Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Daughter of William and Ellen EGAN

Nurse Annie Egan
THE QUARANTINE HEROINE.
Nurse Annie Egan, who died in Quarantine on Tuesday, was 27 years of age. She was a daughter of William Egan, of Rosewood, Gunnedah, and commenced her training at St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, in May, 1915, passing the Australasian Trained Nurses' Association Examination in June, 1918. Miss Egan was a member of the Military Nursing Staff, and generously volunteered to do nursing at the Quarantine Station. She fell victim to the fatal influenza, and was admitted to Quarantine Hospital on November 26. Since then she frequently petitioned for the attendance of a priest.
She was a devout, practical Catholic. Realising she was dying, for days and nights she did not cease to implore the rites of the Church. Whilst the authorities blundered, blustered and bluffed, this girl, who, for conscience sake, was offering her young life to help to secure health to the  community and to her fellow-citizens, was callously permitted to pass hence without the consolations of religion and the rites of her Church. She died on Tuesday, and was buried on Wednesday of this week. A Requiem Mass at St. Vincent's. The death of Miss Egan in the quarantine area, under such heartless and cruel circumstances, has made a very deep impression on the doctors, Sisters, and the whole nursing staff of St. Vincent's Hospital. There is the expression of very wide- spread indignation, for the deceased nurse was evidently a great favourite at St. Vincent's, and with all with whom she came in contact. By request of her nursing mates, a special Requiem Mass will be celebrated in St. Vincent's Hospital Chapel on Saturday morning, 7th inst., at 9 o'clock, in suffrage of the soul of this devout, self-sacrificing, but spiritually outraged young heroine. — R.I.P. December