By Capt Michael Tyquin

RAAMC, a corps almost Army-old Photo by Pte Simone Heyer, Army newspaper

On July 1, 2003, the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps will officially celebrate its centenary.
In terms of lineage the corps is only slightly younger than the Army.

The beginnings of the corps lay in the latter half of the nineteenth century – in the fledgling colonial defence units and their medical staffs.

The development of a militia or army medical corps, was brought to high degree of organisational efficiency in NSW and was also evident in garrisons as far afield as Perth and Hobart.

The pattern varied with the work of interested doctors, support or otherwise of local commandants and enthusiasm of local volunteers, not to mention financial constraints.

Throughout the Australian colonies small medical cadres, often initiated by public-minded doctors, played a key role in providing medical support to the various defence forces of pre-federation Australia.

But these men were, and continue to be, a minority in the peacetime medical service, their support and participation peaking at times of crisis such as the world wars.

The bulk of the corps has always been the non-commissioned officers and men (and in recent times, women) who have provided stretcher bearer, orderly, medical assistant or preventive medical support to the doctors in larger units.
Other, non-medical personnel have also provided, administrative, dental, pharmacological, pathology, radiology, physiotherapy and specialist support at different times.

The corps has a number of famous icons, including Simpson of Anzac fame and Sir ‘Weary’ Dunlop, a POW hero of WW2.
As in the wider Army, members of the RAAMC have for the past 100 years reflected the society from which they were drawn and consequently there are a range of individuals from the selfless heroic types of Anzac myth to the connivers and crooks which make up any community.

Together they made up the corps and together they forged its heritage and made it what it is today.

Readers of the last few issues of Army will know that the corps’ founder, Sir William Williams gave the corps its motto: ‘Paulatim – little by little’ to describe its slow development.

But the reason for the corps existence has always been and remains to supply the army with fit and healthy soldiers and to return casualties to active duty as efficiently as possible.

Its policy has been as hard headed and technically based as any of the other logistics corps that supports the Australian Army.

To pretend otherwise is to ignore history and misrepresent those who have served in it.

This is not to say that the corps has not at all times espoused and demonstrated all that is best in medical care and humanitarian service.

Its record is enough to disprove any doubts on that score for it has supported the Army in every major conflict and many smaller operations and deployments over the past one hundred years.

The healing business remembered

By Capt Michael Tyquin

Neville Reginald Howse, VC, former chief of Australian Army medical service Photo of oil painting AWM ART03351

Neville Reginald Howse was the first soldier to be awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) while serving with an Australian unit. Born in Stogursey Somerset, October 26, 1863, he studied medicine and surgery in London before coming to Australia to improve his health, settling first near Taree and later in Orange. As an immigrant, Howse made significant contributions to his local community in rural Australia.

After the start of the South Africa war in 1899 he volunteered to join the NSW Army Medical Corps and was commissioned a lieutenant. Like a number of fellow officers he was no shirker, often treating men while under fire from the Boer or riding out to collect a wounded soldier.

It was one of these exploits that earned him the gallantry award. While he was attached as medical officer to a mounted infantry brigade, a party came under heavy fire by the Boer. Despite a hail of bullets Howse rode out through a withdrawal to retrieve a wounded trumpeter. His horse was shot while he was lifting the casualty onto it, so he dressed the wounded man where he lay before carrying him on his back to safety.

He served with distinction in WW1, at first as a medical officer in the offensive against German New Guinea in 1914 and then Gallipoli.

As a close personal confidant of the AIF’s senior commanders he won their respect by consistently arguing against any relaxation of the Australian Army’s medical standards, in spite of falling recruitment after 1917.

Throughout that conflict he nurtured the medical corps and enabled it to work in spite of many policy, logistic and personnel problems both at the front and in Australia. He was the architect of a massive administrative overhaul of Australia’s medical services during WW1 and contributed to the successful repatriation to their homeland of thousands of Australian Diggers. He was mentioned in dispatches and appointed a K.C.M.G and K.O.StJ. at war’s end, but it was the purple ribbon on his chest which gave him entrée to every unit and rank in the AIF.

Howse continued as chief of the Australian Army’s Medical Services until the early 1920s when he was elected to Federal Parliament by the rural electorate of Calare in NSW.

He was soon appointed to several cabinet portfolios including defence and health, finding time to attend various international conferences as an Australian delegate. When he was ultimately defeated in the polls he might have assumed one of the country’s most coveted appointments, the post of High Commissioner in London, had he not succumbed to cancer. Despite the intervention of King George V’s own surgeon he died aged 66 in London on September 19, 1930. Notable Australian journalist C.E.W. Bean wrote that “Howse had claims to rank with the foremost men in our history and that he had done more than could reasonably be expected of a man.”

General Sir William Birdwood had echoed these sentiments in a letter he wrote to Howse himself in September 1918 when he foresaw that “fuller and more complete recognition will come in time and the name of Neville Howse will be properly honoured in Australian history.”

The man himself wrote books on bridge and enjoyed fly-fishing and motor cars but was a habitual workaholic. A fierce nationalist and a progressive and innovative policy maker in military medical administration, he fought energetically for the defence and health of the Commonwealth.

He was also a man of contradictions. Although deeply fond of his family, he dashed off at the first opportunity to no fewer than four military campaigns and while fiercely loyal to his friends, he did not suffer fools gladly.

Bold enough to suggest that the King vacate Buckingham Palace during WW1 to allow its conversion into a military hospital, Howse was a man of great personal integrity, possessed of a robust sense of humour, ambitious yet self-effacing.

Army nurses in all kind of theatres

Capt Sue Neumann, checks an antibiotic drip at military hospital in Dili, as part of Op Stabilise. Photo by Cpl Darren Hilder, 1JPAU(P)

The Australian Army Nursing Service Reserve, which formed the basis of the modern day Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps, was established on July1, 1903. However, the proud history of Army nursing has its foundations in the late 1800s.

The events of the South African War of 1989 – 1902 saw nurses serve with Australian troops. Such was the dedication of these nurses, some paid their own way.

While not military nurses as in the strictest sense, the performance of these nurses was such that the Federal Government resolved to improve the organisation of nurses for military service.

One nurse, Fanny Hall, became the first Australian woman to die on overseas military duty – succumbing to pneumonia contracted in the course of her work.

With the outbreak of war in 1914 the Australian Government raised the first AIF for overseas service.
Nurses were to staff medical units that formed an integral part of the AIF.

AANS reserve and civilian nurses were recruited to meet the demands of a country at war.

The first draft left Australia in September 1914. A total of 2139 nurses served abroad, some working with British medical units and another 423 served in Australia.

They served in such places as Vladivostok, Burma, India, the Persian Gulf, Egypt, Lemnos Island near Gallipoli, Italy and France.

At the Battle of Broodseinde in October, 1917, one 24-hour period saw 3000 casualties treated at the Casualty Clearing Station.

April 25, 1915, Australian nurses attended to hundreds of injured men ferried to the decks of the hospital ship – Gascon – lying off Anzac Cove.

That day saw 557 wounded treated. Over the next nine months over 8000 sick and injured were treated.

These nurses were duly recognised for their dedication and service – 388 were decorated, with seven military medals awarded for courage under fire.

25 nurses tragically died from illness or injury.

At the start of WW2, the AANS was once again placed on a war footing.

With their recently recruited civilian counterparts they formed part of the second AIF, ready for active overseas service.
The first contingent embarked on the Empress of Japan for the Middle East as part of the 6th Australian Division on January 9, 1940. By the end of that year there were five Australian General Hospitals and three Casualty Clearing Stations in the Middle East.

During the period 1940 – 1945, the AANS served in England, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Greece, Crete, Syria-Eritrea, Ceylon, Malaya, New Guinea, New Britain, the Solomons and Singapore.

They served in every state and territory, at sea on hospital ships and sea ambulance transports.

They travelled with the wounded, returning on hospital trains that had taken replacement troops to their embarkation ports.
In 1943, the AANS was incorporated into the Australian Military Forces and the nurses became commissioned officers. This meant significant changes including conditions of service, rank and uniforms.

The strength of the service in WW2 was 3477. A defining aspect of this war was the sacrifice made by the nurses.

71 nurses died, 53 being battle casualties and 18 through accident or illness. 36 become prisoners of war, some held in Japan, while the majority spent their captivity in Indonesia.

A total of 137 decorations were awarded including two George Medals. Ellen Savage, the sole nurse survivor of the sinking of the hospital ship the Centaur was one of the recipients.

Torpedoed off Point Lookout near Brisbane, the ship sank within three minutes.

Reference to the loss of this ship is depicted in the AWM by a large mosaic of the Greek mythological beast, the centaur, sinking into the sea.

While there are many stories of courage and dedication, perhaps the most notable and inspiring story from WW2 belongs to Sister Vivian Bullwinkel.

In November 1948 King George VI granted the title Royal to the AANS, recognition of service in the two world wars.

In February 1951 the service was designated a corps, with the title used today as the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps.
The following year, the corps badge with the motto Pro Humanitate – For Humanity – was adopted.

At the time of her coronation in 1953, the Queen accepted the appointment as Colonel-in-Chief of the RAANC.
Nurses from RAANC contributed in the Korean War and the Malayan Emergency, serving until the close of the British military Hospital in 1971.

This had coincided with service in Vietnam.

In all, 43 RAANC nurses served in Vietnam. In 1972 the first male nursing officer was appointed to the corps.

In January 1991, four nursing officers served on the United States Hospital Ship USNS Comfort during the Gulf War.

Since that time RAANC nurses have participated in peace keeping and other United Nations deployments, including Somalia, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bougainville and East Timor.

Duty to the end

By Maj Judith Spence, RAANC

When Japan entered WW2 following the bombing of Pearl Harbour, conditions in military South Pacific hospitals changed dramatically. Already stretched beyond capacity, the now torrential flow of casualties threatened to overwhelm their meagre resources.

As Japanese soldiers advanced into Singapore in February 1942, the casualty rate increased to critical levels and the situation quickly became desperate.

There were over 100 Australian nurses stationed in Singapore. They belonged to three military medical units: the 2nd/4th Casualty Clearing Station, 2nd/10th and 2nd/13th Australian General Hospitals, which formed part of the 8th Australian Division. On February 6, 1942, the order came for all nurses to evacuate. For the nurses this spelt heartbreak, as only a handful of soldiers were fit for the trauma of evacuation.

None of the three ships used for the evacuation were hospital ships – all were refitted.

The first ship to leave, the Wah Sui sailed February 10. Although bombed while berthed in Singapore Harbour, the vessel escaped serious damage and made a successful voyage to Batavia (now Jakarta), and, within a few weeks, the nurses had arrived safely in Australia.

The second ship, the Empire Star, left February 11. Designed to carry 24 passengers, the ship housed over 2000. Among the evacuees were Australian, British and Indian nurses, British troops and civilian women and children. The ship soon fell prey to marauding Japanese bombers. Despite being heavily bombarded and sustaining casualties amongst the passengers, the Empire Star limped into Batavia where it was repaired then continued to Australia.

The last ship to leave was Vyner Brook, sailing on February 12, overcrowded and carrying few defensive weapons. The redoubtable matrons Paschke and Drummond allocated nurses to areas of the ship as shipboard ward sisters. Instructions were, should the ship come under fire, to tend wounded regardless of their own safety. Should the order be given to abandon ship, the nurses knew they would be the last to leave.

The Vyner Brook was attacked on February 14, sinking within half an hour. While the nurses survived the bombing, many drowned or were killed by machine-gun fire. 53 managed to stagger ashore.

One group of survivors washed ashore on Bangka Island. Comprised of nurses, soldiers and civilian men and women, they surrendered to Japanese soldiers on February 16.

Men in the group were taken along the beach behind a bluff. The Japanese soldiers returned alone, cleaning their rifles and bayonets in front of the horrified women. The nurses were then ordered to walk into the sea, where they were machine-gunned.

Only one nurse survived, Sister Vivian Bullwinkel. Although wounded, she feigned death until she felt certain that the Japanese had left the beach.

Driven by a desperate need to survive, Vivian hid in the undergrowth. She discovered she was not alone, finding a badly wounded British soldier seeking safety in the dense tropical foliage.

She tended to his wounds, but soon faced the realisation that he would not survive without the urgent medical attention that she, alone, could not provide.

Carefully concealing a wound in her side, evidence of her escape from the massacre, Vivian and her wounded companion surrendered to the Japanese February 28.

For Vivian it proved to be the right decision. Although incarcerated in Japanese prisoner-of-war camps on Bangka Island and Java over the next three and a half years, she lived to tell the tale. Following the declaration of peace in the Pacific, the nurses were repatriated to Australia. Of the nurses who boarded the Vyner Brook, only 24 had survived.

Vivian gave evidence to the Australian War Crimes Board of Inquiry in 1945 and the Tokyo war trials in December 1946.

From the Head of Corps, RAANC

Army nurse, Lt Dave Overlack, checks a baby born by caeserean section at Loloho – Bougainville in 1999. Photo by WO2 Gary Ramage, 1JPAU(P)

As we approach the centenary of the Australian Army Nursing Corps it is with great pride that I, as your HOC, write these few words.

We have a proud tradition, which had its beginnings with our first nurses deployed to the Boer War, then to the Great War, WW2 and Vietnam.

From the late 1980s to our current time there has been an increase in the operational tempo for the ADF which has seen RAANC personnel deployed to both war-like and non war-like operations.

Further, operational deployments have seen RAANC officers deployed to Somalia, Cambodia, the Gulf War, Rwanda, Bouganville, East Timor and currently the Middle East.

In between times RAANC officers have been involved with the many and varied operations and missions within Australia’s strategic areas of interest.

While our corps originally was staffed by female nursing officers, since the early 1970s we have welcomed the inclusion of male nursing officers into our corps.

The involvement of our colleagues has continued to enriched our corps as we all work towards the provision of improving patient care, be this to our Defence members, those military members of other nations, the distraught populations of the many disrupted nations in the world in which we have the privilege to serve, or to the civilian population within our own country.

As we reflect back over the last 100 years we continue to carry on and enhance the role of our corps. Today, as a RAANC, we continue to meet the many challenges that face us be this in our full-time or part-time capacity.

Our aim always being to provide the best standard of patient care to whomever we have the privilege to serve.

Lt-Col Beverley C. Wright

.