Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Father  Herman Strom (Master Mariner) and Mother  Mary Eadington Rule Strom (née Pyott)
they had met and married in England in 1886 and migrated to Australia shortly thereafter,
then lived at Netherlands, Rydalmere, NSW

Siblings:  Sister

Christine began training as a nurse at the Royal Melbourne Hospital in 1913.
By 1917 she had become an experienced nurse .

Described on enlisting as 25 years old; single; Unitarian

12/4/1917       Enlisted in Melbourne, Victoria
                       with the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) as a Staff Nurse

12/6/1917       the 25-year-old, along with nearly one hundred other nurses, embarked from Melbourne
                       on board the steamer RMS Mooltan, bound for Egypt.
19/7/1917       Disembarked into Suez Egypt

Christine quickly found she had not inherited her father’s sea legs and her journey was marred by bouts of seasickness.

On board she grew closer to her fellow nurses, including three whom she would grow particularly close to over the coming years:- Ellen Christine Melville, Norma Noham Scott and Constance Adelaide Horwood.

The RMS Mooltan stopped at several ports on its journey to Egypt, and Nurse Strom and her friends took these opportunities to experience each destination, which included Colombo, Bombay and Aden.

25/7/1917       After arriving in Egypt the nurses were sent to Salonika in Greece
                       to serve with the British military tent hospitals
                       embarking on board  Charges, ex Port Said, Egypt

Strom was assigned to the 66th (British) General Hospital.

Once there she took up her role with vigour.
She had been keeping a diary since her embarkation from Australia and continued to make detailed entries that encapsulated daily life as a nurse at Salonika and the often difficult conditions under which the nurses served.

Strom set about furnishing the tent that she shared with Horwood and Scott, gradually making it more homely.

September 1917, Horwood and Scott were transferred, and whilst Strom initially found it strange without the two, her good friend and fellow nurse Melville still remained and she would periodically arrange to catch up with them.

November 1917 the 66th was evacuated and Strom, along with Melville, was transferred to the 42nd (British) General Hospital.

The extreme heat and malaria of the summer months and the extreme cold and pneumonia of the winter months had been affecting soldiers and nurses alike. Despite the often challenging conditions, Strom continued to find the humour in many things, in one particular case about the ration biscuits which she posited had the letter “B” stamped on them so as not to mistake them for the local rocks, hard as they were.

Through it all she maintained a strong sense of duty and attachment to the British soldiers under her care, and on more than one occasion was reprimanded by her British superiors for growing too close to her charges.

By the later stages of 1918 the conditions at the 42nd had deteriorated markedly and the hospital was overwhelmed with sick soldiers.

The nurses were also susceptible and the death of staff nurse Gertrude Evelyn Munro in September 1918 from pneumonia and malaria hit Strom and the other nurses hard.

Fortunately, for the soldiers and nurses alike, the war ended soon after and in January 1919 Strom and the other nurses were sent to England where Strom was attached to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital at Dartford.

16/4/1919      Whilst in England she took the opportunity of leave, to travel around the UK.
15/6/1919      returned from leave

17/7/1919      embarked from England on board  Rugia
11/9/1919      arriving back in Australia

21/2/1920      officially discharged

Medals:
British War medal (66080) and Victory medal (63627)

8/9/1924        married Walter Bonwick who had served as an infantryman during the war
                      at Armadale in Victoria

In her later years  Christine  regularly travelled overseas to give nursing assistance at various
Save the Children Fund camps.

She also continued to write poetry, which was published in various newspapers and also
compiled into books which were then sold to raise money for the Fund.

31/5/1937      noted as living at 12 Loch Street, Surrey Hills, Victoria

1984              Christine Erica Bonwick (nee Strom) passed away
                      at Mont Albert, Victoria (91 years old).

Sourced and submitted by Julianne T Ryan.  30/11/2014.  Lest we forget.