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
ANGUEY PHYLLIS Bertha CHAN 1-May-10 500018
Annear DOROTHY JEAN ORR 15-Mar-20 WFX22214
ANNETTS JOYCE ELIZABETH NAOMI Mrs NEILSON 15-Apr-17 501410
Anstey JOAN Mrs Brown 24-Aug-15 VFX38745
ANSTIS MARY ELIZABETH 9-Nov-14 WFX33963
ANTHONY HILDA JANE COVENTRY 25-Nov-07 QFX23682
ANTONELLI DOROTHY 25-Oct-13 QFX58206
APPLEFORD ALICE MARION Sanders 17-Aug-24 VFX151551
APPLETON HILDA MARY 7-Nov-14 WFX3315
ARBUCKLE ELIZABETH COLQUHOUN (Beth) 17-Mar-14 QFX54898
ARCHDALL JOAN GALT Satyer 15-Mar-22 500604
ARCHER LAIRD MEREDITH (known as Meg) Taylor 10-May-17 TFX6327
ARCHER LOIS EILEEN Blaney 16-Mar-22 VFX151532
Archer MARGARET VIVIAN MACKEY 18-Sep-13 QFX55951
ARLISS MARJORIE EDITH Clayton 16-Apr-05 VFX138685
ARMITAGE IVY MAY MARGUERITE 20-Apr-16 NFX125950
Armitage ENID MARJORIE Mrs CHARTERS 1907 NFX138823
ARMSTRONG BESSIE 23-Dec-10 NFX127305
ARMSTRONG DOROTHY MARY 21-Jun-00 NFX76448
ARMSTRONG EDNA May 11-Mar-12 502176
Scroll to top