RIDGWAY, Doris Alice
| Service Number: | Staff Nurse |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 21 December 1918 |
| Last Rank: | Staff Nurse |
| Last Unit: | Australian Army Nursing Service (WW1) |
| Born: | Salter's Springs, South Australia, Australia, 13 November 1891 |
| Home Town: | Cookes Plains, The Coorong, South Australia |
| Schooling: | Sturt Street Public School, Adelaide High School, South Australia, |
| Occupation: | Nurse |
| Died: | Pneumonic Influenza , Woodman Quarantine Station, Western Australia, Australia, 6 January 1919, aged 27 years |
| Cemetery: |
Perth War Cemetery and Annex, Western Australia NC1. 7. |
| Memorials: | Adelaide High School Great War Honour Board, Adelaide National War Memorial, Australian Military Nurses Memorial, Coogee "Boonah" Tragedy Memorial, Cooke Plains Honour Roll, Cooke Plains WW1 Soldiers Memorial Hall, Kapunda Dutton Park Memorial Bullwinkel Memorial, Maryborough Nurses Honour Board, Melbourne St. Paul's Cathedral Australian Army Nursing Service Great War Roll of Honour |
World War 1 Service
| 21 Dec 1918: | Enlisted Australian Army Nursing Service (WW1), Staff Nurse, Staff Nurse , Australian Army Nursing Service (WW1) | |
|---|---|---|
| Date unknown: | Involvement |
Friends of Woodman Point Recreation Camp Inc
For nearly 25 years, volunteers have been assisting the government of Western Australia in its efforts to preserve and interpret the former quarantine station (now recreation camp) at Woodman Point, Western Australia. Friends’ volunteers are mainly driven by a passion for the site’s social history and want to celebrate the bravery of carers and to commemorate the dreadful loss of life of sufferers. Through guided walks, museum displays, academic theses, books, podcasts, publications, signage and social media, their mission is for others to understand how the station operated and how society functioned in dealing with quarantine.
Twenty-seven-year-old Doris Ridgway was one of four nurses who died at Woodman Point while caring for troops infected with Spanish Flu: Ada Thompson (33 years); Rosa O'Kane (28 years), and civilian nurse, Hilda Williams (26 years). Doris died on 6 January 1919 and was buried on site but her body was exhumed and reinterred at Perth War Cemetery on 24 June 1958. Her headstone reads: Staff Nurse/Doris A Ridgway/AANS/6th January 1919/Beloved daughter A.J. and A. Ridgway/She had done what she could.
A museum display at Woodman Point and the book, ‘The ‘Boonah Tragedy’ by Ian Darroch relates the shocking tale which led to Doris’s death.
Doris is memorialised on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour Panel 188 and at the Perth War Cemetery Plot U7.
Lest We Forget.
Submitted 19 April 2025 by gail dodd
Biography contributed by Robert Kearney
Nurse Ridgway, who was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ridgway,. of Cooke's Plains, was 26 years of age. She was the happy possessor of a loveable, amiable, and bright disposition, ensuring for her the deep affection of her relatives and the warmest regard of her personal friends. When the call came for volunteers to go into quarantine with pneumonic influenza patients, Nurse Ridgway offered her services, and with eleven others (including Nurse Bessie Paltridge, daughter of Mrs. H. Paltridge of Mount Barker, left Adelaide on December 21 for Fremant. She was inoculated before leaving. The matron in charge at Keswick stated on Wednesday that the news of Nurse Ridgway's death had come as a shock to all there. She was a bright., strong girl, very popular among the other members of the hospital staff, and
loved by the patients. - "PERSONAL." The Mount Barker Courier and Onkaparinga and Gumeracha Advertiser (SA : 1880 - 1954) 10 January 1919: p.2.
Biography contributed by Elizabeth Allen
Doris Alice RIDGWAY was born on 13th November, 1891 in Salters Springs, South Australia
Her parents were Arthur John Samuel RIDGWAY & Ada MITTON
She died of pneumonic influenza on 6th January, 1919 at the Woodman Pont Quarantine Station & is buried in the Woodman Point Cemetery
Click images to start slideshow.