Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Emmie Blackie once wrote “It is not to glorify war that men and women march on Anzac Day, but to honor those alive or dead, who at a given time were prepared to do what they considered right and their duty whatever the cost”.
These inspirational words were written by my Grand mother in her copy of the book ‘A special kind of service’, the history of 2/9th AGH. I grew up knowing that both my grand parents served in the II World War but never appreciated or understood what they went through and why every Anzac Day they marched so proudly and purposely until my Nan entrusted me with her war letters and dairies. I believe her story needs to be shared to remind us of just how important these young men and women were in shaping who we are today as a nation and as I take my children to their first Anzac Day, I believe we need to do more in schools to teach the youngest generations of the many sacrifices these young men and women took. Here is my Nan’s story!!
Emma Steddy , most commonly known as Emmie, was born to Lethbridge dairy farmers Thomas and Ada Spiller on the 29th of October 1914. The second eldest of nine children, she attended primary and High school in Ballarat. When she completed her schooling she took up nursing at the Geelong Hospital where she completed a course of general nursing and then obtained her midwifery certificate at the Queen Victoria Hospital in Melbourne.
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When World War II broke out Emmie joined the Australian Army Nursing Service along with her school friend and Nursing companion Jean Wilcock(nee Hinds). Emmie and Jean were together in the same unit throughout the war and shared a life long friendship until Jeans death in the early 90s.
Emmie was posted to the 2/9th Australian General Hospital in South Australia. On February 5, 1940 the 2/9 AGH embarked on the troopship SS Mauretania, eventually setting up camp at Kantara on the banks of the Suez Canal.





The 2/9 AGH was due to go to Greece but the rapid success of the German forces there changed the destiny of the unit. Instead the 2/9 AGH went to Abd El Kader in Egypt, where they set up a 600-bed hospital in a stony, dusty desert with only one tap for water. Staff lived in tents with neither showers nor sewerage.
Doctors, nurses and orderlies had to contend with heat, insects and blinding dust storms which blew for days on end. The hospital was only 25 kilometers from Alexandra, which was being bombed nightly. The hospital was often hit by shrapnel from anti-aircraft batteries. Staff and patients who could be moved went into slit trenches during air raids. The trenches were infested with centipedes, scorpions and fleas. My Nan would say she thought she would have been safer in her tent because she was so afraid of the scorpions. At night personal were told to ware their hard hats to bed incase of a raid. Nan said she would put hers across her stomach because she had witnessed so many men with abdominal wounds who died a slow a painful death, at least if she got hit in the head it would be instant.
The Syrian campaign saw the 2/9 AGH shift to Nazareth in Palestine in July 1941. Surgical wards and the operating theatre were set up in the Casa Nova Monastery, the medical wards in the Terra Santa Monastery with the Benedictine monks still occupying the basement. The sisters’ quarters and mess were in the convent and school. Nan took every opportunity to see the ancient cities and the biblical sites in the area and experienced her first white Christmas.
The 2/9 AGH was moved early 1942 and dispatched to Singapore. They sailed on the Strathallan, an English ship. Nan was terribly affected by sea sickness and was always thankful to reach land. On the way they heard that Singapore had been taken by the Japanese Forces so the 2/9 AGH were sent on to Australia where they established a hospital at Northfield, South Australia in March 1942.

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In October 1942, the 2/9 AGH was sent on the Manunda Hospital Ship to New Guinea to set up the field Hospital at the base of Mount Hombrom, on the Laloki River, 17 miles from Port Moresby. The new Hospital was known as the ’17 Mile Hospital’ The 2/9 AGH was the only general hospital in New Guinea at the time and the nurses were the only European women in New Guinea, except for a few missionaries. Nan had exchanged the dust and dryness of the desert for the mud and tropical downpours. The insects were still just as plentiful, only they were a different species.
The hospital was established for 600 beds, but with the flood of casualties from the fighting on the Kakoda Trail it sometimes treated more than 2000 patients. The Kakoda wounded were often in a pitiful state when they were brought into the hospital. They were wracked with fever, as well as suffering very serious injury. The soldiers who could not walk were carried out on stretchers by native carriers who the Australians called the “Fuzzie Wuzzie Angles”. The hospital wards and sleeping quarters, except for the operating theatres, were in tents with dirt floors which soon turned to mud when tropical downpours fell. Nan and her fellow staff worked in gumboots in the hospital during the worst wet times! It was during this time that Nan’s letters to home sounded so home sick and longed for any news whatsoever about everyday life. Sometimes letters asked about friends who also were serving and their fates. Others were to pass on condolences to family friends who had experienced losses.
The 2/9 AGH also treated Japanese P.O.Ws. They were operated on in the surgical theatres and then taken by orderlies to separate wards. Nan and fellow nurses did not nurse the P.O.Ws , but certainly operated on them.


The hospital staff often donated blood for transfusions, however they eagerly waited for blood to be sent from Australia because it was sent in ice and ice was a priceless commodity in New Guinea. Penicillin was not available everywhere in 1943-44; the common anti-infection treatment was sulphanilamide powder. Nan believed this was almost a useless treatment; too frequently the gangrenous and badly effected wound did not respond. She can remember when they did have patients recover from infections after they were injected with penicillin, that it was most unbelievable. Unfortunately, it came too late for so many.
The demand on hospital staff was exhausting at times. There was a period of seven weeks when staff worked twelve hour shifts in the operating theatres without a day off. Often sisters administered anesthetic when doctors were in short supply. After a 12 hour shift, Nan would climb 77 steps to her tent which she shared with three other sisters before she could rest.
For recreation, staff swam in the Laloki River when they could. It was not completely relaxing though; armed soldiers kept guard and watched for crocodiles while they swam.
It was during this time that Nan met her husband to be Don. R. Blackie, AIR. Pa worked for the Australian Red Cross, distributing rations to soldiers.
It was also at this time Nan was promoted to the rank of Captain and mentioned in despatches for her work. An honor to this day she is most modest about.
In March 1944, the 2/9 AGH was returned to Australia and stationed at Tamworth N.S.W., to set up a hospital. In October 1944, they were sent to Baulkham Hills for staging until January 1945 when they were sent to Morotai, an island east of Borneo. The 2/9 AGH remained there until the war ended.
Peace with the Japanese was declared in August 1945. Several medicos, including my Nan were chosen from the hospital to staff a special hospital in Singapore which was to receive Australian P.O.W.s from Burma and Thailand. Nan wrote “We had heard all sorts of rumors regarding the POWs and their treatment by the Japanese but had no idea of the extent of their suffering and privation.” As the hospital ship pulled into the wharf, staff had their first sighting of some of those men. Nan wrote’ Our reaction, without exception, was one of shock and disbelief at the sight of such thin, emaciated human beings. Its hard to describe the delight of these men at seeing Australians again and the eagerness with which they chatted and asked questions”.
Shock gave way to frustration as Japanese Commanders in Singapore had not yet signed the peace. So staff were unable to go a shore and the Hospital Ship and equipment from Australia had not yet arrived. It was a three day wait before Nan and her fellow service members could treat. The sight of POW wards was something Nan will never forget. There were two long rows of low, makeshift, rough beds along each side of the ward with a skeleton on each bed. How little Nan and fellow nursing staff knew at that stage of the POWs mental and physical suffering. Separation from all female company –the company of wives, mothers, sisters, girlfriends- was an aspect Nan had not thought about but it soon became apparent as she listened to conversations. Nan wrote “One can only feel admiration for those men. If one could forget their skinny bodies, skin rashes, ulcers, etc. one would never know they had been through years of deprivation and suffering. The majority were so willing to help their friends and they wanted to do anything they could to help us. They derived evident pleasure in giving us gifts.” One of those gifts was a parachute that to this day Nan still has as a precious memento of the time. It would take hour to do the rounds of the ward because nurses had to stop and talk so long at each bed. “The comradeship amongst these men and the concern they had for one another is something that cannot be described. It is something that most people in Australia could not comprehend”
For Nan it was heart breaking to see some of those patients who survived the agonies for years and had lived to hear, with joy, that the war was over, freedom was theirs; but their emaciated bodies weakened by disease, starvation and suffering, were unable to continue the battle, and so, almost within reach of their loved ones, they died.
After a period of 2 months the rest of the patients left for Australia and the hospital was closed.
Nan received her discharge from the Army and went back to Geelong Hospital in charge of the operating theatre. She left the hospital in 1948 when she married my Grand father and moved to Warrandyte where they lived and raised 2 children for over 40 years. They then moved to Euroa in 1995 to be closer to their son. It was written in the local Warrandyte paper that both had a 100 percent record for April 25th observances while living there. It is only through poor health that my Nan now 94 and my Pa 91 do not march. By attending services and the marches I believe that I will be honoring not only the men and women who served in the war, but my Nan and Pa who have inspired my life and the life of my children and of whom I am so incredibly proud to have as my grand parents. -Written and edited in 2008