CHRONICLES Headline: Carnage and Caring By Janene Carey 19TH APRIL 2024
Ahead of Anzac Day next week, we remember an Australian Army nurse who tended thousands of soldiers during World War I.
Clementina Hay Marshall lived quietly in Urunga with her brother Sandy and his family for almost three decades before her death in 1968, aged 89.
Only her regular attendance at Anzac Day marches hinted that her life prior to retirement had been full of heroic and remarkable service.
Born in Scotland in 1879, Clementina emigrated to Australia with her family when she was nine. She was the eldest of four siblings and outlived them all by a good 15 years.
She never married. She was wedded to her career, which began in 1903 as a trainee nurse at Sydney Hospital. In those days, women who got married had to resign.
In 1914, with war imminent, Clementina was one of the first women to join the Australian Army Nursing Service, as demonstrated by her number, AANS #7.
She embarked for Egypt with the First Australian Imperial Force on October 17 and began recording her experiences in a small notebook.
Now 110 years old, this diary would survive not only World War I but also the floods that hit Urunga on a regular basis.
On 22 April 1915, Clementina celebrated her 36th birthday on British Hospital Ship Sicilia. The next day, she joined Hospital Ship Gascon in Lemnos Harbour, which was full of ships preparing for the assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula.
Early on the morning of April 25, HS Gascon took up its position off the Turkish beach. For the next eight months, until the doomed campaign was finally abandoned, its role was to treat serious casualties and provide a hospital ship ferry service between Turkey and Egypt.
By the end of the first day, 2,000 of the 16,000 Australian and New Zealand soldiers who landed at the place now known as Anzac Cove had been killed or wounded.
HS Gascon treated over 500 wounded men that day. There were only seven nurses on board.
Nurse Ella Tucker wrote home: “They just poured into the wards all day. My ward holds 96 – and I was responsible for about 40 on deck. I had three orderlies and a sergeant-major to assist.”
Clementina was the Theatre Sister in Charge. She was on duty in the operating theatre for 21 consecutive hours and was mentioned in dispatches.
That night, the Commander of the Australian force, Major General Bridges, and his New Zealand counterpart Major General Godley, decided failure was inevitable and proposed withdrawing their troops from the beach. They were overruled.
Ignoring his own personal safety, Bridges inspected the front line daily, and on May 15 he was shot by a sniper.
He was evacuated to HS Gascon with a severe injury to his thigh. The doctors decided against operating to remove his leg because he had lost so much blood.
Clementina nursed the commander for the next three days and signed his death certificate on May 18.
In early June, she wrote in her diary: “Well, we are almost at Alexandria again, on our fourth trip, with about 500 wounded on board. We have had a very heavy trip, lasting about a fortnight. We have been operating day and night, and I am beginning to feel very weary. However, we have finished this stint, and will have a rest for a few days until we get back again.”
After leaving HS Gascon on September 1, she continued her war effort, firstly in English hospitals and later on the Western Front in France.
In 1917 she was presented with a Royal Red Cross medal at Buckingham Palace by King George V.
After the war, Clementina worked in Sydney hospitals before retiring to her brother’s farm on Marshall’s Island, Urunga.
You can find her grave in Urunga Cemetery, marked by a large red cross and a bronze plaque detailing her dedicated service. RSL C.ex Urunga has a display of her memorabilia.
Her diary has been donated to the State Library of NSW by her great-nephew Don Marshall, who devoted many hours to transcribing it and creating the website www.clementinahaymarshall.com.au
Photos
Medical staff on HS Gascon, 24 April 1915. Clementina Marshall is middle nurse in back row
Matron Clementina Marshall in Sydney, c1940
Clementina Marshall’s diary is now at the State Library of NSW
Written by Janene Carey Senior Journalist Bellinger Valley Herald