ROTHERY, Elizabeth
| Service Number: | N/A |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 22 August 1916 |
| Last Rank: | Staff Nurse |
| Last Unit: | Army Medical Corps (AIF) |
| Born: | Whitehaven, England, 2 November 1885 |
| Home Town: | Myrtleford, Alpine, Victoria |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Nurse |
| Died: | Appendicitis and Septic Peritonitis, Beechworth, Victoria, Australia , 15 June 1918, aged 32 years |
| Cemetery: |
Beechworth Cemetery |
| Tree Plaque: |
Myrtleford Kurrajong Tree
|
| Memorials: | Australian Military Nurses Memorial, Beechworth Ovens District Hospital Great War Nurses, Beechworth Shire WW1 Honour Roll, Beechworth War Memorial, Kapunda Dutton Park Memorial Bullwinkel Memorial, Melbourne St. Paul's Cathedral AANS Great War Roll of Honour, Myrtleford A D Lowerson VC Memorial Square, Myrtleford Nurse Rothery Memorial, Myrtleford War Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 22 Aug 1916: | Enlisted Australian Army Nursing Service (WW1), Staff Nurse, N/A, Australian Army Nursing Service (WW1) | |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Aug 1916: | Embarked Australian Army Nursing Service (WW1), RMS Mooltan, Melbourne | |
| 23 Jan 1918: | Involvement Hospital Transport Corps, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '24' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Karoola embarkation_ship_number: No 1 Hospital Ship public_note: '' | |
| 23 Jan 1918: | Embarked Hospital Transport Corps, HMAT Karoola, Melbourne | |
| 15 Jun 1918: | Involvement Army Medical Corps (AIF), --- :awm_ww1_roll_of_honour_import: awm_service_number: awm_unit: Australian Army Medical Corps awm_rank: Staff Nurse awm_died_date: 1918-06-15 |
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Add my storyBiography contributed by Faithe Jones
Nurse Elizabeth Rothery trained for her profession at the Ovens District Hospital, Beechworth. She became a midwife at the Melbourne General Hospital and at the outbreak of war in 1914 was working at the St. Kilda Base Hospital. She had enlisted in the A.A.N.S. when she heard of her brother Norman's death at Gallipoli on November, 1915
"Early in 1916, Elizabeth left for overseas military service, sailing to Bombay on HMAT Mooltan in September. In India, Elizabeth nursed wounded and dying servicemen from the battlefields of Mesopotamia and Palestine. She then transferred to Bagthorpe Military Hospital, England and in July 1917 joined the hospital ship Nestor on a repatriation voyage to Australia, arriving at Melbourne in September.
"In January, 1918 Elizabeth embarked on the hospital ship Karoola for Capetown, South Africa and then Egypt. The return journey to Australia attending to sick and wounded in stifling heat below decks, exhausted her. After a short stay with family in Myrtleford, she went to visit friends at Beechworth where she died suddenly of acute appendicitis on June 18, 1918.
"Her military funeral at Beechworth followed with "a most touching and remarkable demonstration of public grief and admiration". Several months after her death her saddened father Joseph planted a Kurrajong seedling in this area as a living memorial to his eldest daughter.
"As the tree aged it needed to be replaced and in the 1980s a new tree was propagated and flourishes as a memorial to Elizabeth to this day."
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