Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Julien Johnston, Tasmanian History FB Page 25.4.24:-
Being ANZAC Day, I thought it would be appropriate to post this photo I took in 2008 at the ANZAC day service, Hobart.
I have always wondered, who this heroic lady was, and her story.
A nurse wearing the Royal Red Cross Medal, the Africa Star, the 1939-45 Star and service medals.

When Julien was unable to load the image, he asked I upload it…

Ray was the daughter of the legendary WP "Skipper" Batt - an icon of Tasmanian yachting in the first half of the C20 nd Myrtle Batt.
Ray & my late father Les Gabriel TX537 were childhood sweethearts. Les was in the militia and enlisted when war was declared. He enlisted with his 12 ft cadet dinghy sailing mate, 'George' Gerrand, who was allocated the next number TX538.
Les had purchased the D class keelboat, 'Wendy' only a matter of weeks before war was declared. Her custody was left with Skipper Batt, and of course his girlfriend (not sure when they were engaged), Ray Batt. Ray wrote to the Derwent Sailing Squadron in the early part of the war, requesting permission, as a woman, to sail 'Wendy'. This matter is recorded in the DSS history book, Ebbs and Flows, published in 2006 by A Rex Kerrison and Richard A Johnson.
Les & Ray caught up in Palestine and were married in St George's Church, Battery Point in Hobart (refer the trove link in both Les' and Ray's VWMA profiles). They had no children.
In 1949, they purchased a farm on the Margate Road, Kingston (their phone number was "Kingston 391". The farm was named "Rulla Weene", an acknowledgement to the Army Small Ships Water Transport Company 125 ft ship named Rulla that Les captained in the Dutch East Indies in the last part of WW2 and Weene, being the name of 'Skipper' Batt's A class yacht that was raced so successfully on the Derwent River. They ran a dairy herd.
For reasons which probably dont need to be embellished here (although, it must be said, the reason I was told does not reflect adversely on either party), Ray and Les' marriage failed during the 1950's. I dont know about Ray, but Les never really got over that.
Ray went on to be a stalwart in the Girl Guide Movement (State Commissoner 1962-67), worked at the Friends' School boarding house in the 1950's and 1960's (was she a matron?) and had an active and respected sailing career. In later years, she married a Peter Balfe. The Batt family or her close friends can record more details. She outlived both husbands and passed away, still residing on the waterfront at Napoleon Street in Battery Point, on 10.10.2012.