Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Alice Prichard carried out her nursing training at the Melbourne Hospital and was working at the Queen Victoria Hospital in August, 1909, when she was appointed Matron of the Mildura Hospital. Four years later (October, 1913), Alice took up the position of Matron of the Albury Hospital.

On the 31st October 1914, Alice’s youngest brother, Leslie Stephen Prichard, enlisted in the 13th Australian Infantry Battalion and embarked on 22nd December 1914 in Melbourne aboard the HMAT Berrima, bound for Egypt.

Whether her brother’s enlistment had anything to do with her decision is not known, but in May, 1915, Alice tendered her resignation to the Albury Hospital, and on the 10th of that month she enlisted with the Army Nursing Corps and was assigned to the 3rd Australian General Hospital. It was stated in The Mildura Cultivar that: “The people of Albury and surrounding districts, her many friends particularly, will laud her patriotic spirit and action, and wish her a safe return to the sunny skies of Australia in the tranquil days to come.”

The 3rd Australian General Hospital, was commanded by Thomas Henry Fiaschi, and it left Circular Quay, Sydney, on the RMS Mooltan on 15th May 1915. The embarkation roll shows that the hospital’s staff were mainly drawn from Sydney—with several from country NSW and farther afield. The RMS Mooltan stopped on the way at Melbourne, where it picked up a number of reinforcements from Victoria which included Sister Alice Marion Prichard, and sailed again on the 18th .

The unit arrived in London, England, on 27th June 1915, expecting to be equipped to take up operations in France. However, on 1st July, the commanding officer was informed that they would instead be deployed to Mudros, on the Greek island of Lemnos, where they would nurse the sick and injured troops fighting in the Gallipoli campaign. Lemnos was only 50 miles from the fighting, whereas the hospitals in Egypt were over 650 miles away, a journey of 1½ days.

After three weeks they were posted to Alexandrina, Egypt, for a weeks training in a military hospital, before being posted to Mudros.

On 4th August 1915, No. 2 Australian Stationary Hospital and No. 29 British (Lowland) Casualty Clearing Station were landed at Turk’s Head, West Mudros, followed by No. 3 Australian General Hospital the next day (the sisters arriving a few days later, on the 8th and 9th ). On the 17th August Nos. 1 and 3 Canadian Stationary Hospitals (with female nurses) and No. 18 British were landed.

A letter from Sister Alice Prichard to Dr. R. A. Parker in Mildura dated the 5th August contained the following comments: “Just a line to tell you our Hospital (3rd Australian General) is right at the fighting line. It has been an interesting time for us. . . . We are so glad to be with the Australians. . . . It is dreadfully hot. Dr Kent Hughes went to the trenches this morning.”

Turk’s Head was a bare and roadless hillside. They were without tents or equipment, without water-supply other than the tank ships and with only one water-cart each, with no sanitary provision whatever and with little transport other than hand carriage.

When No. 3 A.G.H. first started admitting patients, the majority were wounded men from the August offensive, and it was these patients the hospital had been set up for, with operating theatres and surgeons on the staff. But the hospital’s fine laboratory equipment, together with the great bulk of its general hospital equipment, was not sent on by the War Office for three weeks. Its equipment had been put on another transport—“with disastrous results” (Butler, p226).

In a letter written by Sister Alice Prichard to the Albury Banner and Wodonga Express she writes:

“AT THE FRONT AND AT HOME.

Third Australian Hospital,

Mudros, Lemnos, Oct. 17, 1915.

Dear ‘Banner,’ — You will see by the heading that we are stationed right at the Dardanelles, the nearest hospital to the firing line, and only four hours’ sail from The Narrows. Of course, we are more than glad. We didn’t want to stay in the palaces in Egypt, but wished to come right on to the front, and we got our wish. This is a beautiful harbour, but there is not a tree on the island. The Greek villages remind one of Bible pictures, and the people seem just as much behind the times. The only mode of transport is donkeys. We live entirely in tents — large marquees for wards and small bell tents for our own sleeping quarters. The weather is very stormy, and the rain comes in tropical sheets, and just blows all the bell tents down. It used to be very trying, especially when everything got wet, but now me are used to it. We have twelve hundred patients, although only supposed to take one thousand. A great number leave to-day for England to make room for fresh cases from the trenches. Just across the end of the bay the poor, tired Australians come to camp — a brigade at a time — to rest. If you could see then when they arrive — poor, haggard, worn, old-looking boys — it would break your heart, but after a few days they are as bright and cheery as ever. But their stories tell of the terrible odds they faced and the almost impossible task. During the last few days the battalions have been marching back from the rest camp, back to the trenches and the valley of death—smiling and gay Heroes now, for they know the horrors they are returning to. If the men in Australia could see them, not one at home would have the heart to leave them unsupported in their heavy task. Why don't they come? It is the saddest thing to hear how this man's mate died and the next was killed. They got word to-day that they go back to the trenches soon. There is never a murmur, although the winter will make things so much more trying. I must tell you how glad we are to be here to help them, and how thankful for the Red Cross goods— they are the salvation of the hospital — especially the beautiful warm pyjamas and tobacco and towels socks, chocolates and cigarettes. You should just see their joy at the cards with cheering messages from New South Wales stowed away in the pyjama pockets. Most of the parcels so far seem to be from New South Wales (from Canberra and Canbelego and dozens of other places.) Sir Alex. McCormick of Sydney, is our senior surgeon and Colonel Featherstone has been over, suggesting improvements for the winter. Water is very scarce, and, of course, there are no fires except at the cook-house. We live by bugle call, and just go to bed when off duty. We wear gum boots, macintoshes and waterproof caps when it rains, for we must keep going as we are so busy. Several of our sisters and medical men are invalided to England. We have all had our turn of amaebic which is a typical disease of the Grecian Islands, and makes one feel quite a wreck.

Alice Prichard.

With the end of the Gallipoli campaign, the hospitals on Lemnos were disbanded. The nurses boarded the hospital ship Oxfordshire on 14th January 1916, and sailed out of the harbour at Mudros on 17th  January, bound for Egypt.

No. 3 A.G.H. was re-established at Abbassia in Egypt in early 1916 in an old harem, where it operated for approximately eight months. The staff then operated the Kitchener War Hospital at Brighton, England from October 1916 to May 1917, before moving to Abbeville, France, where it was stationed until the end of the war.

Return to Australia.

During a brief return to Australia accompanying a hospital ship full of wounded, from Abbassia, Egypt, Sister Alice Prichard served as Matron of the Glenroy Military Hospital up until its closure in January 1917.

After the closure of the Glenroy Military Hospital, it is not known where Alice was stationed, but she embarked from Melbourne on 12th June 1917, per Mooltan, en route to Adelaide, Egypt, and finally Salonica in Greece.

In April 1917 an urgent request from the British Director General of Medical Services called for four contingents of AANS nurses to be dispatched to Salonika to increase the hospital services there. German submarines presented a constant threat in the Mediterranean and it was deemed safer to send Australian nurses via Egypt than from England, as the route was more dangerous. Each unit was allocated one Matron, ten AANS Sisters and eighty Staff Nurses. RMS Mooltan left Sydney in June 1917 with 215 nurses and was followed by HMAT Wiltshire in August, carrying another 52. These units contained AANS personnel from all states; however the first contingent consisted mainly of nurses from the 3rd Military District (Victoria) led by Principal Matron Jessie McHardie White (nee Williamson). She was directly responsible for the care of these nurses, as well as the overall welfare and administrative control of all nurses in Salonika.

On their arrival at Salonica on the 30th July, they took over a tent hospital with over 800 beds, located during summer at nearby Hortiach. Conditions at this hospital were very poor, and while ministering to sick and wounded soldiers, the staff had to contend with extremes of temperature, threats to their safety from marauders, and with flies, lice, malaria, dysentery and typhus.

As Principal Matron White was efficient and self-reliant, and isolated from administrative support, she was given additional powers to promote and repatriate nurses; this enabled her to steadfastly preserve her contingent’s separate identity. As a consequence soon after their arrival in Salonika, Sister Alice Prichard was appointed second in charge of Hospital operations, and finally Matron of the 42nd British General Hospital in charge of the fourth contingent, a position she is believed to have held until the end of the Balkan campaign.

The fourth took over No. 42 BGH, a tent hospital at Kalamaria, and later moved with it to Uchanta. For the duration of the campaign each contingent battled adverse conditions to ensure not just the welfare of their patients, but their own as well.

Matron McHardie White paints a graphic picture of the climatic conditions in which the nurses found themselves, “the winter was exceedingly severe; the wind known as the Vardar wind, being almost a blizzard. There were heavy falls of snow, and very low temperatures at night”. The extreme temperatures caused drugs, ink and hot water bottles to regularly freeze in the morning. Wintery conditions were a danger to the nurses as some fainted, while others were affected with carbon monoxide poisoning as fuel was almost impossible to obtain and the only means of heating came from charcoal burnt in braziers.

Despite the harsh winters, there was little respite in the warmer months as the heat of the summers was as intense as the cold of the winters. As in India, permission was granted for nurses to wear white uniforms. Due to the scarcity of suitable material this led to improvised uniforms using white aprons and used sheets. The heat also contributed to the malaria which dominated the difficult summer months. The many ravines and streams in the area made ideal breeding grounds for mosquitos and Matron McHardie White later reported that “most of the nurses were affected by it [malaria] one time or another…”

Despite the adverse rigours of the climate, the overall health of the expedition was good. The most serious health problem, which had long-term consequences, was malaria. Fortunately, although many sisters suffered greatly from malaria and dysentery, of the 75 who were invalided to Australia, only one was lost from the disease. This was Sister Gertrude Evelyn Munro (Munnie) who died on 10th October 1918 at the age of 36 years. She was buried with full military honours at the British War Cemetery in Salonika.

Although a request from the British Director General of Medical Services for additional Australian nurses was made in February 1918, it was opposed by Major General Neville Howse, the director of the AIF’s medical services. When the stalemate was broken in the Balkans in early September 1918, by the Bulgarian army, which was an ally of Germany, being forced to capitulate, Howse recommended to AIF headquarters in France that the Australian nurses be withdrawn from Salonika. He argued that the original reason for sending them (the shipping threat in the Mediterranean) no longer applied, they were not nursing AIF soldiers and could be elsewhere, and that many were suffering from ill health. Despite this, the nurses remained in Greece until after the war ended.

Arrival Home.

Matron Alice Prichard finally arrived back home to Melbourne on 7th May 1919 aboard the Kildonian Castle, and was discharged as medically unfit on 3rd September 1919.

On Friday evening the 6th February 1920, a number of soldiers, nurses and civilians attended Government House where Sir William Birdwood bestowed their honors for rendering national service. It was stated by the “Weekly Times”: “Many brigadier-generals, colonels, majors and captains took part in the parade to the vice-regal dais, but nobody gained more admiring glances, than Miss Alice Marion Prichard, Miss Ethel May Bolton (nee Strickland) and Miss Annie Kidd Hart as they approached the Governor-General to receive their Royal Red Crosses” (1st Class).