Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Bertha Watson WALLACE was born in 1881 at Creswick (reg. Kingston), Vic – the daughter of John WALLACE and Mary Jane BRAWN, who married in Vic in 1868.
John, at one time a large mining investor, died on the 12/2/1903 at his home, Grove Lodge in Ballarat, aged 65. Mary died on the 13/8/1906 at Ballarat.

Siblings: Florence b.1864 Ballarat East – marr REDDIN; Edith Annie b.1866 BE – marr GIBSON – d.1936; Alfred Sanker b.1872 Creswick; Edward Sankey Brawn b.1879 King; Gilbert Victor b.1884 King – d.5/3/1945

Bertha trained in nursing at the Ballarat Hospital – qualifying as a member of the Royal Victorian Trained Nurses Association in November 1911
Continued on at the Ballarat Hospital

WW1 Service:
Bertha enlisted in the Australian Army Nursing Service on the 28/11/1914. She embarked 5/12/1914 as a Staff Nurse with the 1st Australian General Hospital on the A55 Kyarra for Egypt.
In a letter home in early 1915 she wrote: “Two of we Australians are stationed at the British Military Hospital here, training orderlies for the front. We like Alexandria very much, but prefer Cairo, where our troops are. Lord Kitchener says the war is only going to begin in March, so that we shall have plenty of work.”

She returned to Australia in mid-March on transport duty, caring for returning invalids on the HS Kyarra.

Detailed for duty in England 23/9/1915.
Promoted to Sister 1/12/1915.
Detached from the Military Hospital, Bagthorpe, England and transferred to the 1st Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Harefield 17/1/1917.
Resigned her appointment on account of marriage 14/6/1917.

Married John PRITCHARD (Capt, 12th Bn, AIF) on the 14th of June 1917 in Berkhampstead, England.
Following the marriage Bertha was living in Amesbury, Wiltshire.

Child: Charles John b.23/5/1918 Warminster, England – Bank Officer – WW2 – marr Joyce SHEPHERD 1942 – d.29/11/1958

Returned to Australia on the Marathon with her husband John and their son Charles, embarking 7/11/1919 and arriving 1/1/1920 NSW.

Residents of 19 Yeo St, Neutral Bay, NSW 1920; “Makambo” 9 Doran St, Sth Kensington (re-named Kingsford in 1936), Sydney in 1925, 1930, 1940.

Bertha died on the 25th of May 1955 at the Sacred Heart Hospice, Sydney, NSW (reg. Paddington) – late of Kingsford. She was cremated at the Eastern Suburbs Crematorium and her ashes scattered.

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John originally enlisted on the 24/8/1914 in Tasmania, as Jethro BASS (Cpl 67, 12th Bn, age 32yrs 10mths – b.c1881) – and stated he was born in Harrismith, Orange Free State, Sth Africa (24/11/1883). Having previously spent 5 months with W Province Mounted Rifles and 3 years with the Sth African College Cadets.
His NOK was noted as his half-brother: N.E. Schomberg, Solicitor, Cape Colony.
John also listed his occupation as Solicitor.
To be Captain 1/3/1917
Changed his name in 1917 when he married.

Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, Thur 22 Nov 1917 (p.3131):
AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCE
PERMANENT SUPERNUMERARY LIST
Captain JETHRO BASS name is amended to read Captain JOHN PRITCHARD, he having enlisted under an assumed name.

Applied for Repat 1961 NSW (M132483)

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The Ballarat Star (Vic), Tue 24 Nov 1914 (p.6):
NURSES FOR THE FRONT
PRESENTATION TO SISTERS QUARTERMAN AND WALLACE
There was a representative muster of members of the Red Cross Society and their friends at the City Hall yesterday afternoon, when presentations were made to Sister Quarterman, formerly matron of the Ballarat Hospital, and Sister Wallace, who are going to the seat of war with the Australian General Field Hospital, and will leave Ballarat to-day. A very enjoyable programme was presented………………
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/154527333

Punch (Melb, Vic), Thur 26 Nov 1914 (p.25):
FAREWELL TO ARMY NURSES
The Royal Victorian Trained Nurses’ Association entertained at a conversazione at the Grand Hotel on Friday, 20th November, the nurses who will shortly be leaving Melbourne with the first Australian General Hospital for the front. ………………
The list of Army Nurses included – ………, Bertha Wallace, …………

The Ballarat Star (Vic), Mon 1 Mar 1915 (p.1):
LETTERS FROM ARMY SISTER
Miss Bertha W. Wallace of Ballarat, one of the Army Sisters now at Alexandria, Egypt, writing to a friend, says: – Two of we Australians are stationed at the British Military Hospital here, training orderlies for the front. We like Alexandria very much, but prefer Cairo, where our troops are. Lord Kitchener says the war is only going to begin in March, so that we shall have plenty of work.

The Ballarat Star (Vic), Tue 16 Mar 1915 (p.8):
PERSONAL ITEMS
Sister Wallace, who left Ballarat in December last, with the Australian Field Hospital, returned home yesterday for a short visit. She came out in the Kyarra as one of the nurses in charge of invalids who returned on that ship. She will leave again for the front on Saturday. After reaching Egypt Miss Wallace was for some time stationed at Alexandria, giving instruction in ambulance work and hospital duties to Territorial orderlies. Subsequently she went to the hospital at Heliopolis, and left by the Kyarra just after the Suez Canal action. Sister Wallace is in splendid health, and is anxious to get back to her work in Egypt. During her stay there she met quite a number of Ballarat soldiers, and has a host of messages for friends here from those at the front.

The Evening Echo (Ballarat, Vic), Sat 2 Jun 1917 (p.3):
HERE THERE EVERYWHERE
Nurse Bertha Wallace, a daughter of the late Mr John Wallace, who was nursing in the Ballarat Hospital before leaving with the Expeditionary Forces, is, according to a message received by Mr E. Doepel yesterday, to be married to an officer. Nurse Wallace served in Egypt and England.

The Argus (Melb, Vic), Sat 15 Jun 1918 (p.13):
BIRTHS
PRITCHARD (Sans Wallace) – On the 23rd May, at Warminster, England, the wife of Major J. Pritchard, A.I.F. – a son.

The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), Mon 30 May 1955 (p.18):
PRITCHARD, Bertha Watson (nee Wallace) – May 25,1955, late of 13 Apsley Avenue, Kingsford, beloved wife of John, fond mother-in-law of Joyce and grandmother of Helen and Margaret. Privately cremated.