Books on WW1 Australian Military Nurses

I repeatedly hear the phrase ‘forgotten nurses’ when talking about Australian nurses in World War I. The authors of the nineteen books on this subject would disagree. Here is an extensive list (books of varying quality).

Books by Australian WW1 nurses themselves:

• Donnell, Sister Anne, Third Australian General Hospital, Letters of An Australian Army Sister, Angus & Robertson Ltd, Sydney, 1920.
• Garnsey, Mrs Arthur H. (Ann Stafford Bird), Scarlet Pillows: an Australian nurse’s tales of long ago, Hesperian Press, Carlisle WA, 1984.
• Hogan (née Moberley), Gertrude Frances, Experiences of a “Dinky Di” R.R.C. Nurse, Australasian Medical Publishing Company, Ltd, Sydney, 1933.
• Kirkcaldie, Sister R.A., In Gray and Scarlet…, Alexander McCubbin, Melbourne, 1922.
• Tilton, May, The Grey Battalion, Angus and Robertson Limited, Sydney, 1933.

Biographies:

• Butler, Janet, Kitty’s War, St Lucia, Queensland University of Queensland Press, 2013.
• Cumming, Elsie May & Gillings, Jennifer Mary & Richards, Julieanne 2008, In all those lines : the diary of Sister Elsie Tranter 1916-1919, J.M. Gillings & J. Richards, Newstead, Tas.
• Hain, Eleanor (ed.), Just a few letters, no publishing details, Forster NSW, 1984.
• Oppenheimer, Melanie, Oceans of Love – Narrelle – an Australian Nurse in World War I, ABC Books, Sydney, 2006.
• Richardson, Pat and Skinner, Anne, Queenie : a Personal snapshot of World War I though the letters of a Queensland Army Nurse 1915-1917, Book Pal, 2012.
• Teague, David R., Christense Sorensen: Nurse for a Million, Colonial Press for the Christense Sorensen Memorial Fund, Brisbane, 1977.
• Young, Margaret (ed.), ‘We Are Here, Too’, Diaries & Letters of Sister Olive LC Haynes, No 2 AGH, November 1914 to February 1918, Australian Down Syndrome Association Incorporated, Adelaide, 1991 (revised second edition 1993).
• Williams, Jennifer A. and Goodman, Rupert D., Jane Bell, O.B.E. (1873-1959), The Royal Melbourne Hospital Graduate Nurses’ Association, Melbourne, 1988.

Books by others solely on Australian nurses in WW1:

• Barker, Marianne, Nightingales in the Mud – The Digger Sisters of the Great War 1914-1918, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1989.
• Butler, A.G., Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services 1914-1918, Volume III – Special Problems and Services, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1943. (mentions nurses in other volumes too).
• Deacon, Lindley A. (Bill), Beyond the Call – the story of Australia’s First World War nurses with further chapters relative to the war, ISBN 187 6261102, privately published, Launceston, Tasmania, 1999.
• Bramble, Christine, Sisters of the Valley: First World War Nurses from Newcastle and the Hunter Region, Royal Newcastle Hospital Graduate Nurses’ Association Inc., The Junction, 2011.
• Harris, Kirsty, More than Bombs and Bandages – Australian nurses at work in World War I, Big Sky Publishing, 2011.
• Hedditch, Katrina, Lemnos 1915 : A Nursing Odyssey to Gallipoli, self published, 2011.
• Rae, Ruth, Scarlet Poppies – the army experience of Australian nurses during World War One, Monograph No. 2, The College of Nursing, Burwood NSW, 2004.
• Rae, Ruth, Veiled Lives – threading Australian nursing history into the fabric of the first world war, The College of Nursing, Burwood NSW, 2009.
• Rees, Peter, The Other Anzacs – Nurses at War 1914-1918, Allen and Unwin, 2008. (now called Anzac Girls).
• Robinson, Gwen, The forgotten women: personal accounts of Australian nurses abroad in World War I, no publishing details, Australia, 1989.
• Smith, Lt Col Neil C., The Australian Army Nursing Service – A Short History with World War One Nominal Roll and Award Citations, Mostly Unsung Military History Research and Publications, Melbourne, 1996.