Connection to the Hunter Valley – Sister Louisa Stobo née Scobie was born in West Maitland and came from a well-known farming family in the Oakhampton district. Her brother Lt Colonel Robert Scobie was killed at Gallipoli. She is named on the West Maitland Public School and Maitland District RSL honour rolls.
Training and experience – Louisa trained and worked at Sydney Hospital and was matron of Crown Street Women’s Hospital at the time of enlisting. She was matron of Maitland Hospital in 1921. When describing the departure of military nurses bound for Egypt in 1914 the Australasian Nurses’ Journal refered to her as “foremost amongst nurses from Sydney.” (Vol XII No 12 December 1914, pp.398-403)
Service – Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS)
Service location – Egypt, transport duty on Guildford Castle, Malta, UK and France.
Medals, awards and mentions – 1914-15 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal and Royal Red Cross 1st Class. Louisa Stobo was awarded the Royal Red Cross 1st Class for her work as Head Sister of No 2 ACCS in France when the unit took a direct hit during a German bombing raid. See No 2 Australian Casualty Clearing Station takes a direct hit.
Honour Roll – West Maitland Presbyterian Church
Do you know more?
References:
National Archives of Australia B2455 STOBO LOUISA
Nominal Roll of the First AIF Australian War Memorial (AWM) AWM133, 50-038
Embarkation Roll of the First AIF AWM 2 Australian General Hospital (November 1914)
Australian War Memorial collection – AWM4, 26/63/18, No 2 ACCS January 1918, [p.17] (Unit diary entry for 29 January 1918 notes visit of General Birdwood who presented Sister Stobo with the ribbon of the Royal Red Cross.)
London Gazette Supplement, 1 January 1918, p.54
Sydney Morning Herald, 17 January 1913, p.8 & 5 January 1918, p.13 retrieved from Trove 24 July 2011; 30 Sept 1919 p.8, retrieved from Trove 8 September 2012
Maitland Weekly Mercury, 1 January 1916, p.4, 8 January 1916, p.7, 15 April 1916, p.4, 22 April 1916, p.5, 13 May 1916, p.4, 9 December 1916, p.4, 10 February 1917, p.7, 12 January 1918, p.4
Maitland Mercury, 21 August 1915 p.4; 27 August 1915 p.4
Australasian Nurses’ Journal, Vol XII No 12 December 1914, pp.398-403, Vol XV No 4 April 1917, p.127, Vol XVI No 1 January 1918 p.22, No 3 March 1918, p.90, Vol XIX No 9 September 1921, p.320
Newcastle Morning Herald & Miners Advocate, 11 March 1920 (Gary Mitchell alerted me to thisreference during his research on honour rolls)
© Christine Bramble 2013
Great War Nurses from the Hunter 
Dear Christine,
Re Matron Louisa Stobo
Matron Stobo ( nee Scobie ) was my great aunt.
Unfortunately , I did not have the honour of meeting her , as I grew up in Victoria.
There is to be a Last Post ceremony for Louisa’s brother and my great uncle, Lt. Colonel Robert Scobie on 28th of October this year at the AWM, Canberra ,which I will attend.
My late mother Elaine Warren Charlton (nee Scobie )served as an Army nurse in the Second World War.
She trained at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney.
She served at Concord Military Hospital during the war.
She married my father Surgeon Lt. Robert Charlton in January 1944.
Thank you for your excellent history of the Australian Army Nursing Service.
So far, I have only read what is on the internet.
Kind regards
Margaret Bell ( nee Charlton)
Thank you for letting me know about the ceremony for Louisa and her brother. I would love to be there but my commitments in Newcastle make it unlikely. I have been to a number of Last Post ceremonies at the AWM, it is always very moving.
Regards, Christine