Anne Donnell’s WW1 History
On Thursday May 20, 1915, aged 39 years seven months, Anne Donnell enlisted in WW1, joining the A.I.F. as a staff nurse of the 3rd Australian General Hospital. Anne was described as five feet two and a half inches tall of medium complexion with light blue grey eyes, with her brown hair already starting to grey. She was a South Australian from Cherry Gardens, Adelaide.
Anne sailed on May 26, 1915, on the “Mooltan” going first to England, then back to Egypt via Malta. Anne’s war took her to Greece, Egypt, France and England. None of it was easy. The Great War was a vicious part of history.
| 20.05.1915 | Departed Adelaide on board the RMS Mooltan. |
| 27.06.1915 | RMS Mooltan arrives Plymouth England, nurses prepare to serve in France. |
| 02.07.1915 | Anne receives orders to proceed to Mudros Harbour on Lemnos. |
| 09.08.1915 | No. 19 British General Hospital (Deaconesses’ Hospital), Alexandria. |
| 23.09.1915 | General Babtie would not allow Mrs Fiaschi to go to Lemnos after reaching Alexandria, consequently Anne stayed behind as midwife. |
| 09.10.1915 | Anne is on HM Hospital ship S.S. Galeka. |
| 12.10.1915 | Anchored in the outer harbour at Mudros. |
| 14.10.1915 | Anne arrives Lemnos, the Australian sisters were still living in tents. The British and Canadians were living comfortably in huts. By now there were many hospitals and convalescent camps situated on Lemnos. |
| 31.10.1915 | Today I’m wishing myself a happy birthday. |
| 14.01.1916 | Boarded HM Hospital ship Oxfordshire in Mudros harbour. |
| 21.01.1916 | Anne left Lemnos Island, Greece, after the evacuation of Gallipoli. |
| 23.01.1916 | Disembarked at Alexandria. |
| 26.01.1916 | Abbassia Barracks, Egypt, 3rd Australian General Hospital |
| 10.04.1916 | Still on night duty, Anne diagnoses a patient with smallpox. |
| 17.05.1916 | Anne has been officially informed to be packed up and ready to leave in six weeks. |
| 01.09.1916 | Wattle Day, our Hospital was all astir early this morning in getting away over 300 of our boys and sending them home. |
| 25.09.1916 | Anne leaves Egypt for England on the first Australian hospital ship Karoola. |
| 05.10.1916 | Anne arrives in Brighton, England with the 3rd AGH. |
| 06.10.1916 | Kitchener Hospital |
| 23.01.1917 | The rumours have started again, and the latest one is that we are going to France. |
| 10.02.1917 | I am afraid of what we all dreaded most is going to happen, the breaking up of our family. We are told there are to be no Units and we’ll be placed here and there by the wills of the powers that be. |
| 27.04.1917 | Anne leaves for France with the 3rd AGH. |
| 03.05.1917 | Abbeville, France. We see the acutest work and the havoc the war plays on our precarious human lives. |
| 05.05.1917 | Anne was promoted to Sister. |
| June 1917 | Hospital LeTreport, acute hut 40 beds. |
| 12.07.1917 | 38th Stationary Hospital, Calais B.E.F. France. |
| 22.11.1917 | 48th Casualty Clearing Station, between Ytres & Etricourt |
| 18.01.1918 | Sick Sisters Hospital in Abbeville via Perone & Amiens. |
| 01.02.1918 | Hotel de l’Esterel (Lady Gifford), Cannes. |
| 28.02.1918 | Anne returns to active duty 3rd AGH, Abbeville. |
| 09.03.1918 | Admitted sick to 2nd Stationary Hospital, Abbeville. |
| 17.03.1918 | Admitted Southwell Gardens P.U.O. |
| 18.05.1918 | No. 2 Australian Auxillary Hospital, Southall. |
| 24.05.1918 | No. 1 Australian Auxilliary Hospital, Harefield Park Middlesex, England – night duty. |
| 11.11.1918 | Harefield Park, England. ‘The Kaiser has chucked his job in’. |
| 17.01.1919 | Boarded the Margha, 10 nurses and approximately 600 troops left Devonshire, England 19.01.1919. |
| 28.02.1919 | Sister Anne Donnell returns home to Australia. |
