Connection to the Hunter Valley – Staff Nurse Braye was born in Waratah. She was a member of a prominent Newcastle family. Her brother Thomas A Braye was at one time Mayor of Waratah – Braye Park is named in his honour. This brother was a respected Newcastle solicitor. Her sister Janet was also well known locally as an obstetric nurse.
Service – Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS)
Service location – Salonika. Malarial mosquitoes were a particular problem in this part of northern Greece. Lilian was invalided home and remained under medical treatment for malaria for some years.
Medals – British War Medal and Victory Medal
References
National Archives of Australia B2455 BRAYE LILIAN ELIZABETH
Nominal Roll of the First AIF Australian War Memorial (AWM) AWM133, 05-117
Embarkation Roll of the First AIF AWM Nurses (July 1915 – November 1918)
Sydney Morning Herald, 19 February 1902
Newcastle Morning Herald, 11 August 1926, 4 August 1948, 1 June 1961
The History of Awaba House, retrieved from website of Lake Macquarie Art Gallery 25 September 2012
Information provided by family members
© Christine Bramble 2013
Great War Nurses from the Hunter 
Good Evening,
I would just like to let you know of an error in aunt Lil’s information. (Lilian Elizabeth Bray, is my mother’s aunt, my mother was Janet Margaret Lilian Braye, daughter of Lilian’s younger brother, Stanley Gordon Bray(e)). Firstly, Lilian’s older brother, Thomas Alfred Inglis (T.A.I. Bray put the ‘E’ on the end of his name, a couple of other family members then followed suit, like my grandfather did. This older brother, Thomas Alfred Inglis Braye, was the one time Mayor of Waratah, and Braye Park is named after him. He is NOT Lilian’s father, as you have stated, although their father’s name was also a Thomas Alfred Bray, so henceforth some confusion. To make matters a bit worse, there is a Thomas Alfred Bray(e) in each family, like a lot of families do.
I hope that this has been of some help to you.
Kind regards,
Rhonda Macrae
Thanks for your feedback, Rhonda. Can you please check my edits to the page. It was at times very difficult to untangle family relationships of women from this era, as so many given names were passed down the generations! Thanks to descendants such as yourself I am endeavouring to iron out any errors. I wonder why the “e” was added to the surname – any suggestions? Cheers, Christine
Hunter Valley Military History Remembers – The Centenary of The Great War.
Friday 8th December 1916.
The following Hunter Valley woman enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service on this day one hundred years ago:-
Lillian Elizabeth Braye, Waratah
Look Back and Honour The Past.