World War One Nurses in Lemnos & MacedoniaPrint Page

The memorial is dedicated to World War One Nurses who also served in Lemnos and Macedonia. The memorial is the first of its kind in South Australia. Wreaths were laid by the Greek Consul General, His Excellency the Governor and other dignitaries.

The 3rd Australian General Hospital left Circular Quay, Sydney on the RMS Mooltan on 5 May 1915. Staff were mostly drawn from Sydney, and later reinforced from Victoria and South Australia. During the second half of 1915 the 3rd Australian General Hospital deployed to Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos to nurse sick and wounded patients from Gallipoli. Equipment was landed at Turk's Head, West Mudros on 5 Aug 1915, with the sisters and nurses landing on the 7th and 8th

Forty Australian nurses arrived on Lemnos on August 8, 1915. On the morning of August 9, 200 patients arrived at the hospital before breakfast. Between August 7 and November 11, 1915, 96,943 sick and wounded were treated on this windy and rocky Greek isle. Lemnos was also inadequately equipped and under-staffed. Nurses stationed at Lemnos were housed in flimsy tents in freezing conditions and gale-force winds, and were forced to contend with a lack of food and dysentery while trying to treat the masses of wounded.  

Later patients were almost exclusively ill with dysentery or paratyphoid, and many of the staff also fell ill. In late November and December 1915 the patients were exhibiting the effect of the weather on men who had inadequate uniforms - severe frostbite included.

The hospital was expanded to 1,000 beds as part of the preparation for the expected heavy casualties when the troops were to withdraw from Gallipoli. With the withdrawal from Gallipoli, the hospitals on Lemnos were disbanded, and the nurses boarded SS Oxfordshire on 14 Jan 1916 and sailed on 17 January for Egypt.

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