Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

WOMAN OF THE MONTH.
Army Nurses' Matron-in-Chief'

Returned soldiers throughout Australia honour the name of Miss Grace M. Wilson, Matron-in-Chief of the Australian Army Nursing Service and chief matron of the Third Australian General Hospital during the Great War. Miss Wilson served overseas from early in 1915 until late in 1919 and during this time was mentioned four times in despatches. For her distinguished work she was awarded the Order of the Commander of the British Empire, the Royal Red Cross and the Florence Nightingale Medal, being one of only two nurses in Australia to hold the last mentioned honour. At present she is matron of the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, and a member of the Council of the Royal Victorian College of Nursing. Her nursing career since she enrolled at the Brisbane Hospital as a probationer has been a distinguished one. She remained at the Brisbane Hospital for five years after completing her training and then did post-graduate work in London. She then returned to Australia and when war broke out in 1914 she was principal military matron of Queensland. Early in 1915 she was sent overseas with the Third Australian General Hospital, being transhipped from England to Alexandria. She served first at Lemnos under the worst possible conditions, was sent next to Egypt, where the Third Australian General Hospital was housed in old Egyptian army barracks at Abbassia, and, finally, reached Abbeville in France, where she remained until July, 1919, when the Abbeville Hospital closed after having attended to wounded men coming down from clearing stations long after the Armistice. Since her return from the war Miss Wilson has been attached to the Children's Hospital in Melbourne, has conducted a private hospital and finally became matron of the Alfred Hospital. In 1937 she led the Australian contingent of returned army nurses to the coronation in London and now, since the outbreak of the present war, has been giving her attention to the preparing of Australia's army nurses for service overseas. To date 138 nurses have been selected to accompany the second A.I.F., and, in addition, there will be 16 masseurs and a bacteriologist (Miss Maris Freeman, of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Research, Melbourne). Miss Freeman has been enrolled as a V.A.D. and will wear that uniform.

The West Australian Wednesday 13 March 1940 page 3

NEAR AND FAR

Miss Grace Wilson, C.B.E., Royal Red Cross, has been appointed matron of the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne. Miss Wilson trained at the Brisbane Hospital, and later held the position of matron and superintendent of nurses at that institution, and a similar position at the Children's Hospital, Melbourne. As a staff nurse at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases, London, and a trained nurse on the staff of the Women's College, University of Wales, Miss Wilson received a course of post graduate training. She is a member of the examining board of the Australian Trained Nurses' Association, and also of the Nurses' Board, Melbourne, and a member of the education committee of the A.T.N.A. Miss Wilson had a distinguished career during the war, having been appointed principal matron of the 1st Military District (Queensland) in August, 1914, and principal matron of the 3rd Australian General Hospital, A.I.F., in March, 1918, and matron of the Repatriation Hospital, Brisbane, in 1920. At the present time she is matron-ln-chief of the Australian Army Nursing Service, having been appointed to that position in 1925. For her military services, she was awarded the Companionship of the British Empire and the Roya Red Cross. Miss Wilson will take up her new duties at the Alfred Hospital on January 18, 1933

Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday 20 December 1932 page 3