Spanish Flu MemorialPrint Page

The memorial commemorates the nurses who died while working at the Brisbane Isolation Hospital during the Spanish Flu pandemic in 1919.  Nurses Alice Wyeth, Hannah Elizabeth Dufton and Clare Popple died from Spanish Influenza which they acquired while caring for patients at the hospital. 

The memorial is dedicated to these three special nurses, and all nurses and midwives past and present in acknowledgement of 2020 International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife.

Alice Wyeth, who was born in Toowoomba and trained at the Mother's Hospital, was one of 200 nurses who tended to the sick in Brisbane when the pandemic arrived on Australia's shores in 1919. Ms Wyeth was a senior and respected nurse who had travelled to Brisbane to volunteer her services. In June 1919, she acquired Spanish influenza and developed pneumonia and died. 

Fellow nurse Clara Poppel also died in June 1919. Rockhampton-born Ms Poppel was on holidays in Brisbane when she decided to volunteer.

The third nurse was Hannah Dufton. Ms Dufton had only been in Brisbane for about 18 months, after returning from World War I, before she contracted the flu at the hospital and died.

Royal Brisbane Womens Hospital has unveiled a very special memorial honouring three nurses who died during their service at the Brisbane Isolation Hospital during the 1919 Spanish Flu Pandemic and acknowledging the dedicated past and present nurses and midwives during the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity for us to reflect on the Spanish Influenza pandemic, which caused approximately 15,000 deaths in Australia. Earlier this year, RBWH became aware of three nurses who worked at The Brisbane Hospital (now RBWH) in 1919 and died from Spanish Influenza, which they acquired at work caring for other victims at the hospital. The three nurse’s names are Alice Wyeth, Hannah Elizabeth Dufton and Clare Popple.

Since then, the team has been on a search to find out more about these three nurses. They discovered that two of the three nurses have no tombstone or memorial plaque, while Hannah Dufton has just a small headstone with her name on it in Toowong Cemetery in Brisbane. At a time when so many healthcare workers around the world have sacrificed their lives in the current pandemic, RBWH feels it is important to preserve the memory of these women who died in the line of duty serving the Queensland community.
Facebook, Metro North Health, 7 December 2020. 

Location

Address:	Butterfield Street, Royal Brisbane Amd Womens Hospital, Herston, 4029
State:	QLD
Area:	AUS
GPS Coordinates:	Lat: -27.446528 Long: 153.028381 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.

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Details

Monument Type:	Monument
Monument Theme:	Disaster
Sub-Theme:	Pandemic

Dedication

Approx. Monument Dedication Date:	December - 2020

Source: MA