Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Pearl was born on 3 November in 1884 at “Walton” House at The Gap, to Eliza and Jesse Paten. She was one of 10 children, four girls and 6 boys. Her father Jesse Paten was a self-made man who had immigrated from Britian to Australia with his father in 1958. He became a successful farmer, businessman and pioneer in local government. At one point the family owned more than 500 acres of land at The Gap. Pearl was educated at Girls Grammer School and Brisbane High School. She and her sisters all had active social lives and successful careers. Her eldest sister May was a writer with several books and short stories to her credit, as well as being actively involved in charitable work. Winfred the youngest daughter became Queensland's first graduate female barrister. As for Pearl and her sister Eunice, they both had careers as medical professionals, one as a nurse and the other a masseuse.

In 1902 Pearl successfully completed her entrance exams for the University of Sydney where she would study massage. At the time this was one of the only places in Australia where you could study massage. Following her education, she returned to Brisbane where she worked for several years as a masseuse, including at a medical clinic in George Street. She was also an active member of the Australian Massage Association (AMA). 

When WWI was officially declared the Paten siblings responded to the call for volunteers. Eunice was one of the first four Queensland nurses to be deployed overseas, stationed at Alexandria treating the wounded from Gallipoli and then transferred to the Western Front.  At the end of the war, Sister Paten was awarded the Royal Red Cross (2nd Class).   

Edward, the youngest Paten child, enlisted on 13 December 1915 and served with the 49th Battalion. Sadly, he was killed in action in July 1917. According to his Red Cross file Edward, who was a machine gunner, was killed by a “direct hit from a shell” near Ploug Street at Warneton, Belgium. He was only 21 years old. 

Meanwhile on the Homefront, May Paten served as a member of the Royal Australian Automobile Club of Queensland Transport Corps for returned soldiers. Members of this unit played an instrumental role transporting return soldiers, often injured, from railway stations and ports to hospitals, camps or private residences.  

Like her sister May, most of Pearl’s wartime service was on the Homefront in Queensland military hospitals. In November 1915 Pearl was one of the first individuals to join the newly formed Australian Army Massage Reserve (AAMR). From the start of the conflict, the AMA advocated massage therapy as a treatment for war-related injuries and illnesses, including shell shock. It was this relentless campaigning that resulted in the formation of the AAMR, which initially consisting of 102 men and women in Australia. The AAMR recruited professional masseuses who worked with the AIF to provide physical therapy to returned soldiers on the Homefront. An additional six men and 12 women were then deployed to Australian hospitals in Egypt and England. This number soon doubled, with masseuses also accompanying hospital ships repatriating men who were deemed to be medically unfit. It was common for masseuses to treat between thirty to forty cases a day. By the end of the war there was an additional 103 massage practitioners attached to the staff at various military hospitals across Australia. 

Pearl worked at Queensland military hospitals from 1915 to 1918 using her skills to help wounded soldiers recover from injuries. Female masseuses, like Pearl, had to carefully navigate inappropriate romantic advances from patients, wounded soldiers in emotional and physical distress, and power struggles with reluctant patients, who were often unfamiliar with the practice of physiotherapy. The work of masseuses was often physically strenuous, with treatments including manipulating muscles, hot baths and electrotherapy. These treatments were also physically intimate, often requiring the therapist’s hand on exposed skin. At the beginning of the war there was major concerns raised about female masseuses touching men as part of treatments, which was seen by many to be socially improper. Initially many military hospitals were reluctant to take on female masseuses for this reason, preferring male therapists. This mentality changed as the war progressed, with women like Pearl given the opportunity not only to promote the profession, but show they were more than capable of providing treatment to the wounded. 

In late 1918, after WWI had officially end, Pearl was deployed overseas and stationed at the 14th Australian General Hospital in Egypt. The workload for masseuses did not lessen with the war being over, in some cases it increased due to the number of soldiers being repatriated home who required ongoing treatment. Pearl nursed in Egypt from 28 November 1918 to 25 December 1918, while awaiting the arrival of an invalid transport ship, HMAT Nestor. It appears that the main purpose for her overseas deployment was to accompany the Nestor back to Australia, acting as the masseuse on board. Travel time between Egypt and Australia was often lengthy, so instead of delaying rehab of soldiers, masseuses accompanied transport ships and continued their nursing services aboard. Pearl was also reunited with her sister Eunice, who was the sister-in-charge aboard the Nestor. When the ship arrived back in Brisbane, they both underwent a period of quarantine at Lytton, due to the outbreak of Spanish Flu. 

Following the war, Pearl was appointed as the head masseuse at Rosemount Military Hospital at Windsor, Queensland. Originally an Infectious Disease Hospital, Rosemount closed in 1917 and reopened specialising in the rehabilitation of orthopedic and spinal injuries with massage, physiotherapy and amputation. Sadly, the hospital was never large enough to cater for demand following the war. This made Pearl’s job particularly difficult, with her department understaffed and her ward not fully completed until the end of 1919 (after they had already begun admitting patients). One outraged patient wrote to the editor of the Daily Mail in June 1919, stating:  

“At present patients are being massaged on the veranda, which is exposed to all weather and conditions. The unsatisfactory part of this particular department is the staff. At present time it is just because of the love she has for her maimed “diggers” and her devotion to duty that the head masseur, Miss Paten, is able to carry on.” 

Rosemount was the main military hospital those requiring rehabilitation and could have upwards of 250 patients, many requiring daily massage. With only 10 masseuses, three staff-sergeants and one orderly it was simply impossible for the massage team to care for their patient load. Over the following months this was the topic of much media attention, labelled “disgrace to State”, due to the unfinished facilities and the overworked and underpaid staff. By the end of 1919 a new orthopedic wing had been opened with a specialised massage ward and new staff hired. Pearl’s story is a reminder that for many medical professionals their work did not finish in 1918 but continued as they cared for and assisted in the rehabilitation of so many wounded soldiers.  

In 1923 Pearl married Captain Charles William Scott French, who had served with the 41st Infantry Battalion during the war. They were likely introduced by Pearl’s sister Eunice, who seems to have met Charles while serving overseas. Following the war, Charles wrote to officials on Eunice’s behalf asking them to follow up on her Red Cross Medal, which had yet to be issued. Pearl and Charles built their home “Tula” on the same property as her childhood home Walton. Both led very active social lives, with Charles the president for the 41st Battalion Association (likely involved in the install of the 41st Honour Roll at Anzac Square Memorial Galleries). Meanwhile Pearl was actively involved in the Australian Masseuses Association, as well as an association for Queensland War Nurses. Her story is a reminder of the varied roles that women played during the war, as well as how the conflict brought wider public attention to the role of masseuses, enabling their profession to be accepted as a legitimate medical treatment.  

State Library of Queensland by Alice Rawkins, Anzac Square Memorial Galleries (www.slq.qld.gov.au)