Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Ada Evaline Huon was the youngest daughter of John Francis and Sabina Jane Huon. Completing three years of nurse training at the Melbourne Children's Hospital, Ada passed her final Royal Victorian Trained Nurses Association examination in May 1917. On the 11th July 1917, just days after her 25th birthday, Ada enlisted in the A.I.F. as part of the A.A.M.C. reinforcements. Her application showing she already belonged to the A.A.N.S..

Ada's war wasn't going to be in England or at the front in France, but rather in India, where there was a desperate need of skilled medical personnel. Sailing from Melbourne in early September, Ada arrived in Bombay on the 6th October 1917. Unbeknownst to Ada, her eldest brother, Charles Denbigh Huon (/explore/people/284451), had been killed in action at Broodseinde Ridge, Belgium, just two days earlier.

The first two weeks in Bombay were spent at the Colaba War Hospital, which mainly treated patients from the British garrisons. She was then transferred to the Alexandra War Hospital for four months, celebrating Christmas and New Years (1918) with staff and patients. Simple festive decorations adorned the wards, lifting everyone's spirits. 

In February 1918, Ada was transferred to the Victoria War Hospital.       Situated close to the Bombay docks in a four storey railway office building, the hospital received the most serious case from Mesopotamia. The first three floors each held two hundred hospital beds, with the top floor being the Sister's quarters.

Nurses had been told before leaving Australia they would only serve six months in India before being moved closer to the fighting. On this understanding, Ada may well have been disappointed to be transferred to yet another Indian hospital, the Station Hospital Ahmednagar, in August.  However, the publication in the Melbourne newspaper, Punch,  of Ada and Frank Macaskie's engagement notice on the 1st August 1918 suggests otherwise.

Ada celebrated another Christmas and saw in the 1919 New Year on the subcontinent. In March, Ada resigned from her A.I.F. appointment, "...with the approval of Principal Matron Miss G. Davis, A.A.N.S., the resignation of Staff Nurse Miss A.E. Huon, A.A.N.S., has been recorded with effect from 30th March 1919, on account of her marriage with Captain Macaskie R.A.M.C." Ada and Frank were married the following day in Ahmednagar, Bombay, India.

The couple returned to England, settling in Northumberland, Frank's home county. In September 1920, they celebrated the birth of Frank Huon Macaskie (www.cwgc.org). Little did they know that twenty two years later their son would die serving in WW2. The inscription on his grave being, "AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING WE WILL REMEMBER THEM".

Staff Nurse Ada Evaline Huon's WW1 service, along with that of her three brothers, is remembered on the Kiewa RSL Honour Roll (Yackandandah Shire) and the City of Caulfield Honour Roll (First World War) (North Wall) (Part B).