ROBERTSON, Muriel Alice
| Service Number: | Sister |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | 22 January 1915, Mena House, Cairo, Egypt |
| Last Rank: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Unit: | Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR) |
| Born: | Yarrabee Park Station, Narrandera, New South Wales, Australia, 7 August 1880 |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Nurse |
| Died: | 'Yandra', Malvern Rd, Toorak, Victoria, Australia, 2 July 1951, aged 70 years, cause of death not yet discovered |
| Cemetery: |
Springvale Botanical Cemetery, Melbourne Privately cremated and her ashes interred in the Dodonaea Garden N4, Bed 6, Rose 24 |
| Memorials: |
World War 1 Service
| 22 Oct 1914: | Involvement Headquarters Staff, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '1' embarkation_place: Melbourne embarkation_ship: HMAT Orvieto embarkation_ship_number: A3 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 22 Oct 1914: | Embarked Headquarters Staff, HMAT Orvieto, Melbourne | |
| 22 Jan 1915: | Enlisted British Forces (All Conflicts), Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR), Mena House, Cairo, Egypt | |
| 21 Jun 1916: | Honoured Mention in Dispatches, for service on hospital ships | |
| 26 Aug 1918: | Honoured Royal Red Cross (2nd Class), for valuable services in Mesopotamia | |
| 21 Jan 1919: | Discharged British Forces (All Conflicts), Sister, Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR) |
Help us honour Muriel Alice Robertson's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Heather Ford
Muriel Alice ROBERTSON was born on the 7th of August 1880 at Yarrabee Park Station, near Narrandera, NSW – the daughter of Angus ROBERTSON and Alice Maud Mary GOODHIND, who married at East Melbourne, Vic on the 27/4/1876.
Angus, a former Grazier of Yarrabee Park Station, died on the 1/10/1901 at the family home “Willurah”, Hawthorn, Vic, aged 68. Alice died at home in Balaclava on the 12/2/1919, aged 65.
Siblings: *Duncan Markham b.3/7/1877 Vincent Tce, East Melb – WW1: Pte 654, 10th Bn, DOW 31/5/1915 Egypt; Angus McIntosh b.25/8/1878 Narrandera, NSW – d.1951 Vic, age 72; Nina Rose b.1882 St Kilda – d.1957 Melb; Clarice Adelaide b.1884 Vic; Viola Maud b.1888 Narrandera, NSW
Living with her mother and siblings at 11 Riversdale Rd, Hawthorn in 1903 and The Grove, Balaclava Rd, Balaclava, Vic in 1905. 183 Hotham St, St Kilda in 1908, 1912
Trained in nursing at the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne
Nursing at Dr Frederick Bird’s Private Hospital, Spring St, Melbourne 1914
WW1 Service:
When war broke out Dr Bird offered his services to the Australian Government and was accepted as an honorary surgeon to the expeditionary force. As part of his surgical team, he took four of his nurses with him at his own expense. Joining Muriel were Minnie McNab (Matron), Adelaide Hartrick, and Doris Green. The team sailed as part of the First Australian and New Zealand Convoy, embarking in Melbourne on the flagship Orvieto on the 22/10/1914.
On arrival in Egypt Muriel and the team were stationed at Mena House, and on the 22/1/1915 together with her 3 nursing companions she joined the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service Reserve (QAIMNSR), and was posted to the Military Hospital, Citadel.
Still serving with Dr Bird’s team, Muriel boarded the HMHS Sicilia on the 8/4/1915 which sailed for Lemnos Island on the 12th – AANS nurse Elsie Gibson who was also on board at the time, noted in her diary that “we call them the Lady Birds.”
During the Landing of troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the 25th of April, the Sicilia catered to the casualties of the British 29th Division at Cape Helles. Dr Bird later commented on that day: “There were 300 beds on the Sicilia – and in a space of less than three hours 1300 very bad cases were put on board, most of them being accommodated on the decks and elsewhere. For 52 hours at a stretch the whole staff continued operating on the cases, and at the end of that time, though their heads and hands were all right, their feet were so swollen that it was impossible to continue.”
Mentioned in Despatches for service on hospital ships [London Gazette of 21/6/1916]
Served India and Mesopotamia
Awarded the Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class (ARRC) for valuable services in Mesopotamia [London Gazette, 26 August 1918]
Returned to Australia in December 1918 on the Janus from Calcutta for 1 month’s leave.
Permitted to resign from the QAIMNSR on the 21/1/1919 and remain in Australia.
1919 Electoral Roll: 112 Westbury St, Balaclava, Vic – nurse – living with her mother
1931 ER: 124 Vale St, Melbourne East – nurse
1943, 1949 ER: 645 Malvern Rd, Toorak – trained nurse
Muriel died on the 2nd of July 1951 at her residence ‘Yandra’, Malvern Rd, Toorak, aged 70.
She was privately cremated at Springvale Cemetery and her ashes interred in the Dodonaea Garden N4, Bed 6 Rose 24.
****************
The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), Tue 10 Aug 1880 (p.1):
BIRTHS
ROBERTSON – August 7, at Yarrabee Park, near Narrandera, the wife of Angus Robertson, of a daughter.
The British Journal of Nursing, Jul 1, 1916:
MENTIONED IN DESPATCHES
General Sir John Maxwell, K.C.B., Commanding the Force in Egypt, included in his Despatches on the military operations in the Egyptian Command, for the information of the Secretary of State for War, published as a Supplement to the London Gazette of June 21st, a separate Despatch, containing the names of those he wishes to bring to favourable consideration on account of the services they have rendered.
ON HOSPITAL SHIPS
STAFF NURSES – QAIMNSR: ……Miss D.M. Green, Miss A.L. Hartrick,……Miss M.M. McNab, ………..Miss M.A. Robertson.
Supplement to the London Gazette, 26 August 1918 (p.9967):
His Majesty the KING has been graciously pleased to award the Royal Red Cross to the undermentioned ladies of the Nursing Services in recognition of their valuable services with the British Forces in Mesopotamia:
Awarded Royal Red Cross, 2nd Class
Miss Muriel Alice Robertson, Sister, Q.A.I.M.N.S.R.
The Argus, Wed 4 Jul 1951:
DEATHS
ROBERTSON, On July 2, at her residence, Yandra, Malvern road, Toorak, Muriel Alice, loved eldest daughter of the late Angus and Alice Robertson. (Privately cremated)