Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Florence Narrelle Jessie HOBBES (known as Narrelle) was born in Merriwinga, Tilba Tilba on the South Coast of NSW on 21st August, 1878

Her parents were John Thomas HOBBES & Margaret Ann GOLDIE who married in 1863 (registered in Kiama, NSW) Her father John was born in Limehouse in London & her mother Margaret was born in West Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland

She started her training as a nurse in 1903 at the age of 24.  After passing her exams in 1910 she began nursing in Cobar before moving to the Brewarrina District Hospital where she was working when war broke out

Determined to serve in an active capacity during the war, she embarked at Sydney for London on 20th February, 1915

On arrival in London in April, her preference was to enlist with the Queen Alexandras Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR).  After being accepted she then went to Malta by the end of May and began nursing casualties from the Gallipoli campaign in the Valletta Military Hospital

In August 1915 she was promoted to be in charge of St Davids Tent hospital in Malta.  At the end of November she was transferred to Sicily and worked at the Excelsior Palace Hotel Hospital.  After the hospital closed in March 1916 she returned to Malta briefly before being posted to No. 22 British Stationary Hospital which was to be stationed in Mesopotamia (Iraq).  

Leaving Malta on 15th May, 1916 her journey took her via India.  She arrived in Bombay (Mumbai) at the beginning of June, 1916 but adverse weather conditions in Mesopotamia delayed her forward journey.  She worked in the Victoria War Hospital whilst waiting to move on to Mesopotamia, eventually arriving in Basra in late August/early September, 1916

In October, she moved north from Basra on the Tigris River to Amara, where she was allocated to No. 32 British General Hospital

Having been on active service without leave for two years she fell ill in June 1917 and was moved to the Colaba War Hospital near Bombay.  After recovering sufficiently she was granted sick eave and chose to recover at the small hill station Binsar, in the foothills of the Indian Himalayas.  Still not fully recovered or diagnosed she was moved to Almora in November, 1917

By the end of January 1918 she was moved to Meerut to be examined by a surgeon who sent her on to Bombay for specialist treatment even though she had still not been diagnosed.  She arrived back at Colaba War Hospital in mid February.

At the time her sister Elsie was sent by her family to ascertain her wellbeing arriving in India in March 1918, Elise was told that her sister was dying from advanced liver cancer.  By April, 1918 they were both on a ship bound for Australia and on 10th May, four days out from Fremantle she died and was buried at sea after a simple funeral service

commemorated on the Basra Memorial in Iraq (Panel 43)

                             NEVER FORGOTTEN

Florence was a Nurse with Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service
of the British Army

WWI  was the first test of the fledgling Army nursing services of Australia and New Zealand.

For the first time nurses were part of dedicated army services—The Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) and the New Zealand Army Nursing Service (NZANS).

The declaration of war brought an immediate surge of volunteers among trained nurses keen to serve their country, however, waiting lists were so long for overseas postings that at least 130 Australian nurses chose to sail to England to join Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Army Nursing Service.

To be accepted into the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) a nurse had to have completed at least 3 years training in an approved hospital, be aged between 21 and 40, and be either single or widowed.

Sister Narrelle Hobbs, was with Australian forces at Gallipoli. She wrote:

I've been a soldier now for nearly three years, and please God I will go right to the end ... if anything happened, and I too passed out, well, there would be no finer way, and no way in which I would be happier, than to lay down one's life for the men who have given everything.

She died five months later, 10/5/1918 of a hepatic tumour, on board HMAS Kanowna in the Indian Ocean.

Her name is memorialised on the Basra Memorial, Basra, Iraq

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