Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Jessie Ross Gemmell (1870-1955)

RRC (1st Class)

Jessie Ross Gemmell was one of nine children born to William Gemmell (1834–1903) and his wife Annie née Fenwick (c1839–1878).

Both William and Annie were Scottish immigrants to the colony of Victoria in the gold rush decade of the 1850s. Annie likely came with her brother Peter, a plasterer who took up residence in Carlton, and other members of the Fenwick family from Perthshire. William’s route to Victoria is less clear, not least because there were numerous Scottish Gemmells in the colony.

The couple married at Castlemaine in 1858, with a notice in the paper to announce the fact (Argus, 7.7.1858, p4). William and Annie may have known each other in Glasgow, or they may have been drawn together in the colony by their common heritage. William was 24, and a gold miner in the Forest Creek diggings near Castlemaine. Forest Creek (site of early gold discoveries and officially named Chewton from 1856) was a settlement of over 3,300 in 1861. William was very successful: the Gemmell and Co mine at Victoria Reef produced a considerable amount of gold in the late 1850 and early 1860s.

The place of registration of the births of their first three children indicates that from 1858 to the mid 1860s, the Gemmells lived in the Castlemaine–Bendigo area. The births of the next six children, born between 1867 and 1876, were registered in Melbourne or nearby Collingwood. Municipal directories show the family lived in Carlton, then East Melbourne (corner of Powlett St and Wellington Parade) and from the mid 1870s in Regent St, Fitzroy, where Annie died in 1878. She left at least eight children, the eldest 19 and the youngest no more than 2. Jessie was the fifth child and aged 8 when her mother died.

William’s eldest daughter(s) may well have raised the younger children with domestic assistance.

Gemmell maintained an active involvement in the mining industry in the Bendigo area. In the mid 1880s, his occupation was (explosive) powder manufacturer and he was living again in Sandhurst (Bendigo). In the late 1880s he became licensee and manager of Arblaster’s Powder Factory in Eaglehawk, a dangerous establishment plagued by accidents. He himself was severely burnt in an explosion at the factory in 1891, and spent some time recuperating at the home of Bendigo’s resident surgeon, Dr Archibald Colquhoun, who was his son-law (Bendigo Advertiser, 28.3.1891, p5, 29.4.1891, p2).

Gemmell’s eldest daughter Jane (Jeannie) had married Edinburgh born and trained Dr Colquhoun in 1883. Colquhoun had pioneered training nurses at the Bendigo Hospital in the 1880s, a scheme that had generated considerable interest from local ‘ladies’ as well as benefit to the community (Argus, 1.2.1887, p7; Bendigo Advertiser, 11.11.1892, p3). The scheme was based on the training at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital (Yolande Collins and Sandra Kippen, Aprons and Arches: A History of Bendigo Hospital Trained Nurses 1883–1989, 1998). He died prematurely in 1892 aged 42, but the scheme continued.

Jeannie’s sister Elizabeth had married Charles Edward McEvoy, a successful Melbourne financier, in 1884. Mrs C E McEvoy appeared regularly in the social columns of the press, with items about her home, her extended trips to England, and the balls and dances she hosted and attended. Her sisters Jessie and Ida were often present in the company that often included the governor. Their couture was usually described in detail (e.g. Table Talk, 13.12.1895, p11, 20.8.1897, p11).

The decision by Jessie and Ida to train as nurses was noted therefore with interest.

Two pretty girls – Miss Jessie and Miss Ida Gemmell – have renounced the gaieties of social life for the nursing vocation, and last month entered upon their course at the Alfred Hospital ­– an institution already noted for the unusual comeliness of its nurses. The latest recruits hail from Bendigo, and are exceptionally well educated, intellectual young ladies, whose many graces remind one of Coventry Pamore’s The Angel in the House. (Table Talk, 25.3.1898, p13).

Their names disappeared from the social scene. Jessie completed her training at the Alfred in 1901, Ida hers at the Women’s Hospital in 1902. Both registered with the then Victorian Trained Nurses Association in 1901 and 1903 respectively.

When war broke out 1914, Jessie was living in Prahran near the Alfred Hospital, and presumably nursing there.

War Service

Jessie applied to join the Australian Army Nursing Service in August 1915. Born in 1870, she was 45 – over the limit for the AANS – but she shaved five years off her age and declared it to be 40. She cited 17 years nursing experience including gynaecological nursing, private hospitals and the army’s Base Hospital in Melbourne.

Gemmell was appointed to the rank of Sister in June 1915.

She had already nursed troops for the front and the first wounded returning from the front at the Base Hospital (Australasian, 24.7.1915, p29; Service Record). That and the enlistment of her nephew Keith may have been the catalysts for her application to the AANS. Keith, the doctor son of her sister Jeannie and the late Dr Archibald Colquhoun, was among Australian doctors selected in early 1915 for the (British) Royal Army Medical Corps stationed on the Western Front, and had left Australia in March 1915.

None of Jessie’s seven surviving siblings enlisted.

She listed as her next of kin her sister Elizabeth, Mrs Charles McEvoy, of Cliveden Mansions, Wellington Parade, East Melbourne.

Gemmell left Melbourne on RMS Morea on 24 August 1915 with medical personnel for the new No 10 Australian General Hospital. The contingent reached England in early October, where it ‘was to have been completed’; instead it was ‘broken up’ and its 58 nurses dispersed to British hospitals in Epsom, Wandsworth and elsewhere (Butler, AG, Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services, 1914–1918, Volume III, p538).

The fate of No 10 Hospital and the under-utilisation of its Australian nurses was the subject of widespread press reports in Australia (e.g. Argus, 21.10.1915, p7). Nurses sent from 1 AGH in Egypt for No 10 reportedly had no work to do for six weeks; presumably Gemmell and the newly arrived contingent were in a similar situation. In late November, Gemmell was sent to the Queen Mary Military Hospital in Whalley, Lancashire.

Where and by whom Australian troops were to be treated – in British hospitals or Australian-run facilities – was a contentious political topic and an administrative nightmare from 1915. The establishment of Australian Auxiliary Hospitals with Australian personnel caring for Australian troop was part of the solution.

Shortly before Christmas 1915, Gemmell was transferred to No 1 Australian Auxiliary Hospital in Harefield Park, London. 1AAH had opened earlier in 1915, using buildings and grounds lent by the Australian Charles Billyard-Leake, and it had expanded rapidly under pressure of casualties from the Dardanelles campaign. Gemmell joined an establishment that included nearly 20 medical officers and almost 60 (Australian) nurses, caring for around 500 patients.

Gemmell spent a year at 1AAH. The brief history of the unit at this time in its official war diary showed that the number of patients doubled to around 1000 with the influx of patients from France from June 1916, necessitating sixteen new wards (AWM4 26/72/1). The hospital was well-resourced by the Red Cross, and hosted a procession of political leaders during Gemmell’s time there, including Prime Minister W M Hughes and Australian High Commissioner Andrew Fisher.

During Gemmell’s time there, both 1AAH and it seems she herself were caught up in the controversy around the medical treatment of Australian soldiers. The inadequacy of the meat rations for recuperating Australian fighting men had been raised in the press in mid 1915 (e.g. Argus, 1.9.1915, p7). Months later, a journalist launched a scathing attack on hospital arrangements for Australian troops in the British Australasian (a newspaper for Australians in Britain) which was widely reproduced in Australian papers (e.g. Daily Herald, 13.3.16, p8). His criticisms included the design of and administration at 1AAH. High Commissioner Fisher investigated and visited 1AAH several times, on one occasion receiving a statement from the patients about their satisfaction with arrangements and on another accompanying Prime Minister Hughes.

Gemmell’s service record contains two intriguing references relating to her time at 1AAH: ‘Jan [1916] Frequent complaints about treatment and requests for removal. 19.2.16 Instructed Matron to inquire into complaints.’ It is not clear if the complaints were about Gemmell or made by her. The only controversy mentioned in the 1AAH war diary for January 1916 concerned a complaint by ‘certain ladies’ about patient rations and diets which investigation had shown to be ‘unfounded’. Gemmell may have taken sides on either the rationing or the administrative issues. Whatever Gemmell’s concerns and Matron Ethel Gray’s response to her apparent instruction, she remained at 1AAH until late 1916 when she returned to Australia on transport duty on the Wiltshire.

Gemmell disembarked in Melbourne on New Year’s Eve 1916. Her service record shows her appointment in the AIF was terminated a fortnight later – apparently without her express approval as her service record file shows.

Gemmell was then sent to No 11 Australian General Hospital in Caulfield where she nursed injured troops repatriated from England, work similar in many ways to that at 1AAH.

In July 1917 at the age of 47 Gemmell re-enlisted for active service, and was quickly appointed to the rank of matron. This time she named her brother William Bruce Gemmell of Jolimont Square, Jolimont as next of kin. She sailed from Sydney, once again on the Wiltshire, in charge of 60 nurses comprising the last of four units destined for Salonika under the overall command of Matron Jessie McHardie White who had sailed a month earlier on RMS Mooltan.

McHardie White’s matrons and nurses on the Mooltan had reached Salonika via Egypt in July 1917. By the time Gemmell and her nurses reached Egypt that October, the war situation had changed with a major offensive on the Sinai Peninsula. Her nurses were distributed to several British hospitals in Cairo, and Gemmell herself was appointed assistant matron of the 70th [British] General Hospital. A furious McHardie White demanded an explanation, which met with a polite and firm response from Gemmell (see Rupert Goodman, Our War Nurses: The History of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps 1902–1988, pp90-91).

Gemmell spent eight months at the 70th General Hospital, a large British hospital (1800 beds) near Cairo that dealt with severe casualties. She wrote regularly to the Matron-in-Chief, AANS in Melbourne. Published extracts (Goodman, Our War Nurses, pp91-93) show her loneliness (she was the only Australian on the staff, and had had almost no mail from Australia in four months), having to adapt to nursing in extremes cold and extreme heat, and her view of the high expectations on nurses in British hospitals.  Although she initially described herself as a ‘junior and inexperienced Matron’ she was mentioned in despatches for her distinguished services there.

Her hope not to go to Salonika where McHardie White was Principal Matron was realised. Many nurses from her original unit did but she herself remained in Cairo, going to the 31st General Hospital in June 1918. This was a large hospital in an imposing building which treated patients with a range of illnesses including malaria. While the nurses were Australian, among British medical officers was Dr Margaret Bernard Dobson who had seen service as a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps since 1916 (http://www.maltaramc.com/ladydoc/d/dobsonmb.html; AWM P03644.001).

Gemmell was at that hospital when the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918. At the end of 1918, she was assigned to the 45th Indian General Hospital in the same location but within a few weeks she was ill. Diagnosed with ‘debility consequent on pressure of work on service in a hot climate and a recent attack of influenza’, she was invalided to England, hospitalized for ten days in the Australian Sick Sisters’ Hospital in Southwell Gardens, London and then granted leave.

Matron Jessie Gemmell returned to Australia on the troop transport SS Plassy in charge of the nursing sisters on board. The Plassy, which carried around 1000 repatriated troops including invalids, arrived in Melbourne at the end of April 1919 and was greeted by the Governor General (Argus, 1.5.1919, p7).

Matron Gemmell was discharged from the AANS on 27 September 1919.

She was awarded the Royal Red Cross (1st Class) for her service in Egypt.  

After the War

On her return, Gemmell stayed at the Army Nurses Club in the Grand Hotel, Spring St, Melbourne (later the Windsor Hotel). In 1920, she was matron of the Church of England Girls Grammar School at Geelong (‘The Hermitage’). She then movd to Geelong Grammar School where she was matron of Perry House in the 1920s:

While-haired, fair skinned Miss Jessie Gemmell ... looked like a ghost in her white uniform and square muslin cap. Tall, formal and snobbish, she hated menial tasks. Because gloves were not enough protection when sorting unsavoury handkerchiefs and filthy football socks for the laundry, she used a pair of fire-tongs to sort them into appropriate bins. (Weston Bate, Light Blue Down Under: The History of Geelong Grammar School, 1990, p372).

In 1921, Gemmell suffered the indignity of having her 1914-15 Star withdrawn (Gemmell, Service Record). This British campaign medal, awarded for service in a theatre of war between August 1914 and December 1915, had been presented to her in a public ceremony in Geelong. A subsequent check by army authorities deemed her ineligible ­– the unstated explanation being that she had served only in England. Protestations by the Returned Sailors Soldiers and Airmen’s League had no effect:

It is regrettable that no alteration can be made. Matron Gemmell is not eligible for the award … Matron Gemmell has returned the award, but even if allowed to retain it she could not legitimately wear the ribbon, and in any case I doubt whether she would desire to wear something which she had not earned and to which she had no right. (Gemmell, Service Record).

She did however have the Royal Red Cross (1st Class) and the oak leaves signifying Mentioned in Despatches, as well as the British War Medal and the Victory Medal.

Gemmell faced intermittent ill-health from the mid 1920s. A small pension from the Repatriation Department (14/- to 16/- in the 1920s, rising to £1/5/- in the 1930s and early 1940s) indicated some problems at least were war-related (Jessier Gemmell, Application, Edith Cavell Trust Fund, M291 NAA). She applied to the Edith Cavell Trust Fund which assisted sick and needy army nurses six times between 1919 and 1943, ususually citing the need for a rest following surgery or illness. They generally granted her £15 each time. 

From 1931 onwards, Gemmell gave her occupation as home duties having retired at or before the age of 60. Her address changed a number of times, suggesting she rented a flat. She did not live with her single sisters Anne and Ida or other members of the Gemmell family.

Jessie Ross Gemmell died at Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, Melbourne on 22 November 1955 aged 85. She was cremated at the Springvale Crematorium.

Jessie Gemmell featured in the East Melbourne Historical Society's 2015 exhibition, 'Gone to War as Sister: East Melbourne Nurses in the Great War'. Her panel can be seen at Jessie Gemmell - exhibition panel 5

This essay was originally published on the East Melbourne Historical Society website, emhs.org.au