Connection with the Hunter – Nurse Janet Forbes is named on Cooks Hill Superior School Memorial.  She is possibly the daughter of  John and Caroline L Forbes, birth registered at Lambton.

This is all that is known about Janet.  There are no Australian military records by this name. The National Archives of the UK contain a medal card for a Janet Forbes who was a Red Cross VAD and eligible for the British War Medal and Victory Medal (WO/372/23).  Some Australian women of independent means did travel to Europe to become volunteers. Further research is required to match the school honour roll and / or the medal card to the Janet Forbes born at Lambton.  John and Caroline Forbes had five children, all registered at Lambton, between 1887 and 1903.  Janet, the only girl, was born in 1888 and would have been 26 in 1914 so she was the right age to have worked as a nurse.

Do you know more?

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© Christine Bramble 2013