100 Days of Heroes: Spanish flu claimed Tasmanian nurse Jean Walker after wartime of care
NEAR the northern end of the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue in Hobart is the tree for the only female servicewoman commemorated on the route.
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NEAR the northern end of the Soldiers’ Memorial Avenue is the tree for the only female servicewoman commemorated on the route.
Born in 1878 at Port Sorell, Nellie Walker was educated at home before transferring to St Michael’s Collegiate School in Hobart in 1893.
She had been an army nurse for eight years when she left Sydney for Egypt in November 1914.
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She worked in various hospitals and, in the first rush of casualties from Gallipoli, took charge of the 2nd Australian General Hospital at Mena House, Cairo.
From September 1915 to January 1916 she was on the hospital ship Gascon as it carried patients from Gallipoli.
In September 1916 she was promoted to matron in charge of the No. 3 Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Dartford, England.
She was Mentioned in Despatches in December 1916 and awarded the Royal Red Cross (1st Class) in January 1917, presented to her by King George V.
In mid-1917, Walker proceeded to France, working in Dieppe and later Abbeville at the 3rd Australian General Hospital.
With the Allied retreat in April 1918, her hospital was used as a casualty clearing station. Its remaining 24 nurses cared for some 1800 patients — many badly wounded — as bombs fell in the surrounding area.
Posted back to England, Walker was working at a hospital in Sutton Veny, Wiltshire, when she fell ill with Spanish flu and died on October 30, 1918, at 39.
She was buried with full military honours in the Sutton Veny War Graves Cemetery and is also remembered on an honour board at St Michael’s Collegiate and a plaque at the Army Museum of Tasmania at Anglesea Barracks.
damian.bester@news.com.au
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