Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Daughter of William LOUGHRON and Mary nee McKINNON

Embarked 14 April 1915 from Melbourne per 'Orontes'
Arrived in UK May 1915
Enlisted 31 May 1915
Posted to France 08 June 1915
'A most excellent worker, young and capable.  Highly trained in all branches of her profession.  A gentlewoman 0 cheery manners, has worked with marked success - entirely suited for promotion to the rank of Matron.'
Suffered R Surgical Herian 09 October 1915
Served in France - Picardie, Somme and Abbeville
Sufferend Bronchil Catarrh 29 December 1916
Awarded Royal Red Cross (2nd Class)
Renewal of contract 23 April 1917
Suffered cut on scalp followed by concussion 08 February 1918
Proceeded to England for demobilization 12 August 1919
Served 4 years and 122 days
Returned to Australia 01 November 1919 per 'Orrieto'
Did not marry

Matron Loughron, born in Winchelsea, Vic, served as a nurse with the British Army in France in the Queen Alexandra Imperial Medical Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR) from the beginning of 1915 to the end of the First World War, and immediately afterwards as Matron of the Peace Conference Hospital in Paris. As Staff Nurse Loughron, she was Mentioned in Despatches on 30 April 1916 for gallant and distinguished conduct in the field. In 1917, Matron Loughron received the Royal Red Cross (2nd class) medal and after the end of the First World War, the Royal Red Cross (1st Class) medal. 
Attached as nursing staff at Melbourne Hospital

Mentioned in Despatches
Date of Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: 21 September 1916
Location in Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: Page 2622, position 69
Date of London Gazette: 15 June 1916
Location in London Gazette: Page 5958, position 2

Awarded Royal Red Cross (2nd Class)
Date of Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: 4 October 1917
Location in Commonwealth of Australia Gazette: Page 2627, position 44
Date of London Gazette: 4 June 1917
Location in London Gazette: Page 5488, position 1

FOR the first time in almost 40 years Miss Mary McLean Loughron is to have a real holiday . . . a holiday without responsibility, and without any thought of the job she has left behind. In her Marne st, South Yarra flat, the other morning, Miss Loughron went back over the years and told me of her 40 years of service to those less fortunate than herself.

She has recently retired after 20 years as chief inspector for Victoria for the Child Welfare Department, and officer in charge of the Infant Life Protection Branch.  Miss Loughran was the able leader of a team of 15 inspectors ... all
trained nurses.  "It is a great wrench for me to leave that grand band of women," Miss Loughran told me, "but I thought it was time I had a rest."

At the end of this week she is off to Queensland for the holiday she has been looking forward to for close on 40 years.

After leaving school, Miss Loughran became a trainee nurse at the Melbourne Hospital.  At the outbreak of World War 1 she joined the Army Nursing Service and spent the war years in France.  She was three times mentioned in
despatches, and decorated by King George V with the Royal Red Cross (first and second class). Another rare distinction came her way when, at the order of the French Government, her portrait was painted by the famous artist Eugene Brenand.  It was hung in the gallery of Portraits of the Allies in Luxembourg. She represents the British Army Nursing Service, and was painted in the indoor uniform of the Queen Alexandra Nursing Service.

After returning to Australia from her war service in France, Miss Loughran opened a private hospital at Camberwell, which she conducted for 10 years.

Miss Loughran has never missed an Anzac Day March, and since 1920 has each year placed a wreath on the Edith Cavell memorial each Anzac morning.

And now Miss Loughran is to have a holiday.

The Argus Tuesday 14 June 1949 page 3s