Spirit of Anzac Prize
By Eden Huddy, Year 9
The Spirit of ANZAC Prize is an annual competition for all students in Victoria grades 9 - 12. This year the prompt was in honour of Australians who have served in war and peacekeeping, exploring the significance of either Victoria's Shrine of Remembrance or a local war monument. Twelve winners will be chosen to go on a fully funded study tour which will happen during the September holidays. This is a copy of my entry:
Tyabb War Memorial: The Silent Heroes of war
The Tyabb War Memorial
War memorials stand as timeless symbols of remembrance, commemorating the sacrifices made by not just the soldiers on the memorial but the names it fails to mention. War memorials allow us to forever remember the sacrifices of people who could have been forgotten.
The Tyabb War Memorial was designed by the Tyabb Memorial Committee, it recognises and acknowledges the sacrifices made by the men who fought in war. The committee, whose members remain unknown today, decided on an obelisk that stands at the entrance of the main gates of the Tyabb Park. This obelisk is at a height of 14ft or 4.2672m tall. Funding the monument was done by ‘voluntary conscription’ allowing people to donate as much or as little as they wanted.
There was a big discussion on whose names were to go on the monument as they were limited by money, but also some families didn’t want their name on the monument. Eventually they decided on the 58 names on that memorial. After months of design and building, the Tyabb War Memorial was opened on the 12th of December 1920 by Brigadier-General H. E. Elliott.
While war memorials are important ways to acknowledge the soldiers, they fail to include a key service in war - the nurses. The Tyabb War Memorial is an amazing tribute to all the brave soldiers who fought in WW1 and all the sacrifices they made for our country. It is so important that everyone should be acknowledged for their dedication and sacrifices made in war. Which is why separate memorials should be designed for the nurses.
The Nurses
Despite their crucial role in war, nurses received low pay, and even less recognition for their work. Over 2861 courageous women served as nurses overseas during WW1. 25 of those nurses died. These women lost their lives caring for soldiers, some caught the diseases that they were treating, others died of starvation, dehydration or exhaustion.
Soldiers were paid a minimum of 6 shillings per day, while the nurses were paid 3 shillings or less. Neither of these amounted to a living wage, they are the equivalent today of $25.83 per day for soldiers, and $12.93 for nurses.
As the ANZAC Portal stated “women were often paid so low that they had to get financial support from family members while serving.”
Nurses would often go on the front line to help retrieve the wounded soldiers. They did this with very little protection and no recognition. The brave women who sacrificed so much deserve to be remembered for their service to their country.
Clara Louisa Ross was born on French Island, Victoria, and her birth was officially registered in Tyabb in 1874. She was born to loving parents, Alexander Ross and Margret Coleman. Clara was the third born of four children (two boys, two girls). They all grew up in Tyabb where little is known about their childhood.
She later settled in Flinders at 108 Flinders Lane, and this was where she decided to pursue nursing as a career. She started her career at the Melbourne Hospital where she attained the Melbourne Hospital Certificate in 1902 and subsequently in 1904, the Royal Victorian Trained Nurses Association (RVTNA) requirements.
Her relentless pursuit of knowledge and commitment to training made her an amazing nurse, and shows her dedication to healthcare. She clearly was an amazing person and anyone would be lucky to have her treating them. But her achievements didn’t end there; in 1908 she completed the Matron's Certificate. She then became Matron at the Ararat Hospital around 250 km from Tyabb. She was Matron at that hospital for 5 years demonstrating her leadership abilities and knowledge in health care, until she resigned to care for her brother's wife who became sick, and died a few months after Clara’s return. With this act of selflessness she sacrificed her career to take care of family.
Clara was an extremely career oriented woman, she wasn’t dating anyone, never married or had children, but she did have an amazing job which she was very qualified to do. Most women from the late 1800 to early 1900 were expected to be married around the age of 20 - 22 but Clara was no ordinary woman.
Women had to be either single or widowed to be a war nurse, even if a highly skilled nurse got married during the war she would no longer be able to serve. This is likely due to the fact that most women around that time were expected to be housewives and they wanted them to take care of the home, and children, they shared with her husband.
Clara was a highly experienced nurse when, at 40 years old, she enlisted to be a war nurse in late 1914. She left Australia on the ‘Kyarra’ with 160 other nurses, each sacrificing the comfort and safety of home to save lives overseas.
They arrived in Egypt on the 20th of January 1915. Clara was assigned to the 1st Australian General Hospital (1AGH) which was set up in the Heliopolis Palace Hotel in Abbassia.
In early 1916 the 1AGH prepared to pack up and move to Rouen in northern France, and Clara was assigned to be a matron at the Ras el Tin convalescent hospital in Alexandria. She worked there for a few months until she went on leave in July and when she came back she re-joined the 1AGH in Rouen.
By the end of January in 1917 she was transferred to the 3AGH located in Brighton England as they were preparing to move to France. She spent several months in Brighton then moved back to France with the 3AGH in Abbeville. Then she was transferred back to England in July where she was assigned the Temporary Matron of 2nd Australian Auxiliary Hospital.
She stayed in England for the rest of the war but transferred between the 1AAH, 2AAH and 3AAH. In November 1917, she was made Matron of the 1AAH where she remained for the duration of the war.
It is likely that she was transferred around a lot because of her experience as a nurse, and her leadership abilities. Nurse shortages were a common problem throughout the war, and Clara’s knowledge and experience would have been an asset wherever she was posted.
After the war on the 27th of November, 1918, she was awarded with the Royal Red Cross Award and on the 20th of March, 1920, the Officer of the Order of the British Award.
Although Nurses were not living in damp trenches or next to an active battlefield, it still wasn't ideal. Some of them were living in flimsy tents that kept very little heat in, and with strong winds it felt like the tent walls would blow away. Others lived in overcrowded rooms with beds almost touching one another, with no heating and one blanket in horrible winters.
They also got minimal sleep as they had to get up multiple times per night to check on the soldiers. They were being fed very little food and just enough water. The mental and emotional toll on the nurses would have been huge as these nurses were faced with caring for soldiers with terrible injuries and saw so much death, they would have also been worried about their families as their brothers or dads might have been serving. Despite this, none of them were forced to be there, and this proves how extraordinary these women were. With few records of the nurses' names or their personal lives and stories, it is hard to tell who those heroes are, but their selflessness should forever be remembered for generations to come.
Clara was a highly experienced and dedicated nurse. She was an amazing and compassionate woman who saved hundreds of lives and deserves to be recognised for her work. But Clara wasn't the only woman who sacrificed everything, there would have been many more who also deserve recognition and, like Clara, even 106 years later, they still deserve that recognition. The absence of nurses on war monuments further proves how underappreciated they were and continue to be. They made immense sacrifices and suffered horrible living conditions, and the lack of recognition on war monuments is just salt in the wounds for nurses.
This ANZAC Day we should remember and commemorate everyone who served regardless of their role, rank or gender.
Written by Eden Huddy
