Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Ethel Ridgway Bailey was born on the 25th March 1889 in Manly Sydney New South Wales Australia. At the time of her birth Ethel’s father Charles Bailey was listed as an ironmonger. However Charles went onto to be a dentist who died prematurely at the age of 43, leaving Ethel aged 15, her two brothers Arthur and Leslie 17 and 13 respectively and sister Hilda 11, to assist their mother Adelaide Mary Bailey, nee Ridgway, with the living expense One of their successful endeavours was making homemade jam and selling it. Family lore amongst subsequent generations is that Adelaide took over Charles’ business and became a dentist herself.

Ethel’s grandparents, John and Mary Ridgway (nee Willoughby) married in Nash Buckinghamshire England in 1857 and arrived in Australia the same year. They settled in the Picton area, N.S.W. They had 10 children, including Ethel’s mother Adelaide.

In 1913 Ethel’s mother Adelaide and her brother Arthur, an accountant, were living in Dulwich Hill Sydney while Ethel, aged 24, was training to be a nurse. The following year WW1 broke out and Ethel enlisted as a nurse on the 3rd June 1915 and Arthur enlisted on the 30th August 1915. Brother Leslie was to enlist on the 2nd March 1917.  

On both Ethel’s and Arthur’s enlistment papers they give their Next of Kin as their mother Adelaide Mary Bailey and her address as Cable Station Southport Queensland and Pacific Cable Board Southport Queensland respectively. Subsequent references have assumed that Ethel’s mother Adelaide was a long-term resident of Queensland. However, although it is unclear the involvement Adelaide, 51 years at the time, had with the Pacific Cable Board by 1920 she had left Queensland for her native N.S.W. When the A.I.F. sent a telegram to Adelaide in 1920 advising that her son Arthur would ‘probably arrive in Melbourne 6th October 1920’, Adelaide had left Southport and was again residing in Sydney.

Meanwhile Ethel met and married Major John Bernard Francis McKenzie, a medical doctor, while they were both serving in the war when stationed in England. They married on the 14th February 1918 at St Albans Cathedral Hertfordshire England. Ethel was discharged from serving with the Australian Army Nursing Service on the day of her marriage.

They began their family in Sydney in 1919 with the birth of Douglas John McKenzie who was known all his life as ‘Dig’. Ethel referred to him affectionately as her little ‘Digger’ in reference to the slang word attributed to Australian and New Zealand troops: Diggers. Ethel and John had 2 more children, Judy and Robert. During the 1930s Ethel and John lived in Hamilton near Newcastle N.S.W. where John had a medical practice. By all reports they lived a very comfortable life, which included taking annual holidays at Lake Macquarie. Ethel and John would eventually retire to Newport Beach, N.S.W.

After her beloved John passed in 1971, Ethel lived next door to her daughter Judy who by this time was married with children of her own. Ethel passed in 1975 and her ashes lie next to John’s in a wall at the Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens and Crematorium N.S.W. Australia.

Ethel was one of around 2000 Australian women to serve in the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) during WW1. She encountered challenging and often terrifying conditions, caring as she did for patients in military clinics, hospitals near battlefields, on ships and in trains. She was my Grandmother and I honour her memory and her selfless service to Australia.

Sally McKenzie
May 2023

Staff Nurse
AANS
No 7 Base Hospital
3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital
1st Australian General Hospital

Born 1889 at Sydney, NSW
Daughter of Charles and Adelaide Mary BAILEY
Of Cable Station, Southport, Qld.
Occupation prior to enlistment Nurse
Aged 26 years
Enlisted 03 June 1915
Embarked 16 June 1915 from Sydney per 'Karoola'
Served in Egypt, London and France
Resigned as consequence of marriage in UK 14 December 1918
Married 14 December 1918 in England to John Bernard Francis McKenzie who was a Captain in the Australian Medical Corps WW1.