MATHER, Ellen Katherine Dugdale
| Service Number: | Staff Nurse |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 29 August 1917, Keswick, South Australia |
| Last Rank: | Staff Nurse |
| Last Unit: | Australian Army Nursing Service (WW1) |
| Born: | Mern Merna Station, Hawker, South Australia, 9 April 1892 |
| Home Town: | Mount Gambier, Mount Gambier, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Mount Gambier High School |
| Occupation: | Nurse |
| Died: | Port Augusta, South Australia, 27 March 1958, aged 65 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Port Augusta Carlton Parade Cemetery Roman Catholic, Plot 1 |
| Memorials: | Keswick South Australian Army Nurses Roll of Honor, Mount Gambier High School Great War Roll of Honor, Parachilna & Region Honour Roll |
World War 1 Service
| 29 Aug 1917: | Enlisted Australian Army Nursing Service (WW1), Staff Nurse, Staff Nurse, Australian Army Nursing Service (WW1), Keswick, South Australia | |
|---|---|---|
| 16 Nov 1917: | Involvement Australian Army Nursing Service (WW1), --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '23' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: SS Canberra embarkation_ship_number: '' public_note: '' | |
| 16 Nov 1917: | Embarked Australian Army Nursing Service (WW1), SS Canberra, Sydney | |
| 27 Nov 1919: | Discharged Australian Army Nursing Service (WW1), Staff Nurse |
Help us honour Ellen Katherine Dugdale Mather's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Graeme Roulstone
Ellen Katherine Dugdale Mather was born at Hawker, SA, on 9 April 1892. Her father, James John Mather, railway ganger of Wehl Street, Mount Gambier, enrolled her at Mount Gambier High School in December 1906. She left the school on 20 December 1907,293 completed three years nursing training at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital and continued to work there before enlisting in the Australian Military Forces on 30 August 1917, naming her mother, Mrs Ellen Mather of Wehl Street, Mount Gambier, as her next of kin. On 8 November she transferred to the Australian Imperial Force as a member of the AANS and embarked as a staff nurse from Adelaide on the SS ‘Canberra’ on 14 November.
She disembarked at Bombay (Mumbai) on 11 December and was held in quarantine until 9 January 1918, when she was posted to the King George Hospital at Poona. She was treated for a bout of malaria in mid-March, for which she suffered recurrent attacks. She was transferred, first to the British General Hospital at Rawalpindi on 1 July 1919, and then the 43rd Indian General Hospital at Dera Ismail Khan a fortnight later.
In late September she was transferred to Bombay where she embarked on the ‘Plassy’ on 1 October 1919 for return to Australia. She suffered from an attack of influenza for several days during the return voyage, before disembarking in Adelaide on 23 October. She was discharged ‘medically unfit’ on 27 November 1919.
Published in Ours: the origins and early years of Mount Gambier High School and Old Scholars who served in the Great European War by Graeme Roulstone
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