Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

In April 1951, seventy-five-year-old Alice Donnes  returned to her birthplace, Benalla, to celebrate the unveiling of a memorial to her father, John Donnes, who was the foundation minister of the Benalla Methodist Church.

Alice had lived as a child in both Benalla and Yackandandah and was therefore familiar with north east Victoria.

At the age of twenty-six, she commenced her three year training as a nurse at the Ovens District Hospital, Beechworth and was awarded her certificate in 1905.

When Alice enlisted in June 1917, she deliberately put her age down to thirty-nine. Had she stated her real age, forty-one, her application for enlistment would have been rejected.

Alice was stationed at the Gerrard F Thomas Hospital in Bombay and also the Station Hospital in Burma.

Nursing in India carried with it the inherent risks of contracting cholera or paratyphoid or being bitten by highly venomous snakes which were often
found in the nurses’ sleeping quarters.

While her service record states that she was ‘invalided’ home in August 1918, no mention is made of the underlying cause.

Following her return home, Alice's appointment in the AIF was terminated at her own request.

In the 1920s Alice occupied the position of matron at the Hamilton Hospital Victoria’s Western District.

She never married and died at Elwood in 1959.