Australian Nurses at War

World War Two nurses

World War 2

WW2 NuersesBelow is a searchable listing of those who served in the Australian Army Nursing Service, the Royal Australian Air Force Nursing Service, and the Royal Australian Naval Nursing Service between 1939 and 1946.

This listing is the most comprehensive available  and includes names not currently listed by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs ‘nominal roll’ listings or in books already published. Files exist for:

3583 AANS members – – a figure higher than the number used by DVA of 3477.

74 RAN members

637 RAAF members

Totalling: 4294

Notes on searching:
Personnel files/service records held at the National Archives of Australia and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs online Nominal Roll may list a nurse by their maiden name, their married name or, if, they married more than once, another married name. There appears to be no standardisation as to how a nurse was recorded. This database gives three options for finding the name – Last Name on Enlistment, Other Known Last Names or Married On Service name. The last category means the nurse married during the war, and while they were still on service. It is potluck as to which name is used as some nurses who married during their service are recorded under their maiden names. Some nurses also enlisted under a married name, so not all names on enlistment are maiden names. Names in lower case means that there is unlikely to be an official file with this name.
An example: Marcelle Watson Forsyth married during the war and became Mrs Kerr. She later remarried and became Mrs Guy. Her official personnel file is listed online under the name Guy, however she trained and enlisted under her maiden name of Forsyth.
 
The date of the nurse’s qualification is indicative. It is mainly given as the date they passed their association or board exam which qualified them as a nurse; it may not be the date they finally finished their period of training at their hospital. Many hospitals lack the history of their nurses’ training.
 
Select an option from the drop down list to begin your search. Click on the Last Name on Enlistment for more information.

RAN nurses did not have a service number.

At present, most of the personnel files for WW2 are  digitised by the National Archives of Australia https://www.naa.gov.au/.

If you wish to use information from this database for an individual, please cite:

Kirsty Harris, WW2 ADF nurses database, 2021, viewed on XXX, at https://kjhh.net.au

As this database is copyright, if you wish to publish any data, please obtain written permission from me in advance.

Tap/Click here to show the database. Tap/Click here again to hide it.
  1.  Select the field that you would like to search on from the drop down list.
  2. Type the word that you would like to search into the text box (eg name).
  3. Click on the Search button.
Search
Total Records Found: 4291, showing 20 per page
Click on a last name for more details
Last Name on EnlistmentGiven NamesMarried on Service NameOther Known Last NamesYear / Date of BirthService Number
WILSON HEATHER Mrs Farley-Davies 4-Mar-13 QFX6430
WILSON GRACE MARGARET 25 Jun 1880 VFX38869
WILSON ELSIE CHARLOTTE 25-Oct-13 SFX26428
WILSON GIRLIE MARGUERITE Kerr 22-Apr-11 TFX6312
WILSON ELLEN JEAN 15-May-16 NFX117298
WILSON ELIZABETH JANE Mrs MCMILLAN-KERR 17-Jun-15 500060
WILSON DORIS 24-May-11 VFX111238
WILSON CHERRY SPENCE Eckersley 6-Jun-10
WILSON-HAY AGNES DOROTHY (known as Dorothy Agnes) 10-Sep-04 TFX2182
WILTON MONA MARGARET 8-Sep-13 VFX61225
WILTON MARY Bowman 2-May-14 SFX26593
WINCHESTER DOROTHY MAY 26-Mar-05 SFX24679
WINNALL ELEANOR MANLEY (Nellie) 13-Jan-01 SFX25160
WINNING MARY HOWIT WILLS McFayden 7-Jul-07 WFX32593
WINNING IRIS EVELYN Mrs GILMOUR 13-May-17 502231
Winser AGNES JANET Mrs/Lady HARRINGTON 16-Jun-15 VFX108307
Winter JEAN ELIZABETH Mrs DAWSON 1-May-16 NFX142379
WINTER PHILLIS JEAN 2-Mar-13 501249
Winter PHYLLIS Mrs DUFTY 5-Jul-12 NFX148319
WINTER ELSIE VERDUN Mitchell 22-Oct-16 QFX40641
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