Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Awarded the Royal Red Cross First and Second Class, the French Medaille Des Epidemies (Gold), and twice Mentioned in Despatches.

Daughter of James Keys and Margaret Pelham

Married Lionel Hugh Kemp-Pennefather in 1921

#OTD in 1914 Constance Mabel Keys enlisted as a nurse with the Australian Imperial Forces. Sister Keys served in Egypt, nursing Gallipoli wounded at the 1st Australian General Hospital in Cairo. In 1917 she travelled from England to France where she served as Head Sister of a casualty clearing station. For most of 1918 Constance was never far from the danger of the front lines, constantly shifting with the casualty clearing station to treat the wounded from the front and to avoid German shelling. In early March 1919 she returned to England where she served at the 1st Australian General Hospital at Sutton Veny in Wiltshire, nursing Australian troops waiting to return to Australia. She returned to Australia in November of that year.

Sister Keys was one of the most highly decorated Australian nurses to serve during the war. She was twice mentioned in despatches, received the Royal Red Cross, second class in 1916 and first class in 1919, and was awarded the Medaille des Epidemies from the French government in recognition of her work in nursing French troops and civilians. After returning to Queensland she became Matron of a convalescent hospital for returned soldiers at Mount Gravatt, Brisbane, where she met her future husband, Lionel Hugh Kemp Pennefather, a Gallipoli veteran, who was in charge of the farm section at the hospital. The couple married on 3 December 1921 and had two children.

Learn more about her remarkable wartime experiences in this digital story: http://ow.ly/13Od50FVCua (ow.ly)

Courtesy State Library of Queensland, Studio portrait of Constance Keys taken while she was working at 1AGH, Sutton Veny, England, State Library of Queensland, 30674 Constance Mabel Keys Collection, c.1919. 

Constance Mabel Keys (1886-1964) was born in Mount Perry, Queensland, being one of ten children of James Keys, a teacher with the Queensland Department of Education, and his wife, Margaret, nee Pelham. The family moved to Brisbane when Constance was a young girl, living at Galloway's Hill, Norman Park. Constance trained at the Brisbane General Hospital and enlisted as a staff nurse with the Australian Army Nursing Service on 21 September 1914. On 23 September 1914 she boarded the troopship 'Omrah' and was one of the first four Queensland nurses to embark for the First World War. Upon arrival in Egypt she served at the 1st Australian General Hospital in Heliopolis where she cared for casualties from Gallipoli. On 3 December 1915 she served on the hospital ship 'Themistocles' caring for the Gallipoli wounded returning to Australia. While back in Australia her father, James Keys, who had been suffering with ill health, died in her arms on 26 January 1916.
Constance returned to Egypt in March 1916 where she briefly joined the 3rd Australian General Hospital in Abbassia. She was transferred to England in early October where she worked at Kitchener's Hospital in Brighton, before being made Sister in Charge of the Hospital for Australian Military Nurses in South Kensington, London, in June 1917. On 15 November 1917 she was transferred to the 3rd Australian General Hospital at Abbeville, France, and on 9 February 1918 she went to the front lines as Sister in Charge of the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station at Trois Arbres near Bailleul. For most of 1918 Constance was never far from the danger of the front lines, constantly shifting with the casualty clearing station to treat the wounded from the front and to avoid German shelling. In early March 1919 she returned to England where she served at the 1st Australian General Hospital at Sutton Veny in Wiltshire, nursing Australian troops waiting to return to Australia. She returned to Australia in November of that year.
Sister Keys was one of the most highly decorated Australian nurses to serve during the war. She was twice mentioned in despatches, received the Royal Red Cross, second class in 1916 and first class in 1919, and was awarded the Medaille des Epidemies from the French government in recognition of her work in nursing French troops and civilians. After returning to Queensland she became Matron of a convalescent hospital for returned soldiers at Mount Gravatt, Brisbane, where she met her future husband, Lionel Hugh Kemp Pennefather, a Gallipoli veteran, who was in charge of the farm section at the hospital. The couple married on 3 December 1921 and had two children. They lived in Brisbane before moving to Southport, Queensland, in the 1950s. Constance died on 17 March 1964.