The Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) was a voluntary unit of civilians providing nursing care for military personnel in the United Kingdom and various other countries in the British Empire. The most important periods of operation for these units were during World War I and World War II. Although VADs were intimately bound up in the war effort, they were not military nurses, as they were not under the control of the military, unlike the Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps, the Princess Mary's Royal Air Force Nursing Service, and the Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. The VAD nurses worked in field hospitals, i.e., close to the battlefield, and in longer-term places of recuperation back in Britain.
Dame Emma Maud McCarthy, was a nursing sister and British Army matron-in-chief.
The Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC) is a Administrative Corps of the Australian Army. It was formed in February 1951 from the Royal Australian Army Nursing Service. A Corps Badge was introduced in 1951 with the motto Pro Humanitate. It embraces the values of compassion and service to others, reflecting the care and dedication provided to the wounded and sick. Approval for the Corps flag was granted on 7 February 1958.
The Territorial Force Nursing Service (TFNS) was established in 1908, part of the reform of the British auxiliary forces introduced by Richard Haldane which created the Territorial Force. Nurses with at least three years of training were able to volunteer for the service, and facilities comprised 23 large buildings earmarked for use as hospitals in the event of war. The TFNS was augmented by the affiliation of Voluntary Aid Detachments. On the outbreak of the First World War, the hospitals were commissioned and up to 2,784 nurses mobilised to staff them. By the end of the war, up to 8,140 nurses had served with the TFNS, 2,280 of them in hospitals and casualty clearing stations abroad. After the war, the TFNS became the Territorial Army Nursing Service in line with the reconstitution of the Territorial Force as the Territorial Army.
The word "nurse" originally came from the Latin word "nutrire", meaning to suckle, referring to a wet-nurse; only in the late 16th century did it attain its modern meaning of a person who cares for the infirm.
Elizabeth Pearl Corkhill, MM was an Australian military nurse of the First World War. Trained as a nurse in Sydney, Corkhill enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 4 June 1915. After serving in France at the 1st and 3rd Australian General Hospitals, Corkhill was assigned to the 38th British Casualty Clearing Station near Abbeville on 21 August 1918. On 23 August, while the camp was being heavily bombed by enemy aircraft, Corkhill remained calm and continued to tend to her patients, despite the danger. For her bravery, she was awarded the Military Medal, one of only seven Australian nurses to be so decorated in the First World War. Following the Armistice, she went on to work as a nurse at various public hospitals, and donated a large collection of her father's photographs to the National Library of Australia.
Grace Margaret Wilson was a high-ranked nurse in the Australian Army during World War I and the first years of World War II. Wilson was born in Brisbane, and completed her initial training as a nurse in 1908. After the outbreak of World War I she joined the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and subsequently transferred to the First Australian Imperial Force. From 1915 until 1919 she was the principal matron of the 3rd Australian General Hospital. She served as the temporary matron-in-chief in the AIF Headquarters, London from late 1917 until early 1918. Wilson returned to Australia in 1920 and left the AIF to work in civilian hospitals. She was appointed the matron-in-chief of the AANS in 1925, and in September 1940 joined the Second Australian Imperial Force. She served in the Middle East until August 1941, when she returned to Australia due to ill health. She left the Army the next month, but from September 1943 worked in the Department of Manpower Directorate (Victoria)'s nursing control section.
The timeline of nursing history in Australia and New Zealand stretches from the 19th century to the present.
The Australian Voluntary Hospital was a military hospital staffed by Australian expatriates in England that served on the Western Front between 1914 and 1916. For most of the first year of the war, although not an Australian Army unit, it was an Australian presence on the Western Front.
The "Bluebirds" were a group of twenty Australian civilian nurses and a masseuse who volunteered for service in France during World War I. Recruited through the Australian Red Cross Society, the group's nickname referred to the colours of their specially-designed uniforms. After arriving in France the nurses were split between different hospitals where they treated wounded and ill soldiers. They returned to Australia individually following the war and did not receive any medals or veterans' benefits from the Australian government.
Alice Appleford, was an Australian civilian and military nurse who took part in both World Wars. She has been described as Australia's most decorated woman. During the First World War she served in hospitals in Egypt and France and was one of only seven Australian nurses to be awarded the Military Medal for gallantry. In the Second World War she held a senior post within the Australian Army Medical Women's Service. In 1949 she was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest award made by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Rose Ann Creal, was a decorated Australian nurse of the First World War.
Melanie Nivison Oppenheimer, is an Australian historian, who specialises in the history of volunteering, and a former actress.
Jean Nellie Miles Walker RRC, was an Australian army nurse who served in Egypt during World War I. She was the only Tasmanian nurse to die on active service during World War I.
Ellen Savage, GM was an Australian army nurse (AANS) and hospital matron from Quirindi, New South Wales.
Dorothy Gwendolen Cawood, was an Australian civilian and military nurse. She was one of the first three members of the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) to be awarded the Military Medal in the First World War.
Evelyn Augusta Conyers, was a New Zealand-born Australian matron-in-chief of the Australian Army Nursing Service during the First World War. She was its first member to be awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest award for nursing service.
Jane Bell (1873–1959) was an Scotland-born Australian nurse and midwife. She is best known for her work with Australian Imperial Force (AIF) field hospitals in Egypt in World War I, and for her advocacy for the nursing profession.
Adelaide Maud Kellett, was an Australian army nurse and hospital matron. She served with the Australian Army Nursing Service in the First World War and was matron of Sydney Hospital from 1921 to 1944.
Jessie McHardy White, was an Australian army principal matron.
