Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Awarded Royal Red Cross (2nd Class)
Date of Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: 6 October 1919
Location in Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: Page 1462, position 34
Date of London Gazette: 3 June 1919
Location in London Gazette: Page 6930, position 3

Sister Isabella Borwick, A.I.F., late of Ballarat, Victoria, and formerly matron of Sandstone Hospital, W.A., has been awarded the Royal Red Cross for services abroad. Her brother, Mr.W. Borwick, late 44th Battalion, is a well-known Meekatharra resident.

Daily News Tuesday 19 August 1919 page 3

War Nurses' Hostel

AFTER a long friendship which began in the Perth Hospital before the last war, two returned army nurses have undertaken positions as Matron and Assistant Matron of the War Nurses' Hostel. They are Sister Isabel T Borwick and Sister Kathleen Ryan. Sister Borwick left Australia in May. 1915, and for four years served in an Australian nursing division in the Middle East, where she received the Royal Red Cross award. On her return to Australia she joined the Child Welfare Department, and was matron of the Receiving Home at Mt. Lawley for 15 years. Sister Borwick, from her wide experience of nurses' hostels, has stressed the fact that nurses living on the premises will not be pestered by a lot of rules and regulations. It will be a home for those returning from war service, those in Perth waiting to be transferred, and nurses on leave from military hospitals or camps.

The Daily News Perth Saturday 21 February 1942 page 21

Sister Borwick, who is matron of the hostel, is well known to the nursing fraternity in this State. She served in the Great War from 1915-1918, beginning her war service as a sister at the Base Hospital, Fremantle. Going to Egypt in 1916 Sister Borwick served at the 14th Australian General Hospital, Abbassia, in Cairo after which she went to a hospital at Port Said for 12 months.

The Royal Red Cross, which is the highest award given to army nurses,was awarded to Sister Borwick for her services, and she is one of the very few in this State to receive it. Her decoration was given her by Field Marshal Lord Birdwood when he paid his first visit to Australia in 1919.

Western Mail Thursday 21 May 1942 page 23