Connection to the Hunter Valley – Sister Elsie May Smith was born at Stockton and is buried in Stockton General Cemetery.  Her family home was Stanley Park at Fullerton Cove.  She graduated from Newcastle Hospital in 1911 and worked there until March 1913.  According to Ben Champion, on her resignation she was noted as “one of the best sisters every trained at the hospital.” (see References)

Service – Australian  Army Nursing Service (AANS)

Service location – Egypt, Lemnos, France and UK

Medals and awards – 1914-15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal

References:

National Archives of Australia B2455 SMITH E M

Nominal Roll of the First AIF Australian War Memorial (AWM) 133, 48-094

Embarkation Roll of the First AIF AWM Nurses July 1915 – November 1918

Newcastle Morning Herald, 8 June 1918, p.10

Audrey Armitage, A Golden Age of Nursing, Royal Newcastle Hospital Graduates’ Association Book Committee, Newcastle, 1991, p.195

Newcastle Hospital Report December 1911, p.23

Ben W.Champion, Newcastle Hospital Register 1817-1915, the author, 1950, pp.446, 569-570 (group photo between these pages includes E Smith), p.674

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© Christine Bramble 2013