a soldier!… If she was made Quartermaster-General, she'd work it, she'd run the whole Army, and she'd never get flustered, never make a mistake. The woman's a genius'.[22]

On the 5 August 1919, McCarthy left France and was seen off by representatives from the French government. For her work in World War I, McCarthy was appointed a Dame Grand Cross of the British Empire (GBE), received a bar to her Royal Red Cross, and was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal, the French Légion d'honneur and Medaille des Epidémies, the Belgian Médaille de la Reine-Élisabeth.[22]

An Australian Aboriginal woman serving in World War I[edit]
Interior of a ward on a British ambulance train in France

At the time of the outbreak of war, Australia had various protectionist policies which enforced segregation and controlled the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. These policies restricted where they could live and work, who they could marry, whether they could practice culture, raise their own children, or receive wages.[24] Despite these policies, over 1000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men are known to have served in World War I by either hiding their identities to enlist early in the war, or by waiting until after 1917 when a military order allowed some Aboriginal men, those the military identified as ‘half caste’ due to having one European parent, to enlist.[25] Aboriginal women were still restricted due to their gender, as the Australian Army only allowed trained nurses, with references to enlist. While Aboriginal women were likely working as nurses in private service, or in hospitals on missions, the aforementioned policies meant there were limited opportunities for Aboriginal women to receive the formal training required to be registered before the middle of the century. May Yarrowick is an exception, having trained and registered as a a midwifery nurse in 1907.[24]

Marion Leane Smith, a Dharug woman is only identified Aboriginal woman to have served in World War I, volunteering with the QAIMNS. Smith was born in Liverpool, New South Wales, and when she was two years old, her parents moved to Canada. This move to Canada meant that she was able to avoid the official and unoffical barriers to nursing that she would have encountered in Australia.[26] Having completed her training in the United States in 1913, and undertaken work in Canada, she then enlisted with the QAIMNS on 7 March 1917, and sailed to France. On 9 December 1917, she was assigned to the No. 41 Ambulance train. The ambulance trains were made up to transport injured soldiers from the casualty clearing stations, back to the base hospitals. Her records from ambulance train state that she was a "a very good surgical nurse most attentive to patients."[27] and furthermore:

"Staff Nurse Smith has given complete satisfaction in the carrying out of her duties whilst on the train. Her work is both quickly and efficiently done. She is most capable in every way. Power of administration satisfactory as also tact and ability to train others."[27]

Smith served on the ambulance train until September 1918, when she travelled to Italy with the British Italian Expeditionary Force. She then she worked at the University War Hospital in Southampton until the end of the war in 1919, when she returned to Canada.[28]

Australian's honoured for bravery during service in Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service[edit]

A number of Australian women in The QAIMNS were awarded medal for bravery.

Alice Alanna Cashin was born in Melbourne, and was raised in Sydney, and completed her nurses training at St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst. When the war broke out, Cashin was already in London having just gained her diploma at the International School of Therapeutic Massage. Instead of returning home, she volunteered at the general hospital at Calais, France. 19 July 1915, she enlisted with the QAIMNS, and was put in charge of a surgical ward, in the general hospital at Ras-el-din in Egypt, for which she was awarded a Royal Red Cross.[29] She was then awarded a bar to the Royal Red Cross for saving wounded soldiers on the HMHS Gloucester Castle when the clearly marked hospital ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat.[30]

Lydia Abell was born in Parramatta in New South Wales, and at first signed up with the French Flag Nursing Corps working at a hospital in Bordeaux. She then moved to the Australian Voluntary Hospital in Wimereux. On 1 July 1916, when the Australian Voluntary Hospital was absorbed into the British army, becoming the No. 32 Stationary Hospital, Abell was officially enlisted with QAIMNS. She also served at the No.14 General Hospital, and a number of Casualty Clearing Stations, and worked on the No.3 and No. 4 Ambulance Flotillas which evacuated patients along canals and rivers. In May 1919, she was awarded with the Royal Red Cross by King George V, for bravery when evacuating a field hospital under bombardment.[31]

Australian nurses Leah Rosenthal, and Isabella Jobson, volunteered with the QAIMNS. They were good friends and business partners who had previously been running the Windarra Private Hospital in Toorak. They left Australia together on the 18 December 1915 to volunteer with the QAIMNS, and were assigned to various British base hospitals in Northern France, until December 1916 when they were both assigned to No. 33 Casualty Clearing Station in Béthune. They were among the first nurses trained in anaesthetics.[21] They were often working under fire, and Rosenthal reported home that she would wear a gas mask on her shoulders to cross between buildings in case of an emergency.[32]  Rosenthal collected, and sent home souvenirs of used shot and shell pieces which had hit the hospitals. Both women received the Royal Red Cross (second class) for their service. [33] After they returned to Australian in 1919, where they entered into another business venture together running the Vimy House private hospital. They named the hospital after the Battle of Vimy Ridge, which was an important victory by the Allies carried out by Canadian troops.[21]

Service in the French Army[edit]

The Australian Hospital in Paris[edit]

Main article: Hôpital Australien de Paris

At the outbreak of war, Melbourne surgeon Helen Sexton had recently retired from surgery due to ill health, and was in Europe. She travelled back home to Australia, and started rallying support, supplies, and funding to establish a military hospital unit. Sexton had experience in founding a hospital, she was one of the founders of the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne. Furthermore, she was highly regarded, and carried letters of recommendation on official commonwealth stationery from people such as the chief justice Sir John Madden; the founder of the Australian branch of the British Red Cross, and wife of the Governor General, Lady Helen Munro Ferguson; and the Governor of Victoria, Lord Stanley. Other recommendations came from military figures such as Vice Admiral Sir William Creswell, and Colonel Richard H. Fetherston and academic Harry Brookes Allen. However, despite these recommendations, her offer to run and fully fund a military hospital unit was declined by both the Australian, and the British Imperial Forces.[34]

Instead Sexton's offer was taken up by the French Army and in July 2015, she began setting up the Hôpital Australien de Paris in Auteuil with a team of nine women including the team of six she recruited in Australia, Susan Smith and her two daughters Alison and Lorna, Constance Blackwood, Florence Inglis, and Dora Wilson, and three additional Australian women, Audrey and Eileen Chomley and Suzanne Caubet who met them in France. Caubet was a senior volunteer administrator, and director of the French Red Cross at the Buffon Centre, which adjoined the Military hospital Val de Grace, She was intrumental in establishing, supplying and managing the hospital. The unit received its first patients, wounded French soldiers, in late July of 2015, and it was officially opened on the 4th of August 1915.[34]

Associated wartime organisations[edit]

Hundreds of other Australian trained nurses served overseas with organisations including: the Red Cross, St John Ambulance and the Australian Voluntary Hospital. Australia also sent a number of female VADs to work in military hospitals. An example of these groups is the 20 nurses and a masseuse who were recruited to work in French hospitals by the Australian Red Cross Society, they were dubbed the "Bluebirds" in reference to the colour of their uniforms.[35] The Australian nurses had their roles changed mid-way through World War I. As the war went on, the facilities became better throughout. They were able to clean and sterilize utensils used to clean up wounds. Offer mental support and treatment. And finally offer strong medication.[citation needed]

Other volunteer work[edit]

The following women's voluntary organisations were involved in support work:[36]

Three women spinning wool to knit socks for soldiers during World War I in Tenterfield, New South Wales, ca. 1915

Awards[edit]

The following women received medals or other awards for their war work:

Opposition[edit]

A number of Australian women opposed the war, or certain aspects of it. Australian pacifists and anti-conscription activists during this period included Bella Guerin and Doris Blackburn.

See also: World War I conscription in Australia

Notable Australian women involved in the war[edit]

Main page: Category:Australian women of World War I

References[edit]

  1. ^ "1918: Australians in France – Nurses – "The roses of No Man's Land"". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 27 March 2011. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
  2. ^ "Forging the Nation: Australian Women". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 25 December 2010. Retrieved 22 November 2010.
  3. ^ "First World War 1914–18 | Australian War Memorial". www.awm.gov.au. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  4. ^ "Enlisting in the Australian forces during World War I". DVA Anzac Portal. DVA (Department of Veterans' Affairs). 30 August 2023. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  5. ^ a b "Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force". DVA Anzac Portal. DVA (Department of Veterans' Affairs). 3 June 2022. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  6. ^ "Lady Rachel Dudley- a superwoman of her time". Galway Advertiser. 16 January 2014. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  7. ^ a b c Ray, Pam (April 1991). "A Photographic Record of an Australian Nursing Sister". Journal of the Australian War Memorial (18): 63–65. ISSN 0729-6274.
  8. ^ The History of the Australian Voluntary Hospital, manuscript, pp. 1–7, Australian War Memorial: 1 DRL 667 12/11/1147
  9. ^ a b c Kirsty Harris, More than Bombs and Bandages: Australian Army nurses at work in World War I, BigSky Publishing, 2011
  10. ^ a b c d Australian Women and War. Department of Veterans' Affairs. July 2008. ISBN 978-1-877007-28-6. Archived from the original on 30 March 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  11. ^ "NO WOMEN DOCTORS". Sydney Morning Herald. 10 May 1915. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  12. ^ Sheard, Heather (2019). Women to the front: the extraordinary Australian women doctors of the Great War. North Sydney, NSW: Ebury Press. ISBN 978-0-14-379470-7.
  13. ^ "Australian Army Nursing Service in World War I". DVA Anzac Portal. DVA (Department of Veterans' Affairs). 31 May 2024. Archived from the original on 8 June 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  14. ^ Heywood, Anne (4 May 2009). "Conyers, Evelyn Augusta". The Australian Women's Register. Archived from the original on 8 June 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  15. ^ Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology (15 June 2022). "Williams, Fannie Eleanor - Person - Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation". Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation. Archived from the original on 9 April 2024. Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  16. ^ Abbott, Jacqueline, "Dorothy Gwendolen Cawood (1884–1962)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 8 June 2024
  17. ^ "Tasmanian nurse decorated". North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times. Tasmania. 29 November 1917. p. 3. Retrieved 8 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ^ "Personal notes". Brisbane Courier. Queensland. 2 October 1917. p. 7. Retrieved 8 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ^ a b "Women in action – nurses and serving women". Archived from the original on 17 February 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
  20. ^ Finnie, Lorna M., "Alice Ross-King (1887–1968)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, archived from the original on 8 June 2024, retrieved 8 June 2024
  21. ^ a b c Jones, Noelle (2017). "Melbourne Tram Museum: Vimy House - a tramway hospital". www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au. Retrieved 20 June 2024.
  22. ^ a b c McCarthy, Perditta M., "Dame Emma Maud McCarthy (1859–1949)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, archived from the original on 8 June 2024, retrieved 8 June 2024
  23. ^ a b c Shields, Rosemary; Shields, Linda (2016). "Dame Maud McCarthy (1859–1949): Matron-in-Chief, British Expeditionary Forces France and Flanders, First World War" (PDF). Journal of Medical Biography. 24 (4): 507–514. doi:10.1177/0967772013480610. ISSN 0967-7720. Retrieved 19 June 2024.
  24. ^ a b Best, Odette; Bunda, Tracey (2020). "Disrupting dominant discourse: Indigenous women as trained nurses and midwives 1900s–1950s". Collegian. 27 (6): 620–625. doi:10.1016/j.colegn.2020.08.005. ISSN 1322-7696.
  25. ^ Studies, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (29 August 2022). "Serving their country". aiatsis.gov.au. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  26. ^ "The fascinating life of WWI's only serving Indigenous Australian woman, Marion Leane Smith". NITV. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  27. ^ a b Histories, Indigenous (30 October 2013). "AN INDIGENOUS NURSE IN WORLD WAR ONE : MARION LEANE SMITH". Indigenous Histories. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  28. ^ "The first nurse". Portrait magazine. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  29. ^ Cunneen, Chris, "Alice Alanna Cashin (1870–1939)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 23 June 2024
  30. ^ "Cashin, Alice Alanna RRC (Matron, b.1870 – d.1939)". Australian War Memorial. Archived from the original on 8 June 2024. Retrieved 31 May 2020.
  31. ^ "Staff Nurse Lydia ABELL ARRC, 1872 – 1959". Great War Nurses from the Hunter. 6 October 2012. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  32. ^ "NURSE LEAH ROSENTHAL". Jewish Herald. Vol. XXXVIII, no. 985. Victoria, Australia. 30 November 1917. p. 8. Retrieved 20 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  33. ^ "ARMY NURSE FOLLOWS ALLIES". The Herald. No. 13, 398. Victoria, Australia. 14 January 1919. p. 5. Retrieved 20 June 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  34. ^ a b "Dr Helen Sexton's Hôpital Australien de Paris, July–December 1915" (PDF). The French Australian Review. 68 (Winter 2020). Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  35. ^ Hetherington, Les (January 2009). "The Bluebirds in France". Wartime. 45: 58–60.
  36. ^ "Women in wartime". Archived from the original on 17 February 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
  37. ^ "The suffering Servians". Albury Banner and Wodonga Express. New South Wales. 25 January 1918. p. 38. Retrieved 23 April 2024 – via National Library of Australia.
  38. ^ "Attestation Paper of Evelyn Augusta Conyers". National Archives of Australia. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  39. ^ Rickard, John (2002). "White, Vera Deakin (1891–1978)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. 16. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. Retrieved 29 April 2019.
  40. ^ "Alicia Mary Kelly (1874–1942)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. Archived from the original on 4 March 2011. Retrieved 10 February 2011.
  41. ^ "Faith, Hope, Charity". Archived from the original on 20 July 2013. Retrieved 4 March 2013.
  42. ^ "Florence Reid". National Archives of Australia. Archived from the original on 5 March 2019. Retrieved 3 April 2019.

External links[edit]

Further reading[edit]

  • Adam-Smith, Patsy. Australian Women At War, Penguin, Melbourne, 1996
  • Barker, Marianne. Nightingales in the Mud, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1989
  • Bassett, Jan. Guns and Brooches, Oxford Melbourne, 1992
  • Beaumont, Joan, ed. Australia’s War 1914-18, Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1995
  • Beaumont, Joan. "Whatever happened to patriotic women, 1914–1918?." Australian Historical Studies 31.115 (2000): 273-286.
  • Cochrane, Peter. Australians At War, (ABC Books, Melbourne, 2001).
  • Coates, Donna. "Myrmidons to Insubordinates: Australian, New Zealand and Canadian Women’s Fictional Responses to the Great War." in P. Quinn and S. Trout, eds. The Literature of the Great War Reconsidered (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2001. 113-142).
  • De Vries, Susanna. Heroic Australian women in war: astonishing tales of bravery from Gallipolli to Kokoda. (HarperCollins, 2004. ISBN 0732276691).
  • Fallows, Carol. Love and War, (Bantam Books, Sydney, 2002).
  • Kretzenbacher, Heinz L. "The forgotten German-Australian stories of Australian history: Lesbia Harford’s The Invaluable Mystery and the predicament of German-Australians in the First World War." Australisches Jahrbuch für germanistische Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft / Australian Yearbook of German Literary and Cultural Studies (2014) 7:45-77 online[dead link]
  • McKernan, Michael. The Australian People and the Great War (Nelson, Melbourne, 1980).
  • Oppenheimer, Melanie. "‘The best PM for the empire in war'?": Lady Helen Munro Ferguson and the Australian Red Cross Society, 1914–1920." Australian Historical Studies 33.119 (2002): 108-134.
  • Oppenheimer, Melanie. Australian Women and War (Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, 2008).
  • Oppenheimer, Melanie. Oceans of Love. Narrelle - An Australian Nurse in World War I, ABC Books, Sydney, 2006
  • Reid, Richard. Just Wanted To Be There, (Department of Veterans’ Affairs, Canberra, 1999).
  • Scates, Bruce. "The unknown sock knitter: voluntary work, emotional labour, bereavement and the Great War." Labour History (2001): 29-49.
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