Emmeline and Elizabeth Murrell, the Ryde sisters who both joined the Australian Army Nursing Service

Week 18 :  11 February 2015 - The Northern District Times, page 17 - tells of Emmeline and Elizabeth Murrell, who both joined the Australian Army Nursing Service and continues from the previous week's article on their brother Henry George Murrell.

The large Murrell family lived in a house named Wonga on Victoria Road, Gladesville. Emmeline was 31 when she joined as a Staff Nurse in 1916. Elizabeth had nursed at Ryde's Home for the Incurables [later to become the Royal Rehab Centre, Sydney] and had been appointed Matron of Denistone House at Eastwood in May 1916 before she also enlisted in June 1917.

By the end of the war both had served until they were suffering from debilitating illnesses. For a glimpse of their story read :
Nursing sisters served until they also fell ill
[if you click on the title -- it should take you to the on-line edition of the newspaper]

* as the newspaper link doesn't appear to open the complete article  it will be added here;

Military Medal awarded to Ryde's Henry George Murrell - the 17th weekly story

From  October 2014, The Northern District Times began publishing short weekly stories from our project's research into World War One service with connections to the Ryde District. This week hear of  Henry George Murrell, a Gladesville Veterinary Surgeon  at the time of his enlistment in the AIF in 1916,

Private Murrell embarked with Reinforcements to serve with the 17th Battalion in arriving in France in May 1917. A year later his compassion and daring almost got him killed. For his actions he was awarded the Military Medal.

His citation for the Military Medal reads:
'On morning 14th May, 1918 during German attack on our lines near MORLANCOURT, south of Albert was a stretcher bearer. Regardless of danger, he carried wounded to safety under heavy barrage and Machine Gun fire. This man volunteered to go to a post of Germans who had dug themselves in, in an isolated position, with an enemy prisoner who was wounded and said he could persuade his comrades to surrender. When Private MURRELL and his prisoner got near the trench they tried to capture him, but crying out to one Lewis Gunner who was handy, he bolted under covering fire of Lewis Gun. MURRELL's work and energy throughout the whole proceedings was a fine exhibition of bravery and resolution, regardless of self.'

Source: 'Commonwealth Gazette' No. 15

Date: 4 February 1919

Henry George Murrell was the youngest of 11 children born to Charles and Mary Anne Murrell..

The family lived on Victoria Road, Gladesville, Two of his sisters also served with the Australian

Army Nursing Service, Emmeline Anne MURRELL and Elizabeth Ellen MURRELL and a brother-in-law, Private John McFarlane, SERN 4584 was killed in action at Pozieres in January 1918.

Week 17 :  6 February 2015 - The Northern District Times, page 19 - the story of  Private HENRY GEORGE MURRELL, Service No. 6341.

Heroic attempt to return wounded enemy soldier

[if you click on the title -- it should take you to the on-line edition of the newspaper]

Ryde Nurse Marion Hall -- the 15th weekly story

In October 2014, The Northern District Times began publishing short weekly stories from the project's research of World War One service from the Ryde District.

Our 15th story tells of nurse, Marion Hall. Born in Ryde and aged 25 when she enlisted in July 1915, Marion spent the war years caring for the sick, injured and infectious soldiers. In Septemebr 1917 She was promoted to Sister, and returned home as Matron of the British India Hospital Ship, Varsova.

Week 15 :  21 January 2015 - The Northern District Times, page 29 - the story of MARION HALL

Nurse dedicated years to caring for soldiers
[if you click on the title -- it should take you to the on-line edition of the newspaper]

Duplication in centenary of World War One projects :

As we approach the centenary of World War One, we have come across other projects similar to those we are undertaking in Ryde and to a certain extent there will be some duplication across the country, with everyone wanting to claim some connection to the famous and infamous.

At this point our project’s main focus is on those men and women who have any connection to the Ryde Municipality before or during WWI. The connection might be like that of David Chestnut (in our first blog story), a lad who was born and educated locally, with strong family ties to the district that left his name recorded on 4 different war memorials within the Municipality.

Others, like Henry Oscar Nelson, were born in New Zealand and only moved to Ryde in the years before the war. Some names that have made our lists contain only a brief connection to the district with the only connection being found to be their birthplace, or the address of their next of kin. There are still a number of others that remain for us to puzzle out what their connection could be.

What we have found is that many can be claimed by more than just the Ryde district, also having connections to other regions, both before and after the war. Two of our more famous names fall into this category.

Matron Bessie Pocock, was born in 1863 at Dalby, Queensland. By 1876, her family had settled to a small acreage at The Punchbowl, near Grafton, NSW. She first joined the New South Wales Army Nursing Service Reserve in 1899 and enlisted for service in the South African War. Later in life she became the Matron of Gladesville Hospital between 1911-14. After the war she resumed her position as matron at Gladesville until 1924 when she established a convalescent hospital at Chatswood. While the Ryde district is not her place of birth or death, her connection to our district is remembered by her listing on the Gladesville Hospital Honour Board, Ryde Town Hall Honour Rolls and on Christ Church Memorial Gates at Gladesville.

Another example is the poet, Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson, who was born in Orange, NSW, in 1864. He spent much of his school years with his widowed grandmother, poet Emily Barton,  at her home, Rockend Cottage in Gladesville. Banjo’s connection to our district is also remembered on the Ryde Town Hall Honour Rolls.  His connection to the Orange District has also been made with a recent post on their “Centenary of World War One in Orange”  site:

http://www.centenaryww1orange.com.au/people/banjo-paterson/

Where we find any similar WWI projects, we will add them to our blog watch list or list the links.  Everyone on our list has a story to tell, some are just local, others national, we mightn’t get to them all but in the coming years we hope to find and share many of their stories.

Project Update — September 2013

My apologies for the lack of blog updates in recent months, but a bereavement and a birth in my family, has kept me distracted from updating the blog.

Yes – the Ryde goes to War Project is still progressing – our latest update:

In our database we currently have 2,075 names of Service people with a connection to the Ryde district. These have been collected from various Honour rolls, War memorials, embarkations rolls, local newspapers, etc. Most just list a family name with an initial or two. When these rolls, memorials and reports were created a hundred years ago, the Ryde community would have known exactly who they were honouring, but today many are unknown or forgotten. We want to identify these men and the few women and at the least find their full names and service numbers and their connection to the district. Many on our list were born in the area, educated or worked in the area; others are proving harder to find the connection for.

So far we have been able to identify,

 with full names and service numbers, 1,349.  

726 are still to be identified.

304 of them never returned home, and we currently have photos of 105 of their headstones or memorials.

We have also made contact with the families of 78 service people from our list

 and have found photos of 114 of them.

The number of Nurses, Sisters, or Matrons found on our list is currently at 11or 12 (depending if Nurse N. Hall, turns out to be the same person as Nurse Marion Hall...

What our team has been up to……

• In August we got together to discuss our project with many of our team of researchers. We have more than 20 working on the project including one joining us when possible from Victoria! Each has been focusing on a specific letter and working on their group of surnames; some have completed their groups and we are starting to collate the data, while others are still hunting!
• We also have representatives on the Ryde Anzac Centenary Committee Ryde Council’s WWI Centenary taskforce and are working with them to ensure the data we collect will be accessible into the future.
• We had planned a transcription and photographing day at one of our local cemeteries, Field of Mars, in June, but it was rained out.  The sun shone on our July date and we were able to tackle various sections to hunt out any headstones that included war service information or memorials. A few of our team are following up on this and more details will follow.

WWI Nurses with a connection to Ryde District

In our research to-date we have found eight Nurses, Sisters or Matrons on our lists for the Ryde Municipality.

Much has been written about Matron (Mary Anne) Bessie Pocock, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/pocock-mary-anne-bessie-8069 
who was born in Queensland and grew up in the Grafton area of New South Wales. Pocock did her general nursing training at Sydney Hospital from November 1890 and continued on the staff as a sister until  she joined the New South Wales Army Nursing Service Reserve in 1899 and enlisted for service in the South African War. She returned to Sydney Hospital in June 1903 until she was appointed matron of hospitals for the insane at Newcastle in 1907-11 and at Gladesville in 1911-14.
In September 1914 Sister Pocock enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force and took up duty as senior sister of the 2nd Australian General Hospital, Cairo, Egypt, she then served as matron at the temporary hospital for the wounded at Ismailia, on the Hospital Ship Assaye and in France & Belgium, the Australian convalescent hospital, Cobham Hall, Kent, England and the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital, Dartford, England before returning to Sydney on 30 October 1919. After the war she resumed her position as matron at Gladesville Hospital.
Bessie Pocock was awarded the Royal Red Cross, 2nd class.

While there are numerous photos of, and lots of published material dealing with Matron Pocock's WWI service, very little is known of the other seven women who served and to-date we haven't found any photos of them.

If you have any information that would add to our research project we would love to hear from you.

FOLLINGTON	Emily
HALL	Marion
HILL	Nellie Frances
HYDE	Charlotte Louisa
MURRELL	Elizabeth Ellen
MURRELL	Emmeline Anne
POCOCK	Mary Anne Bessie
REID	Evelyn Maud