Connection to the Hunter Valley – Sister Stella Pines was Acting Deputy Matron of Newcastle Hospital before enlisting.
Training and experience – graduated Sydney Hospital 1914, taking first prize in the examination.
Service – Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS)
Service location – Egypt, France, UK and transport duty
Medals, awards and mentions – 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal and MID
True to her name, Stella was something of a star. She kept in touch with Newcastle Hospital after enlisting as she was still nominally Acting Deputy Matron although it seems that she did not return. She went on to study and pioneer mother and baby health and community nursing and lobbied Federal Government for improvements to the health system including for mental health.
References:
National Archives of Australia B2455 PINES STELLA EDITH; A1928/660/9 Midwives & Nurses Miss Stella Pines’ Activities
Nominal Roll of the First AIF Australian War Memorial (AWM) AWM133, 42-036
Embarkation Roll of the First AIF AWM Nurses (July 1915 – November 1918)
AWM41/1025
AWM4/26/97/1, Australian Army Nursing Service in Egypt Part 1, [p4]
Sydney Morning Herald, 24 February 1915 p.12 & 28 July 1917 p.14 retrieved from Trove 21 May 2010
Australasian Nurses’ Journal, Vol XIII No 1 January 1915, p.14, Vol XV No 3 March 1917, p.95
Newcastle Hospital Report, December 1915, p.10
Do you know more?
© Christine Bramble 2013
Great War Nurses from the Hunter 
Stella was my great aunt. She died in Durban, South Africa in 1968. I believe she left Australia frustrated over lack of health developments and improvements’; she did community nursing in SA.
I am not surprised that she left Australia feeling frustrated about government inertia on matters of community health, some of the official responses to her lobbying were very condescending!