Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Sister
Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve

Daughter of Andrew and Catherine Craig WILSON
Of 'The Roses' Chelmer, Brisbane, Qld.
Sister of Lillian May WILSON (Matron of General Hospital) Bundaberg, Qld. who applied for Balance of Estate from QAIMNSR - resided at 'Roses', Victoria AVenue, Chelmer, Brisbane, Qld.
Left Queensland for Nursing service in April 1915
Applied to QAIMNSR 31 May 1915
Appointed to QAIMNSR 09 June 1915
Served at 7th General Hospital
Died on active service 23 December 1915 of Pneumonia at No 14 General Hospital, Boulogne, France
Aged 38 years
Personal effects of two packages were forwarded to the Defence Department, Australia per transport 'Benalla' on 22 January 1916.
Buried Wimereux Communal Cemetery, France III M 1

DEATH OF A NURSE. BUNDABERG, December 27.

Mr. G. C. Wilson was advised by cable to-day of the death in France of his sister, Nurse Myrtle Wilson. The late Nurse Wilson received her training at the Brisbane General Hospital, and left for France on active service last Easter.

Brisbane Courier Tuesday 28th December 1915 page 7

It has been difficult to find many details of Myrtle Wilson. The Australian War Memorial has no details on file, save for a few scant details of her death in December 1915. Myrtle Wilson is not listed on the Australian War Memorial’s Roll of Honour but rather the Commemorative Roll. Myrtle had joined the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, which was a British Organisation. Her file in the British national archives provides little information apart from records of correspondence between Myrtle’s sister, Lillian and the British authorities regarding her pay after her death. Myrtle Wilson was probably born around 1877 in Fitzroy, Melbourne. Her parents Andrew and Catherine Wilson moved to Queensland and established their family at “The Roses”, Victoria Avenue, Chelmer.

By the time Myrtle departed for overseas, her father was deceased but her mother continued to live in the family home at Chelmer. Myrtle had trained as a nurse at the Royal Brisbane Hospital but by 1915, it would appear that both she and her sister Lillian were working at the hospital in Bundaberg. There is some documentary evidence to suggest that Lillian eventually became the Matron at Bundaberg.

Myrtle departed for England sometime in April 1915 on the “Orontes” and joined the QAIMNS in June 1915. She probably paid her own passage for the trip to England. It is likely that Myrtle had the rank of Sister when nursing in Australia but the QAIMNS documents record her as a Staff Nurse. Correspondence from Lillian Wilson refers to Myrtle as “Sister” and her gravestone gives her that title.

She was posted to the 7th British General Hospital near Boulogne on the Channel Coast where she worked until early December 1915. The Matron in Chief recorded in her diary: 9th Dec-Miss Wilson very ill, 19th Dec- Miss Wilson Dangerously Ill- Family informed; 23rd December – Miss Wilson critically ill; later died. She was 38 and one of six nursing staff from QAIMNS to die from illness during the course of the war

Myrtle had died of pneumonia, no doubt caused in part by a lack of suitable drugs at the time and a punishing workload. She was buried at the Wimmeraux Communal Cemetery outside Boulogne and her sister Lillian chose the inscription “Behold I come quickly” from the Book of Revelations. Wimmeraux Cemetery is located on sandy soil and consequently all the headstones in the cemetery lay flat on the ground.

Myrtle had made a will in Brisbane in 1913 in which she had nominated bequests to her mother, sister, and brothers James, Andrew and Godfrey.

Courtesy of Ian Lang

Mango Hill, Qld.