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Myrtle Elizabeth Wilson was born in 1877, in Fitzroy, Melbourne. She was the daughter of Catherine McNaughton Craig (1840–1923) and Andrew Stevens Wilson (1841–1898).

After a period of time living in Brisbane, the family moved 300 kilometres north to Bundaberg, the centre of Queensland’s sugar cane industry, where Andrew Wilson opened another drapery business. In 1893 Myrtle attended Mrs. R. J. Boyle’s High School for Girls, a new private school that had opened in February that year. Clearly a bright pupil, Myrtle finished at the top of her class, Form IV Upper, and was also awarded the Language Prize.

By 1900 Myrtle had moved to Gin Gin, where, towards the end of that year, she was appointed secretary of the Gin Gin School of Arts. Over the next two years or so she helped to transform a dilapidated old building with a collection of useless, worn-out books into an orderly, nicely furnished centre with a new bookcase full of the latest books – a centre that was now able to hold technical classes.

In September 1902 Myrtle resigned from the School of Arts to take up an appointment as teacher at Talgai West Provisional School, on the Darling Downs, which was set to open that month. She left Gin Gin on 15 September.

NURSING AND WAR SERVICE

In time Myrtle decided to take up nursing and secured a position as a trainee at Brisbane General Hospital. Her sister Lillian (by now known as May) had also become a nurse. After training in the early 1900s at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney, May was appointed matron of the Aramac Hospital in central Queensland and later joined the staff of Bundaberg General Hospital.

By 1914 Myrtle was working at Bundaberg General with May, who was by then head sister under Matron Donaldson (and succeeded Matron Donaldson as matron by 1920).

In early 1915, with war raging in Europe, Myrtle felt that she needed to do her bit for the country. She was unable to join the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS), as applications from Australian nurses far outstripped the number of places available, so she chose to go to England instead with the aim of joining the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR), the British equivalent of the AANS. (Myrtle’s sister May, on the other hand, was able to join the AANS and ended up serving in the camp hospital at Enoggera Army Camp in Brisbane.)

Myrtle took advantage of a government program facilitating the recruitment of Australian nurses to the QAIMNSR and in March received a telegram from the Imperial Service Committee advising her to hold herself in readiness to proceed overseas. Similar telegrams were received by Matron Beatrice Graham Cheesman of the Lady Chelmsford Hospital in Bundaberg and Sister Wilhelmina Sarah Dods of St. Andrew’s Private Hospital. Myrtle duly resigned from the staff of Bundaberg General and prepared to go overseas.

VOYAGE TO ENGLAND

On 4 April Myrtle, Matron Cheesman, Sister Dods and Sister Evangeline Alice Clerke (known as Eva) departed Brisbane on the Orontes. After stopping at cities along the way – including Melbourne, where, on 14 April, nurses Eileen King, Katie Heriot, Constance O’Shea and Estelle Doyle of the Homeopathic Hospital on St Kilda Road embarked – the ship departed Fremantle at 11.00 am on 21 April with 28 or 30 prospective QAIMNSR nurses aboard under Matron Janey McRobie Lempriere of the AANS.

The Orontes arrived in Colombo, Ceylon on 30 April. The nurses disembarked and at midnight arrived at the Grand Orient Hotel. In the morning a delicious breakfast was followed by a morning’s sightseeing, after which they returned to the ship.

After setting out again the Orontes soon reached the Gulf of Aden. After passing Aden it entered the Red Sea and then sailed up the Suez Canal between Suez and Port Said. The Orontes then traversed the Mediterranean in six days and arrived at Gibraltar on 18 May, where the nurses enjoyed a three-day break. On 26 May the nurses arrived in England.

Myrtle disembarked in London and on 31 May signed her agreement with the QAIMNSR. She was officially appointed on 9 June and on the same day, alongside her colleagues, crossed the Channel to France.

FRANCE

After spending the night in Boulogne, Myrtle and the other QAIMNSR recruits travelled 50 kilometres east to No. 7 General Hospital, based in La Malassise, a former Benedictine monastery in Longuenesse, St. Omer. The hospital had been established by the British Red Cross before being taken over by the Royal Army Medical Corps.

Sometime in December Myrtle contracted pneumonia. Her condition worsened and on 17 December she was admitted to No. 14 General Hospital in Wimereux, near Boulogne. She continued to deteriorate and on 19 December was placed on the dangerously ill list. Australian authorities, the War Office and relatives were duly notified. Over the next few days her condition became critical.

Myrtle died on 23 December. On 1 January her colleague Priscilla Wardle wrote that “poor old Wilson died on the Thursday night before Christmas at 7.30 p.m. She was conscious to the last and spoke of us all and told Edith [Donaldson] to say goodbye to us. She and Edith took communion two days before she died.”

Myrtle was buried on 24 December. Unfortunately, her colleagues at No. 7 General Hospital were not told of her death in time to attend her funeral at the Wimereux Communal Cemetery. There were a great many officers in attendance but only around 12 nurses. The Matron-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders, Maud McCarthy, was incensed that so few nurses, through a communication mix up, had had the “opportunity of paying a last respect to one who had come so far and who was among strangers,” as she wrote in her diary.

On 27 December Myrtle’s brother Godfrey was advised by cable of her death, and on 29 December Matron McCarthy wrote to Myrtle’s mother to inform her personally of her daughter’s death.

REMEMBRANCE

Myrtle’s name is memorialised on the Australian Service Nurses Memorial Wall in Bundaberg, on the Corinda Sherwood Shire Roll of Honour in Brisbane, on the Commemorative Roll at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, and elsewhere.

Australian War Nurses (www.facebook.com)

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.