Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Florence May HUDSON was the daughter of Thomas James HUDSON & Maria PITCHFORD and was born on the 17th of September 1883 in Ballarat, VIC.

Her father was born in 1856 in Ballarat, VIC and was the son of Thomas HUDSON & Rosa Ann PAUL.

Her mother was born in 1859 in Billabong, Victoria and was the daughter William PITCHFORD & Sarah SMITH.

Thomas & Maria were married in 1883 in Ballarat, VIC.

Florence was the first child born into this family of 6 children, 4 boys & 2 girls.

Her father was a fettler and then when she was a toddler the family moved to Prospect, Reservoir Camp, NSW, where here father gained employment on the building of the Prospect dam.

After the completion of the dam the family moved back to Ballarat and lived at 4 Channel Street, Ballarat East and her father gained work as a miner.

Florence and her siblings were educated in the Humffray Street, State School in Ballarat and on completion of her schooling Florence studied nursing and completed her Midwifery at Womens Hospital, Grettam St, Carlton.

Her father died in Ballarat in 1907 and her mother moved to Adelaide and married Charles William CUTHBERT on the 7th of October 1910 in Adelaide.

Florence did not go to Adelaide; she remained in Ballarat and then gained a position in the Perth Hospital in 1912.

At the age of 33, Florence enlisted into the Australian Army Nursing Service (AANS) on the 20th of July 1915

Florence was posted to the 2nd Australian General Hospital, 8th Reinforcement as a Staff Nurse.

She embarked from Sydney on the 31st of July 1915 on board RMS Orontes, proceeded to Egypt and moved into Mena Camp, 10 miles from Cairo.

In September 1915 Florence was serving at the 2nd Australian General Hospital in Cairo, nursing the flood of wounded from the August offensive on the Dardanelles.

On Saturday the 11th of September Florence volunteered for work on Lemnos Island, in Greece and at dinner time the names of the nurses selected were read out.

Two days later, Florence and twenty-four other Australian army nurses travelled by train from Cairo to Alexandria, boarded the SS Assaye and set off to steam 650 miles across the Mediterranean. Their destination was the small Greek island of Lemnos in the Northern Aegean.

By the time of their arrival, Lemnos Island, fifty miles from Gallipoli, had been transformed into the centre of medical activities in the Levant. The sheltered, deep-water harbour into which the Assaye sailed on the 7th of September was the Head of the Lines of Communication for the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force. Looking through the port-hole as they entered, they ‘Saw ships by the hundred’.

All wounded from the Dardanelles were transported through Mudros Harbour, either to base hospitals overseas, or to the hospitals in the two military and medical camps on shore. In September and October these amounted to 50,000 men.

From the ship’s rail, waiting to disembark, Florence and her fellow nurses could see ‘nests and rows of tents to the north east and west’ — the hospital and military areas of East and West Mudros.

Also evident was the island’s barrenness the complete lack of vegetation and the nurses commented that ‘at one period or other it seemed to have rained stones’.

As the nurses would soon discover, Lemnos was close enough to the Peninsula for them to hear the rumbling of the guns and the sound was rather awful.

On the 18th of September the nurses were taken ashore in a launch, cheered on their way, by the men on the ships in the crowded port, and were met by the commanding officer of the 2nd Australian Stationary Hospital, Lieutenant Colonel Arthur White. He motored them up to the hospital site, far above the harbour on Turks Head Promontory in the hospital camp at West Mudros.

Here the 3rd Australian General Hospital also had its lines, along with Nos. 1 and 3 Canadian Stationary Hospitals, No. 18 British Stationary, and a Convalescent Depot with accommodation for two thousand. Across an inlet was Sarpi rest camp, formed that month for the long-overdue relief of the Anzac Corps. The twenty-five nurses would stay with the unit for four months. They were the only nurses the 2nd Australian Stationary would ever have.

The nurses arrival at the hospital and were given a great reception. They were made a fuss of and described their tents as being nice and were quite big affairs. There were 4 in a row and they slept 8 in each tent. Off their tents was a retiring room for sponge baths etc…

However, these tents were not so nice after all as they tore in the heavy dews, provided little protection against the cold, and were vulnerable to the gales for which the island was known.

On the 26th of September, 9 days after the nurses arrived, the 2nd Australian Stationary had 840 patients.

Vying for seriousness with the cold, however, was the problem of food. On the 6th of October, Lieutenant-Colonel White sent a memo to the Assistant Director of Medical Services at West Mudros advising of the unavailability of basic foodstuffs for periods ranging from three days (eggs and meat) to five weeks (potatoes).

The nurses survived for much of the time on the ‘iron ration’ issued to men going into battle, which consisted of a small bag of biscuits, a tin of bully beef, tea and sugar.

The Australian nurses, the most poorly paid of the nurses on Lemnos, were less able to supplement their food from canteens and hawkers.

As well as the naval men in the harbour, the battalions in the rest camps entertained the nurses to afternoon tea and to dinner, and such meals were described in great detail in the nurse’s diaries.

On the 4th of November, friends from the Australian Field Artillery ‘sent over a small box of things for them, and the joy of opening the box to find Asparagus, tinned meat, cocoa and fruit was indescribable.

On the 17th of November the nurses had one of the rottenest days you could imagine, the wind blew a hurricane and dust all day, tents rattled and shook and most fell down.

Five days later the gales were still there and if they step outside they were blinded.

Soon the nurses were sleeping together for warmth as they had arrived from Egypt without warm clothing.

The nurses themselves endured conditions so harsh that a number of nurses from nearby units died.

Water was scarce on the island. Bathing and laundering clothes were major difficulties and complicated the fact that the nurses caught lice from their patients.

In late October, when the weather was freezing, they would have a cold sponge bath at 11 o’clock at night before bed to ‘keep the creepy things away’. They would then sit on the edge of their bunks, looking through their clothes for them.

All this time the nurses were working in a hospital expanded far beyond its staff’s capacity.

As on the Peninsula itself, the conditions eroded the health of the nurses — lack of food, extreme cold and fatigue — were coupled with an out of control source of infection: a near-universal outbreak of dysentery spread by flies.

As the weather cooled, and the fly season ended, paratyphoid and jaundice took over.

In December 1915, against all expectations, the Gallipoli Peninsula was evacuated with sprained ankles the only injuries. The nurses on Lemnos, geared for a disaster, watched ‘the dear old boys’ coming in with delight.

On the 14th of January 1916 the nurses boarded the hospital ship Dunvegan Castle to return to Egypt.

They arrived in Cairo at 7 o’clock at night, eight days later and were noted as ‘the funniest looking crowd of weather beaten and toil worn women one could imagine — Hats of various shape, coats ditto, and boots and gloves beyond description’.

They were different people from the nurses who had steamed across the harbour amidst their luggage in autumn of the previous year.

Florence was then posted to the 4th Australian Auxiliary Hospital in Cairo before embarking for Australia on duty, on board HMAT Demosthenes, disembarking on the 19th of March.

Her brother James enlisted into the 20th Battalion, 16th Reinforcement on the 18th of April 1916 and was allotted the service number 5924.

She was then discharged from duty and gained a position as Matron of the Jundah Hospital in Queensland.

But she was only here for a few weeks before she was called up for duty again and boarded the mail train for Brisbane on the 14th of August.

Florence re enlisted on the 17th of August as part of the newly formed 14th Australian General Hospital and embarked from Melbourne on board HMAT Karoola, disembarking at Pt Tewfik, Suez on the 20th of September. They were then trained to the Egyptian Army barracks at Abbassia on the outskirts of Cairo.

Her brother James embarked from Sydney on board HMAT A40 Ceramic on the 7th of October 1916.

On the 20th of November Florence embarked, on nursing duty to Australia, on board the HMAT Ayrshire, disembarking in Melbourne on the 31st of December.

On the 24th of January 1917 Florence re embarked from Sydney on board HMAT A68 Anchises, disembarking in Devonport, England on the 27th of March.

Fourteen days later she was posted to No.2 Command Depot in Weymouth where she remained until she was posted to the 2nd Australian Auxiliary Hospital in Southall, where they specialized in fitting artificial limbs. Three weeks later she was posted to the 1st Auxiliary Hospital in Harefield.

During this time James was Killed in Action on the 18th of September 1917 in Ypres, Belgium.

Florence then proceeded to France on the 14th of January 1918 and was posted to the 2nd Australian Casualty Clearing Station and then to the 5th Stationary Hospital in Dieppe.

She was then posted to the 42nd Stationary Hospital in Etaples and then to the 20th Casualty Clearing Station who were in a location west of Mercatel. She spent 3 week here before being posted to the 1st Australian General Hospital in Rouen.

Florence was struck down with Influenza in May and admitted into the 8th General Hospital until she recovered.

In August she was posted to the 3rd Australian General Hospital in Abbeville and was promoted to Sister on the 1st of October.

On the 9th of February 1919 Florence proceeded to England and was posted to the 3rd Australian Auxiliary Hospital in Dartford until she embarked for Australia on the 25th of February on board HMAT Balmoral Castle, disembarking in Melbourne on the 13th of April.

Florence was discharged from the AIF on the 5th of June 1919.

In October 1921 Florence purchased a home on the corner of Albert Avenue & Carlisle Street, Camden Park, SA.

Her mother died on the 24th of November 1926 and Florence buried her in the West Terrace Cemetery.

After her mother died Florence sold her home and moved into her mother’s home at 16 Cromwell Street, Camden East.

On the 7th of January 1952 Florence’s health was failing and she was admitted into the Daw Park Repatriation Hospital.

Florence applied for a Service Pension but it was denied as she owned a home that she was now letting out.

Florence required constant care, but she could feed herself if food was prepared & could walk with assistance.

The REPAT Hospital tried for several months to find suitable accommodation for Florence.

Arrangements were finally made for Florence to be accommodated with Mrs Lean of 24 Clarke Avenue, Glandore, and she was discharged on the 1st of June 1952.

Florence died on the 26th of October 1952 and was buried in the Centennial Park Cemetery; General AB, Path 4, Plot. 

Internment Right; 6541

Centennial Park Cemetery has confirmed that the lease for this site expired on the 29th of October 2002 and a headstone was never placed on her grave.

As of 01.12.23 the site has not been reclaimed.