Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Kathleen Patricia Bonnin (known as Kath) was born in Hindmarsh, Adelaide, on 17th March 1911.  She was the daughter of James Atkinson Bonnin, a medical practitioner and Winifred Turpin, a nurse. She had seven siblings, the eldest, Henry, died in his first year of life. Her brothers Noel, Mark, Lance and Jim were all doctors. Her brother Frew was a lawyer, and her sister Win, a nurse. Kath was educated at Creveen School, North Adelaide, and undertook her nursing training at Rua Rua Private Hospital, North Adelaide.

Following her training she travelled to London, in 1936, to complete her midwifery training at the Queen Charlotte’s Maternity Hospital. It was during this time that she wrote extensively to her family from 1936 until the end of her military service in 1946. On completion of her midwifery course at the age of 25 years she travelled through England and Europe for approximately a year, finishing in Berlin in late 1937. She returned to Australia and became an air hostess with Australian National Airways.

Kath joined the Australian Army Nursing Service on 12th August 1940, she would have been 29 years old. She was appointed to the 2/7th Australian General Hospital and virtually served with this unit until 1945. Nurses at this time were not given rank as they were not enlisted into the Army but a service to the Army.  They were treated as officers and called sister. This changed in 1943 and nurses were enlisted officially into the Army and were given the appropriate rank.

The 2/7th Australian General Hospital’s total operational service was 2,000 days from 1 Jul 1940 until 24 Dec 1945. 1,600 days service overseas. It had a 1,200-bed capacity which was constantly exceeded.  They provided care for troops from the 6th, 7th, and 9th Divisions, treating 24,799 patients in the Middle East at Kafr Balu Palestine, Syria and Egypt.  At Buseilli, Egypt, it acted as a Casualty Clearing Station for those injured in the Battle for El Alamein.  The hospital then went to New Guinea and treated another 29,823 in Lae, New Guinea.

Kath sailed to the Palestine in the Middle East on the Aquitania, during the voyage she was in charge of the regimental aid post (RAP) where she and her staff received 100 to 200 patients a day. Her brother’s Noel, Mark and Frew are also serving in the Middle East while she is there, and she managed to see them on several occasions. Kath reports to her family in her letters that she has many opportunities for sightseeing to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Jaffa, during her time in there.  Kath has a severe bout of sandfly fever in the Middle East and was hospitalised for a short time.

Kath also undertook short deployments in other medical units during her service in the Middle East She was attached to the 2/1st AGH at Gaza Ridge, Palestine, in March-May and later assigned to transport duties. She served with the 2/11th Field Ambulance at Tripoli, Syria, in April-July 1942 before re-joining the 2/7th AGH at Buseili, Egypt, where they took casualties from the battle of El Alamein. She is promoted to Captain in March 1943 and 2/7th AGH is returned to Australia after 2 years in the Middle East.

After a period of leave and training at Puckapunyal in Victoria, Kath is deployed with 2/7th AGH to Papua New Guinea, in October 1943. First in Port Moresby and then the unit moved to Lae in February 1944. Kath acknowledges in her letters that things were not quite the same as the Middle East and the opportunity for sight-seeing and socialising were not the same.  The constant heat, wet and insects she says are a curse.  However, while in New Guinea she is involved in a publicity event and meets some film stars including Gary Cooper. Kath returns to Australia on 5th December 1944 after 14 months there.  Her father died two weeks later on 18th December 1944.  She is then posted to 105 Military Hospital, Daw Park until her final posting to No2 Prisoner of War Reception Group in Singapore arriving on 13th September 1945. Kath leaves Singapore on 20th November 1945 and transferred to the Roll of Officers on 10th January 1946. She was recalled up in April 1946 to take part in the Victory March in London.  She was awarded the Royal Red Cross and was Mentioned in Despatches for her outstanding service.

Kath returns to nursing in the cardiac unit at the Royal Adelaide Hospital from 1947 to 1964. One of her lifelong pleasures was fishing and was very successful in the sport. Kath never married and suffered from multiple sclerosis. Kathleen Patricia Bonnin died on 14th September 1985 in North Adelaide.

Sources

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/bonnin-kathleen-patricia-kath-12230

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Gallery151/dist/JGalleryViewer.aspx?B=6330887&S=1&N=36&R=0#/SearchNRetrieve/NAAMedia/ShowImage.aspx?B=6330887&T=P&S=1

Kath Bonnin’s personal letters 1936 to 1946.

Photos https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/PRG+621/49/1-42