Matron

The Australian Army Nursing Service matron leads by example and is a model of devotion and endurance for the nursing sisters under her command. Over 2000 Australian women served overseas in the Australian Amy Nursing Service during the Great War. They saw service in Egypt and islands around the Mediterranean and Greece early in the war. Most then followed the AIF to the Western Front and Britain from 1916 to 1918 and provided nursing services in hospitals and casualty clearing stations. 

At the end of the war they nursed the sick and wounded soldiers returning to Australia and tried to relieve the suffering of those struck down by the influenza pandemic that followed the Armistice.